The other day I did a post on a messy bedroom and my top 10 ways to get the bedroom from messy to staged for not so very much money!  Today, I would like to do the same thing with the bathrooms!  As we continue to see more and more buyers coming into the market, it is always amazing to me how many bathrooms don’t show as well as they should!  Sellers should always keep in mind that kitchens & bathrooms are the 2 rooms that will ultimately make the biggest impression on the buyers that will be looking at your home!  So take a look at the bathroom in this picture, then imagine it after making a few relatively inexpensive changes!

• Remove the carpet!  Looking at the carpet, the first thing that pops out is the stains on it.  This is bad, but then you have to keep in mind that for many buyers, having carpet in the bathroom reminds them of something that can tend to hold germs!  So, remove the carpet and get some inexpensive peel & stick tiles and put that down in the bathroom!  Not only will it be a lot easier to keep clean while the house is being shown, but it will update the bathroom & make it feel so much fresher & lighter!
  
• Remove as much as you can from the countertops!  Keep in mind that the buyers want to see just how much room they have to store their items!  If you were looking at this bathroom countertop, would you be able to see just how much room there is for your stuff!  Probably not!  So go through and remove everything you can from the counters!
  
• Organize what you must keep on the countertops!  You can go to someplace like Walmart or Target and get some very cute little baskets to organize things like towels, etc.   This will go a long way towards making the counters look very neat and clean for the buyers who are looking at it!
  
• Remove the lamp from the countertops!  The first thing many buyers may think when they see the lamp is that there is not enough lighting in the bathroom!  So remove the lamp.  If you actually do not have enough lighting, go to someplace like Lowe’s or Home Depot and invest in a light fixture and bring an electrician to have it installed before closing!
  
• Update your towels!  As you can see in the picture, the towels that are there are mismatched & appear to be worn!  Why not go to someplace like Walmart or Kmart or Target and invest in some matching towels that have a pop of color to them!  Make sure that they are in a nice & neat whenever the house is being shown!  I have had clients that will only put their “special” towels out whenever the home is being shown in order to keep them looking new!
  
• Neutralize your décor!  If you will notice the walls in here have a couple of different colors on them.  You don’t necessarily need to paint the walls a white, but a light pastel will go a long way towards making the room seem light and bright and airy!
  
• Invest in some new curtains and shower curtains that coordinate or match!  Nowadays you can go to someplace like Target or Walmart and find some really great window & shower curtains to go a long way towards coordinating the bathroom!  And while you’re at it, you may wish to get a new area rug for the bathroom that coordinates with the other linens in the room!
  
• Remove the “flower vase” that is on the countertop!  If you want to add some nice scents to the bathroom, why not go out and get some of the small soaps that have a pleasant scent to it and put them into a small bowl to keep on the bathroom counters!  This way the bathroom will always smell pretty – but be careful that you don’t buy so many that the scent becomes overpowering!
  
• Open the drawers & doors of the cabinets!  The buyers for your home will be doing just that, so make sure that you open the drawers & doors of your cabinets and medicine cabinets to make sure it has a neat and organized look and feel to it!  Don’t just stuff everything from the countertops inside the cabinets, hoping no one will see it – because they will!  Get rid of any medicines that are old or beyond their expiration date! 
  
• Finally, sparkle & shine!  Remember, this is one of the rooms that helps to sell your home!  So whenever you have a showing, make the room sparkle & shine!  Perhaps you can go to the grocery store & buy some of the Clorox wipes and wipe down the bathtub, fixtures, counters and run a Swifter through the bathroom each morning before you leave!  This will help to make sure that this room is always ready at a moment’s notice for a showing that day!

As you can see, it doesn’t take much to make sure that this room is in great shape!  Take a picture of your bathroom from each corner and look at them as if you were the buyer for your home!  Would this bathroom make you want to consider this home – or does the condition of it make you want to cringe?  Be honest – if the bathroom does not impress you, do some small things to help make this room shine to perfection! 

Feel free to let me know if there is anything I can do for you!  Look for my next few posts on how to take other rooms in your home from messy to staged!!!