Realtors observe lots of bathrooms - of all shapes, sizes, and conditions. Some bathrooms have themes and some have style. Some need lots of work and some need a good cleaning.

Even though individual styles and looks vary greatly in bathrooms, everyone agrees on one thing: they need to smell clean and fresh. What’s the secret?

1. Start with a thoroughly clean bathroom. Clean smells clean. Now that you have it clean, keep it that way.

2. Try continuous products. Try some of those little toilet bleach tabs. Flush the toilet, pull top of the toilet back and drop the little tab just like it tells you on the package. Now carefully put that top back on and look confident. Every time someone at your house flushes, a little bit of that cleaning solution will swish around and keep your toilet smelling fresh. Generic brands have worked as well as the expensive ones at our house.

3. Tuck away a Bounce dryer sheet or two. You couldn’t see those sheets, but you could smell that fresh laundry scent as soon as you came in her bathroom door.

4. Emergency Clean Kit’s under the sink. The doorbell rings, you race around and put the newspaper under a cushion in the sofa, kick the dog’s toy into the closet and your next thought is the bathroom. Even your elementary aged kid can be trained to tidy up your bathroom if you have the right tools available: paper towels, Windex, a package of disposable bathroom wipes, and a few plastic grocery bags (for disposing of your cleaning evidence.)

5. Touch not the towel! While you are staging your house, make sure no one in the house touches them. Now is the time to place a dark brown towel (or even a roll of paper towels) on the counter. This necessary item can be tucked under the sink when potential buyers drop by and your guest towels will still look great.