The Stage Coach was made aware of this product by a friend who runs a Home Cleaning Service: Lemi Shine. The primary use is to help remove hard water stains from glasses while in the dishwasher.  If you live in Central Texas, you are probably more than tired of the issues from hard water, high ph, and other side effects of the limestone on which our homes are built.

Besides cleaning glasses in the dishwasher, one of the household chores we recommend using it for while preparing your home for sale, is to refresh your bath fixtures, helping clean the mineral buildup. According to the directions provided by the manufacturer, Envirocon Technologies, Inc.:

To use:

Remove faucet tips and shower heads.

Soak overnight in a bowl filled with 3 cups of water and 1/4 cup of Lemi Shine. Make sure the water is deep enough to cover all hard water buildup.

After soaking, rinse with clean water and replace.

In our house, we begin noticing lower flow in our shower heads about every six months.  Lemi-Shine helps break down the buildup in the screen inside the shower head, returning your shower flow back to normal!

Visit their website for more information, where to buy, etc.  I have purchased it in the Dishwasher Detergent aisle of H.E.B. Plus in Round Rock.

Contact The Stage Coach to learn more about Austin's Home Staging Handyman!

Home Staging Austin Home Stager

The Stage Coach was made aware of this product by a friend who runs a Home Cleaning Service: Lemi Shine. The primary use is to help remove hard water stains from glasses while in the dishwasher.  If you live in Central Texas, you are probably more than tired of the issues from hard water, high ph, and other side effects of the limestone on which our homes are built.

Besides cleaning glasses in the dishwasher, one of the household chores we recommend using it for while preparing your home for sale, is to clean your coffee pot decanter. According to the directions provided by the manufacturer, Envirocon Technologies, Inc.:

To use:

Flush toilet. Immediately following, sprinkle Lemi Shine around inner ring of toilet bowl.

Allow Lemi Shine to dissolve for 30 minutes. Agitate stains with toilet brush.

Flush toilet for rinse. Repeat as necessary.

Occasionally, The Stage Coach finds himself in a house that has not had the regular maintenance cleaning performed.  One of the worst jobs is the bathrooms.  We will do a double hit though, putting Lemi-Shine in the tank as well.  Then, when it comes time to flush/rinse, the bowl is rinsed with Lemi-Shine.

Visit their website for more information, where to buy, etc.  I have purchased it in the Dishwasher Detergent aisle of H.E.B. Plus in Round Rock.

Contact The Stage Coach to learn more about Austin's Home Staging Handyman!

Home Staging Austin Home Stager

The Stage Coach was made aware of this product by a friend who runs a Home Cleaning Service: Lemi Shine. The primary use is to help remove hard water stains from glasses while in the dishwasher.  If you live in Central Texas, you are probably more than tired of the issues from hard water, high ph, and other side effects of the limestone on which our homes are built.

Besides cleaning glasses in the dishwasher, one of the household chores we recommend using it for while preparing your home for sale, is to clean your coffee pot decanter. According to the directions provided by the manufacturer, Envirocon Technologies, Inc.:

Coffee Pot Cleaner

To Use: Fill coffee decanter with fresh water, add 4 Tablespoons of Lemi Shine and dissolve.

Pour into coffee maker and “brew” as usual. After brewing cycle is complete, discard hot water and allow to cool.

After cooling, refill decanter with clean water and “brew” for a rinse.

We drink coffee every day in our house, so I generally give the coffee make a good cleaning about every four to six weeks.

Visit their website for more information, where to buy, etc.  I have purchased it in the Dishwasher Detergent aisle of H.E.B. Plus in Round Rock.

Contact The Stage Coach to learn more about Austin's Home Staging Handyman!

Home Staging Austin Home Stager

The Stage Coach was made aware of this product by a friend who runs a Home Cleaning Service: Lemi Shine. The primary use is to help remove hard water stains from glasses while in the dishwasher.  If you live in Central Texas, you are probably more than tired of the issues from hard water, high ph, and other side effects of the limestone on which our homes are built.

Besides cleaning glasses in the dishwasher, one of the household chores we recommend using it for while preparing your home for sale, is to clean Glass Shower Doors. According to the directions provided by the manufacturer, Envirocon Technologies, Inc.:

Shower Door Cleaner

“To Use: Take an empty spray bottle and fill it with 16 ounces of water and 1/4 cup of Lemi Shine. Shake well until dissolved.

Spray the shower doors thoroughly and allow to soak for a few minutes, agitate with sponge, then rinse with clean water.

