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Page 1 of 3 Remember that when you are preparing your home for showing to prospective buyers, you are painting a picture, no a work of art. When selling a home you are working on a person's emotions, so be sure to keep that in mind. This will be the place the buyer creates new memories.
Organizing your home
The first place to start is cleaning and organizing. The easiest way to tackle this is to have a plan. Organizing and removing clutter should be the first task. Remove as much clutter as possible. You want to create the illusion of space without looking too sparse. If you have a buffet table with a lot of chatchkies on it, be sure to remove some of them to open up the area. If your living room is cluttered with a lot of furniture remove a few pieces. This will again give the illusion of a bigger room.
Cleaning your home
Now that you have organized it is time to CLEAN. Where I like to start is with the bathrooms. Be sure to clean the toilet bowls. This is a good indication of how the rest of the house was maintained.
Clean the baths and showers, removing all water stains from the tile, and glass doors in showers. A great way to remove hard water stains on glass and tile is by using toilet bowl cleaner. The hydrogen chloride dissolves the minerals that create the spots (learned this from doing acid washes on pools, and having to clean the tile with toilet bowl cleaner). Some cautions about doing this, be sure to use protective rubber gloves on your hands, and do not let the solution stay on any chrome or brass metal like the fixtures. Extended exposure can remove the finish from the fixture. Simply wipe once with the bowl cleaner on a sponge to remove the water spots, then quickly rinse with water for any metallic fixtures. For the tub, shower, and tile around them, I get a bucket of hot water, and squirt some of the bowl cleaner into it. Next I use a nylon bristle brush to scrub the tile. If you encounter a spot that is stubborn go ahead and squirt some of the bowl cleaner directly on the spot, and scrub with your brush. Once you have scrubed the entire area rinse with warm water. I just use the removeable shower head to rinse. Next you will want to dry the entire tub and tile with a towel. After everything has had time to dry fully, I use carnuba wax for cars on all the metallic fixtures. After you apply it, let it haze, then buff with a terry cloth towel. This makes your chrome or brass really shine. The same steps can be used on your sink and faucet.
Now it is time to clean the mirror(s). I use a diluttion of Ammonia in water. Ammonia is what glass cleaners contain to remove streaks. Since you only need a little bit of ammonia it is a lot less expensive than name brand glass cleaners. After the mirror is dry you can use the carnuba wax on it as well.
Be sure the floor is clean. If it needs cleaning, I use another dillution of ammonia in hot water. The ammonia removes the oils from your feet and other bathroom grime.
Now that your bathrooms are spotless it is time for dusting, and I'm am not talking with a rag
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