Small Tasks You Can Do All Year To Keep Your Home Clean and Organized

 

Little chores can add up to big results in your home, just taking one small task at a time can keep your house in check. Here is a great plan to follow that will help accomplish this. 

Weekly Home Maintenance

Here are some great tasks to tackle each week. Floors are a big area of your home. Vacuuming your carpet or dusting your hardwood floors each week can make a big effect. Taking about 30 minutes a week on small tasks in your yard can do wonders for your curb appeal. Pruning your shrubs or trees, blowing or raking leaves up, cleaning up debris from your sidewalk, and painting your mailbox are examples of a few of these tasks.  

Bathrooms are a big traffic area in your home and can be a breeding ground for bacteria. Along with cleaning your bathroom, take time to also make sure your drains are cleaned and not clogged. A good tool to use for this is a Zip-It tool. Along with cleaning your shower, renewing or repairing dingy or damaged tile grout can also help with your bathroom’s esthetic looks. Something that is not thought of is the build-up in your shower head. This can hinder your flow of water. Cleaning the mineral sediment out of the showerhead will help with water flow.

They say the heart of the home is the kitchen. This is another area that can use some weekly maintenance. Freshen up your garbage disposal each week to eliminate odors. A good way to do this is to take a tray of ice cubes, baking soda or lemon rinds and run them through the disposal. Cleaning the outside of your appliances can freshen up the kitchen. Take it a step further and clean the insides each week as well. Take one appliance a week in the kitchen. For instance, clean out your refrigerator one week and then your dishwasher the next and the following week could be the oven.

Monthly Home Maintenance

Rome wasn’t built in a day. Some projects can be done monthly and still keep a house clean and organized. The range hood in your kitchen can get really dirty. Every month check the filter and clean the hood. Grease and dirt can build up and cause a thick layer which is hard to clean but cleaning it monthly can help resolve this. A good way to help with utility bills and keep the air quality up is by changing your furnace’s filter each month. Dust collects overtime around the house. Dust is not healthy for you or pleasing to the eye. A quick fix is to polis wood furniture, dust light fixtures and wipe down your home’s baseboards each month.

Safety concerns can also be addressed each month. Check your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors to make sure the batteries are good and they function. Another thing that can be overlooked is your fire extinguisher. Check to make sure it is fully charged each month. Take some time each month to also inspect the outside of your home. Make sure there are no problems or issues that need to be resolved. Things to look for are loose shingles, damaged siding, insect nests or overgrown trees or shrubbery.

Yearly Home Maintenance

Bigger tasks that can be done once a year can be done in one or two days each year or during each change of season. Typical projects include cleaning and organizing your garage, basement or attic. Get rid of unwanted items and find some treasures that you had forgotten about at the same time.
Springtime is a great time to wash your windows and screens. This will let more light into your home. Clean your gutters and make sure it is clean under the eaves. Remove ways for pests to enter your home. Remove shrubs or trees that encroach your home. Also, make sure there are no holes to let litter critters in and if there are install wire grates over the holes.

Each season you can choose a room to freshen up. A great way to do this is to give it a “mini-makeover.” Do this by repainting a room, moving furniture around or adding new plants and knickknacks. In just a few years, your whole house will be done!

Remember that keeping it simple and smart is the way to go.

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Home Owners Focus on Home Improvement Over Travel and Entertainment

The recent pandemic has changed home owner’s points of view on many aspects of homeownership. HomeAdvisor’s latest survey “State of Home Spending”, showed the average spent on home-improvements in 2020 rose to $13,138 from 2019’s $9,081.    

Although the survey says higher cost in labor and materials contributes to the higher number, it still shows an increase in American home owner’s spending average on actual home improvements. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) reported that 85% of Americans are spending more time at home because of COVID-19. Their spending habits are shifting from travel and entertainment to home improvement projects.

The housing market is hot and the increase in home buying has also fueled home improvement spending. Millennials, (those closest to the median age of first-time homebuyers) have been reported to have increased in home buying.

“Homeownership rates for millennials have jumped significantly, especially as COVID-19 has reemphasized the importance of the home and many companies move to flexible work location options,” said Mischa Fisher, chief economist at HomeAdvisor, in a press release. “Millennials are not only rapidly becoming home owners, but they are also spending more on home improvement than any other generation when they do.”

Those projects that have been important in 2020 have changed from those in 2019. The top 2020 projects were interior painting, bathroom remodels and new flooring installations. The top project which has made the list the last several years did not even make it onto the 2020 list. Prior years those that were surveyed by HomeAdvisor said that room remodels were the most important project.

The home maintenance project that saw the biggest increase year-over-year was cleaning and landscaping. The more everyone was at home with the stay-at-home orders, the messier the home could get. Cleaning and landscaping saw an increase from $1,105 in 2019 to $3,192 in 2020.

According to the survey, “painting was one of the most popular projects across nearly all age groups, because it is relatively affordable and offers a lot of visual value in terms of the look and feel of a room.”

American’s perspective on their home has changed dramatically in the wake of COVID-19. In fact, seven in ten respondents said that the pandemic had increased their need for home cooking, 50% were working from home and 40% were incorporating more home entertaining. The “State of Home Spending” survey summed up that home owners are using their home more and more and it has definitely become an even greater factor in their quality of life.

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