Some budget home improvements
Your home can influence your mood. When it seems upside down or outdated, you might feel overwhelmed, stressed, frustrated or dissatisfied. Maybe you wish you could remodel a room or move into a new and improved house. You don’t need a high-cost solution. A few small tweaks can change your entire perspective, lift your spirits, and make you stop hating your surroundings. At the very least, it will make it more tolerable while you continue to save to perhaps make more costly improvements later.
What low-cost solutions have you made to your home?
Here are a few ideas.
SPRING CLEAN:
Clutter weighs you down. Go room to room, and clean and organize. Wash your windows, and then open them up and let the sunlight pour in. Rent a carpet cleaner, and steam-clean your carpets. If you’re still unhappy with the results, check online for carpet remnants on Freecycle, Craigslist, eBay Classifieds or at local stores. Or wait for clearance sales to get an area rug at a home-improvement store. If you miss the clearance sales, many home-improvement stores will price-match and beat the lowest price you’re able to find elsewhere. (Some beat it and provide an additional 10 percent discount.) Scrub kitchen and bathroom tile grout. Walls and back splashes get dingy, and they’re often overlooked during routine cleaning.
SECONDHAND SHOP:
Look for accessories such as valances, place mats, quilts, wall art or picture frames, lamps (improved lighting will make a huge difference in any room), tablecloths, cloth napkins, glassware and candles. Or look for furniture such as a coffee table, bookcase or end tables that with a little paint or elbow grease will work out perfectly in your home. Many garage sales and thrift stores have brand-new items and unique vintage items, too. Rather than feeling depressed when looking at home-decor shows or magazines, take notes and look for cheaper ways to achieve a similar look.
REPAIR:
Small home repairs start to stack up. Tackle a few. These little annoyances can make you feel as if your house is falling apart. Make the time to change the light bulbs, repair a screen, patch holes in the walls, or fix a leaky faucet or slow sink drain.
PLANTS:
Ask for cuttings from family and friends to add inside or outside your home. Or shop smart and purchase plants that propagate easily, so you have plenty of new plants to give as gifts or trade with others. Plants can be moved to different areas of your home, and you can decorate them with silk floral picks, dried floral materials, ribbons or a new container for each season or holiday.
MINI SPRUCING UP:
Small changes such as buying new bath towels, oven mitts, dish towels, pillows, a shower curtain, throw blankets or slipcovers can accessorize an otherwise boring room. This is especially helpful when you’re afraid to start a major project — such as painting the walls — for fear the rest of the room will look even more outdated. Sometimes painting a ceiling, trim or molding can provide better results than painting the entire room. Rearrange a few things. Maybe you can better position your furniture or switch entire rooms to serve a new and improved purpose.
photo by garlandcannon
Posted by Sara Noel
on May 14 2010. Filed under Home & family.Sara Noel owns Frugal Village, LLC and is a nationally syndicated columnist with Universal Uclick. Bio, Follow me on Twitter, Join us on Facebook
I find that nothing makes your house look better than a clean floor. Scrubbing the kitchen floor always makes me feel like I have a new home.
For small changes, a can of paint makes a huge difference with a small monetary investment. One other thing that we did that gave a big impact without costing much was change our faucets. I bought inexpensive faucets on sale and installed them myself. An easy job that I taught myself how to do by watching a video on youtube.
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