Selling Your Home? Banish Junky Bathrooms and Stinky Smells
Putting your current home up for sale?
You’ve probably done a ton of research for the best tips on making it appeal to buyers. If you’ve sold a home before, you probably know firsthand what to do and what to avoid. Either way, any hacks to make the process easier, are worth investigating, right?
We’ll throw out two issues that might not be the first things to mind, but can be deal killers if you don’t address them — cluttered bathrooms and household odors.
Make no mistake — the stuff that absolutely should be done to ready your home for sale, like replacing kitchen cabinets and painting walls, should be a priority. But once you begin addressing the necessary cleaning, don’t forget junky bathrooms and areas around the house that need an olfactory pick-me-up.
Here are our tips.
Banish the stinks
And we’re not even talking about the big, bad ones like garbage cans, diaper pails and that burned pot roast two weeks ago. The problem is we sometimes can’t smell stinky stuff in our homes. We get used to litter boxes, overripe fruit, and musty closets. It’s not until guests arrive — or your real estate agent walks in — that you realize the need for am air freshener or two.
“Light a candle,” someone will say (if they’re being nice).
Instead, re-think your cleaning arsenal. Good old baking soda, combined with lemon juice or white vinegar, can vanquish many of those odor monsters. Plus, the fresh scent is a bonus. Use it to scrub the kitchen sink, toilets, and showers. Put a box of baking soda in the fridge and one in each closet. Sprinkle it on rugs, carpet and pet beds, then vacuum.
If you go the candle route, try those with natural scents and soy-based wax. They sometimes have less of a cloying, artificial scent.
Banish bathroom junk
We tend to think closets, kitchens, and garages first when it comes to clutter magnets, but bathrooms are one of those crucial elements that can sink or sell a home. If yours are cluttered and unorganized, that’s a big no-no.
Start with storage. Smart buyers will open drawers and closets — not to prowl — but to see how much storage a home contains. You want them to see plenty of space in your bathrooms, and have the stuff that they do see, neatly organized.
So get rid of duplicates. Refrain from buying the 36-roll package of toilet paper while your home’s on the market. Ditch expired medicines (follow guidelines for these), cosmetics and personal care items such as toothpaste and mouthwash.
Donate excess towels and kids’ bath toys. Find inexpensive containers to corral things in drawers and a prettier container to display perfume bottles. In fact, keep utilitarian items out of sight. We all use combs, brushes. hair dryers and so on, but who wants that as your bathroom focal point?
hacks to make the process easier, are worth investigating, right?
