Solo home stagers: price the furniture rental so the inventory actually pays for itself. Free, no signup.
All defaults are editable starting points, not market rates. Use your own purchase receipts and your own target.
Staging rental rates die when the storage, the wear, and the idle months stay invisible. Start in The inventory on this job: the value of furniture and decor going into the home, the freight, tax, and assembly percent already sunk in, and the rented months you want to recover that cost in. In The leaks, set storage cost per month and the months per year this set is rented, because storage bills all twelve months. Set the damage and wear reserve as a percent of value per rental, the cleaning and repair cost per rental, install and destage labor hours at your labor rate, and the truck cost for delivery and pickup. In The contract, set the contract length and the monthly rental you were about to charge, plus an optional yearly take-home goal. The breakdown shows true inventory cost, recovery per rented month, storage carried by each rented month, the wear reserve, the recommended monthly rental rounded to twenty-five dollars, the one-time service fee, the contract total, and the extension month rate. Verdicts are RENTAL PAYS OFF, SLOW PAYBACK, or INVENTORY NEVER PAYS. The year planner counts contracts to your goal. Free, no signup, runs on your phone.
Example only, not typical pricing. The defaults: $6,000 of furniture and decor, 10 percent freight, tax, and assembly, a 7 rented-month payback target, $200 a month storage with the set rented 8 months a year, a 2 percent damage reserve, $120 cleaning per rental, 8 labor hours at $50, a $150 truck cost, and a 3-month contract. The true inventory cost is $6,600.00, recovery is $942.86 per rented month, each rented month carries $300.00 of storage, and the wear reserve adds $40.00 a month, giving a recommended monthly rental of $1,300, which is 21.7 percent of inventory value. The one-time service fee is $670.00 and the 3-month contract totals $4,570.00, with extension months at $775. A $500 gut rate needs about 33.0 rented months to recover the set, so the verdict is INVENTORY NEVER PAYS, and the rate sits below the $942.86 recovery line before storage or wear. The year planner says a $30,000 goal takes 11 contracts at $2,880.00 of margin each, which is 33 rented months, more than one set holds in a year.
Why does each rented month carry $300 of storage when storage is $200 a month?
Because the unit bills 12 months while the set rents 8. The tool divides $2,400 of yearly storage by the 8 rented months, so idle months stop hiding inside the rate.
What does the payback target actually set?
It sets the recovery line: $6,600.00 of true inventory cost over 7 rented months is $942.86 a month. Any rate under that line cannot recover the set on schedule, before storage or wear.
Why is labor a one-time fee instead of part of the rent?
Install and destage happen once per contract, not monthly. Here 8 hours at $50 plus the $150 truck and $120 cleaning make a $670.00 service fee, kept out of the monthly rate.
Why is the extension rate lower?
Once inventory recovery passes the halfway pace, the extension math halves the recovery component: $775 a month here against $1,300. The storage share stays in, because the unit still bills.
Is this business or financial advice?
No. Planning-only arithmetic on your own numbers. Defaults are editable starting points, not market rates.