In our house, I generally give the shower glass a good cleaning first, using another great product: Comet Spray Gel.  It works great on shower scum and mildew. Then I hit the glass with the Lemi-Shine mix.  Your shower door cleaning will be a lot easier if you resign yourself to running a squeegee over the glass after every shower.  It takes me about 2 minutes to do ours every day, so don’t give me the “I don’t have any time in the morning” speech.

Visit their website for more information, where to buy, etc.  I have purchased it in the Dishwasher Detergent aisle of H.E.B. Plus in Round Rock.

Contact The Stage Coach to learn more about Austin's Home Staging Handyman!

Home Staging Austin Home Stager

The Stage Coach was made aware of this product by a friend who runs a Home Cleaning Service: Lemi Shine. The primary use is to help remove hard water stains from glasses while in the dishwasher.  If you live in Central Texas, you are probably more than tired of the issues from hard water, high ph, and other side effects of the limestone on which our homes are built.

Besides cleaning glasses in the dishwasher, one of the household chores we recommend using it for while preparing your home for sale, is to clean your Garbage Disposal.  According to the directions provided by the manufacturer, Envirocon Technologies, Inc.:

Garbage Disposal Cleaner

“To Use: Add 1/4 cup of Lemi Shine and 1/4 cup of baking soda to your disposal, followed by 2 cups of water. This will foam up in the disposal, cleaning and deodorizing those hard to reach areas.

After the foam dissipates, run with water for 10 seconds to rinse. Repeat as necessary.”

This will make the kitchen have a fresh lemon scent for a few days – just the thing for that surprise showing!

Visit their website for more information, where to buy, etc.  I have purchased it in the Dishwasher Detergent aisle of H.E.B. Plus in Round Rock.

Contact The Stage Coach to learn more about Austin's Home Staging Handyman!

Home Staging Austin Home Stager

As we are not lovey-dovey with our pets, we refuse to pay to have them groomed, and we only bathe them a couple of times a year.

For home sellers, this is not a good practice as the animals will leave their smell every where they go.  But with all of the things a home seller has to stay on top of, the last thing you want to do is bathe your dog once a week.

Lo! and Behold!  On a trip to PetSmart for some Nature’s Miracle, the product to the right was found:  Doggy Deodorant.  Not to be confused with perfumes, this product is purported to be an Odor Neutralizer.  It was about $7 for the bottle, much like it shows online.

We’ve been using it for about three weeks now.  And it has done a pretty good job of keeping their scent down. They both receive a spray or two once per day, and I also spray their blanket daily in between washings.

The dogs are not excited to be sprayed, but they don’t run and hide when they see me with the bottle.

In short, I will be recommending this product to my home sellers who have dogs in order to help them with one more small aspect of keeping their home in Show Ready Condition. Remember: the Home Stager saying applies: “If you can smell it, you can’t sell it.”

Just this morning, I discovered that our edition was purchased in 2003, and was the 2002 edition, and does not include the “Care for” aspect.  So it is outdated already.  But a quick search on Amazon.com reveals that many are available used for as little as $.01.  That’s right – a penny! [plus sales tax and shipping]   And it provides suggestions and solutions for floors, dishes, house cleaning, laundry, and even personal hygiene.

In the past, we have used this for carpet stains, glass cleaner, and cleaning suede.  I can tell you that the Glass Cleaner recipe they provide makes quite a bit, and it does start to come part over time.  Consider making the gallon batch, and then distributing to friends and family.

This handy little book has a permanent spot in our laundry room and Staging Tool Box!

And at the price, you can’t go wrong – so if you order from Amazon regularly, put this one in your cart and let it sit until your next order. You won’t be disappointed!

Contact The Stage Coach to learn more about Austin's Home Staging Handyman!

Home Staging Austin Home Stager

There’s Thousands of uses for dryer sheets – but it occurred to me one day when folding some towels, the dryer sheet still contained some “freshness”, even after a complete towel drying cycle.  So I put an empty tissue box next the washer and dryer and began placing the used dryer sheets into this box.  After accumulating more of these than I care to admit, I began putting them into my storage tubs of Home Staging Accessories.

