Swab, then scour

The New York Times has a nice article called "Swab, Then Scour: How to Sell a House. There a couple of useful looking pointers in the article. A couple of excerpts with pointers:

Clearly, a seller may need to embrace a whole new universe of heavy-duty cleaning supplies for this job. I had in mind the sort of products that I last saw used by the school custodian — and that's exactly what I found online at www.atmosphereproducts.com. The site, which sells more than 3,000 products that fall into hard-core-cleaning categories like "Floor Maintenance Equipment" and "Matting and Utility Cleaning Tools," specializes in selling items in bulk at wholesale prices and will ship any order up to 19 pounds for $7.95, said Howard Hurwitz, owner of Atmosphere Products.

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One annoying chore on my list the Internet could simplify: replacing some unattractive old switch plates. Although switch plates are a commonly stocked item, even large offline stores have frustratingly idiosyncratic selections that don't take into consideration the fact that nearly every room in my house calls for multiple sizes of plates.

If I go in looking for, say, six white single cover plates, four combo wall plates and a triple rocker, I might end up finding only half of what I need in stock. And I never like the jarring effect of mixing brands in a single room. One solution proved to be cornerhardware.com, which stocks a wide selection of sizes at competitive prices in chrome, ceramic, plastic and wood.