Home Depot reported a 24 percent decline in profit on Monday. Declining new home construction and big-ticket renovations are largely responsible. Many people are postponing plans to build new homes; instead, they are making do with their current homes.

But waiting is not an option for some people. If you need to sell your house now, you need to price it right and really make it stand out from the competition. Most experienced real estate agents will tell you to make your house look and smell as fresh and clean as possible. Make it look like no one lives there; potential buyers want to imagine what the rooms will look like after they move in, not what it looks like with your stuff in it.

That's a dilemma. How do you make your home look like no one lives in it? Well, one way is to put as much stuff as possible in out-of-sight locations. Adding some storage space in an attic, basement or garage, for example, doesn't have to take much time or money, but it certainly can help make your bedrooms and other living spaces look as clean and uncluttered as possible. And having that extra storage space could become a selling point in its own right.

Photo © Arpana Sanjay

I was in a friend's puny garage the other day. She was bemoaning the lack of storage space, and it was hard to argue with her. With one car, one garbage can, a lawn mower and a bicycle filling most of the floor space, it was hard enough just to move around, much less think of additional storage capacity.

But, looking around, I noticed a big chunk of empty space along the wall above the front of the car. With a little measuring, we calculated that she could easily put three 6-foot-long shelves on the wall, with each one being as much as 24-inches deep.

The quickest and easiest way to do this is with metal standards and brackets. Since her walls are unfinished, she can attach three standards directly to the studs, slip three brackets per shelf into the standards, and then set plywood shelves on the brackets. Total time? Maybe an hour or two. Total investment? Less than $50.