Many times, I would show up to a job after driving through Central Texas Summer, and the smell of plastic tub would greet me upon opening each one.  By adding 1 or 2 dryer sheets to the tub, I am now greeted by Garden Fresh!  There are also great in Space Bags, and really important for towels and sheets.  [Note: A fragrant candle works as well, but in the TX heat, they melt, and lose oils and ruin every thing]

So, as a Home Seller, I recommend putting a used dryer sheet in each and every box.  This will help stave off any stale-box smell that may occur over time, especially if you are using Recycled Moving Supplies from some one like my favorite, Ecobox in Round Rock.  And – if you hire The Stage Coach for one of their “Sweep it Clean” services, besides bringing our own boxes and packing, we will also bring along out handy box of dryer sheets!

But wait: there’s more!  I learned from the manager of my storage unit that dryer sheets will ward off some insects, like crickets, who like to nest in boxes and furniture.

For even more used for dryer sheets, check out the Clever Stories section on Bounce’s web page.

Contact The Stage Coach to learn more about Austin's Home Staging Handyman!

Home Staging Austin Home Stager

We are quite proud of our Confederate Star Jasmine that we received as a gift just after moving into our house in Round Rock.  And we anxiously awaited the 4ft tall vine to grow up and around the column on the front of our house.  As you can see from the picture, it was pretty plain-jane back in 2002.

Seven years later, the vine grows so crazy it has to be trimmed back twice a year.  Due to its size and thickness, it attracts a large amount of birds when the weather starts getting cool.  At first, we thought having birds around tweeting would be nice.  Then, at sunrise on Saturday mornings, we were awoke by their comings and goings.  Then after a few days, we realized they were leaving tons of droppings on our bench and right outside our front door.  And with young children and a nurse in the house, we were not going to be able to tolerate that!  And if you’re selling your home, you absolutely, positively can not have buyers traipsing up to the door through bird droppings!

We tried spraying them out with the hose. We tried ripping their nests out.  We tried throwing things.  All of these were only temporary fixes.
Then we saw some thing at a neighbor’s house – they had a railing on the deck over their front door.  And they were having bird dropping issues as well:

This plastic Owl is available at your local home center for about $15.  And when placed, with eyes pointing out, will scare off the little critters pooping around your house.  Other neighbors have had issues with mud nests from a local variety of swallow.  By hanging one of these from their front porch light, the birds never returned. Due to the rapid growth of our Jasmine vine, we have to make sure the statue does not get over grown.  And we move it around because some of the birds had gotten used to him and came back.  They have several mounting options, including a hole in the bottom for pole mounting, and a small hole on the top of it’s head for hanging by a string or wire.

Lastly, this plastic bird is a nice way to get rid of pests – with out resulting to BB guns and poisons.  Essentially, they leave and go to someone else’s house. Problem solved!

Contact The Stage Coach to learn more about Austin's Home Staging Handyman!

Home Staging Austin Home Stager

1. Shoes – if you have lots of them, you probably have lots of shoe/foot odor
2. Laundry – dirty laundry, need I say more?
3. Coats – you may not realize it, but your coat carries odors from the outside.  [And if you wear a coat to Chuy's, DO NOT put it in the closet before washing!]
4. If any of these apply, odds are your nice, clean clothes are also absorbing these, making the whole closet a stinky mess.
5. And let’s not forget, bugs and rodents that may curl up and die under piles of old shoes and sweaters.

Luckily, our good friend Baking Soda can help tackle most of these – but you will still have to pick every thing up off the floor.  Sprinkle some in the carpet and let set for an hour before vacuuming.  Sprinkle some into your shoes before putting them back.

There’s not a lot you can do about dirty laundry, besides wash it.  Some hampers have a fabric liner – ours can be removed and laundered once a month.  If you use dryer sheets, instead of throwing them away, put them back in the laundry basket to help keep the odor down.  They’re also a good idea if you store any clothes in hanging bags, or space bags.  Would you believe dryer sheets deter insects?

Coats should be kept in the front hall closet, or a closet separate from your regular clothes, unless laundered and being stored until the next Season.  That will also keep the outside dirt and odors off your clean clothes.

The tough one to correct: how to keep the odors from permeating your wardrobe.  First off, you can start be removing any thing that you have not worn in over a year.   The longer items have sat in the closet, the more they have absorbed. You could tumble some items in the dryer with a wet cloth and a fresh dryer sheet.  Or you could wash them again – but  I do not recommend using Febreeze, Lysol, or Oust on clothes you will eventually wear.

Click on the box of baking soda on the right, and you’ll go straight to Arm & Hammer’s website where you can learn more about how Baking Soda can make life easier for you. It’s less than $1/per box. How could you go wrong?

Contact The Stage Coach to learn more about Austin's Home Staging Handyman!

Home Staging Austin Home Stager