> every bed is made, every child's toy put away, every coffee table and nightstand free of books
I think you're under-estimating what 'staging' is. In the US it's common to literally remove all the furniture in the house and to either leave it empty or to fill it with stage furniture. They try to make them look unlived in.
If you go on Zillow in the US and look at some Californian towns it's intense.
But it's certainly not unusual to hide piles of paperwork, magazines, bills and suchlike. Even the comparatively lightweight tidying process we use in the UK generally hides that much.
I think you're under-estimating what 'staging' is. In the US it's common to literally remove all the furniture in the house and to either leave it empty or to fill it with stage furniture. They try to make them look unlived in.
If you go on Zillow in the US and look at some Californian towns it's intense.