Problem: Article: The first 2 week on the market is when a house generates buzz and interest. If you are still fixing the roof or painting the walls when the first buyers show up you are losing your best chance to sell the house. Wait to put your house on the market until it is clean and updated. This is the easiest way to increase the chance your house sells for the amount you deserve. The cleanliness of a house is the first thing a potential buyer will notice, and it won’t matter how great your countertops look if they are covered in crumbs. If you are low on time, hire a cleaning service the day before you show the house to make sure everything is sparkling.  Dust the surfaces. Clean the floors and remove any stains. Wipe down the refrigerator, oven, and countertops in the kitchen. Clean out toilets, showers, and baths. Empty your closet partially – all buyers love seeing how much storage space they might have. You should take the same care to clean the outside of your home as the inside. Keep your grass trim and clean up the gardens and flowerbeds regularly to make a good impression as buyers enter the driveway.  Take the time to wipe down the outsides of the windows. If the sides of your house are dirty, rent a pressure washer to blast away grime from the siding. Pets, pet toys, litterboxes, and hair all give a house the illusion of dirtiness, which can significantly lower the value of your home. Clean up your pet’s mess and put all pet supplies out of sight as you show your home to make the best impression. Unfortunately, adding a new bedroom and bath to the back side of your house won’t increase the value enough to pay back what you’ve spent. Focus instead on little renovations, which can return more money than you spent when it is time to sell. Large renovations often cost more money than they add to house’s value. Tons of family photos, knick-knacks, and personal items are a big turn-off for potential buyers. While you want to your house to feel homey, you don’t want it to seem so personal that the next owner can’t see themselves living in it. Hide any toys, books, computers, or keepsakes when people come see your house and limit the number of family photos scattered around the house if there is a picture of you on every wall.
Summary: Don’t put the house on the market until you are ready. Clean your house until it sparkles. Remember to clean the outside of the house as well. Remove traces of pets. Don’t make large renovations before selling. Remove personal items.

In one sentence, describe what the following article is about: Choose a magazine/file holder made of plastic, wood, metal wire, or sturdy cardboard and secure it in place with 2-4 screws. Most standard hairdryers fit perfectly into this spot. Alternatively, use several removable adhesive strips instead of screws. These take up much less space, since each hook can hold 2 large towels. The towels may also dry faster than if you use towel rods that are stacked one in front of the next. Buy peel-and-stick magnetic strips, or use removable adhesive strips to secure the magnets in place. Use the magnetic strips to hold tweezers, bobby pins, cosmetic brushes, and other magnetic objects. Check to see how many of your personal care items are magnetic before trying this. Instead of relying on elbow grease alone to scrub a tub or toilet, let your drill do the hard work! Look for different types of scrub brush attachments where cleaning supplies are sold.  Set the drill to its lowest speed first, then increase it as needed. Follow the brush attachment’s instructions carefully. Don’t use the attachment to clean fiberglass, laminate, wood, stone, or other surfaces unless the brush is specifically marketed for that purpose. Place the bucket on the floor directly in front of the sink. Place the larger end of the dustpan under the faucet so that the pan’s handle is resting over the front edge of the sink. When you turn on the water it will flow through the channel in the handle, go over the edge, and fall like a waterfall into the bucket. Have some towels handy the first few times you try this. It may take a bit of practice to get the placement and water flow just right. This is a great hack if you have a bunch of similar-looking keys on your key ring. Gel nail polish adheres best to metal keys, but any type of polish will do. Hang or attach the shoe hanger to the back of a closet or pantry door, then fill the pockets with your cleaning bottles. Choose a shoe hanger with mesh or clear plastic pockets so you can easily differentiate the cleaning bottles.  If you have a hanging rod in the closet, get a shoe hanger with hooks. For safety, add a lock to the door if there are kids around. Different DIY removers may work better for different materials. Give the following a try:  For fabric, try hand sanitizer. For your skin or for wood surfaces, try rubbing alcohol. For painted walls, try hairspray or toothpaste. For ceramic or glass, mix 1 part white toothpaste and 1 part baking soda. After 30 minutes, use a wire brush or paintbrush cleaner to remove the loosened paint. Then, wash the brush with soap and water, rinse it, and let it air dry. If you heat the vinegar to nearly boiling in a pot on the stove, you can reduce the soaking time to 10 minutes. When painting a room, stir in 1 US tbsp (15 ml) of vanilla extract per 1 US gal (3.8 L) of paint. The vanilla will mask the unpleasant odor of the paint. Essential oils like peppermint work as well. This hack doesn’t work on oil-based paint, since the vanilla extract or other essential oil creates a solution with the oils in the paint—which may negate the pleasant scent you’re aiming for or make the paint smell even worse. The oils aren’t soluble with water-based paint, though, so they remain separate and help mask the paint odor.
Summary:
Screw a magazine holder onto the back of a cabinet door to hold a hairdryer. Use coat hooks instead of rods to hang towels in a small bathroom. Apply magnetic strips behind cabinet doors to store personal care items. Buy a scrub brush attachment for your drill to clean tile and ceramic. Use a clean dustpan to fill a bucket that won’t fit under the sink. Paint your keys with nail polish to color-code them. Store your household cleaners conveniently in a shoe hanger. Try different home remedies to remove permanent marker. Soak a crusty paintbrush in vinegar for 30 minutes to ease cleaning. Reduce the odor of water-based paint with vanilla extract.