New Years Resolutions for Your Home

Posted by Jenni Barnett on Monday, January 7th, 2019 at 9:00am.

Every New Year, you make resolutions for your life: you might decide to lose weight, get organized, or spend less time on your phone. If you are a new home owner or just feel a little lost by the pile of responsibilities that come with home ownership, make this the year that you make New Years Resolutions for Your Home.

Our list will walk you through six steps that will transform your home this year. Choose just one per month to tackle, and you’ll be ready to throw beautiful, memorable summer parties right on time.


1.) Reduce Clutter

One of the quickest, least expensive ways to give your home a face lift is to clear out as much clutter as you can. If you’re like most of us, your closets, drawers, and cabinets are almost too full to use and your surfaces are piled with post-holiday debris.

Decide to tackle one small area at a time and clear out anything that you don’t use or don’t truly love. Donate things that might be useful to others and toss everything else.

There’s no need to feel guilty about letting go of things; your possessions are supposed to enhance your life, not cramp your style.


2.) Perform a Safety Check

As a homeowner, you want your home to be safe. Experts recommend that you follow these steps every time you perform a safety check on your home:

A.) Check for Deadly Gases

Radon and carbon monoxide are two common deadly gases that every homeowner should be aware of.

Radon causes the lung cancer deaths of 21,000 Americans every year. It’s odorless, colorless, and radioactive. Unfortunately, 1 in 15 homes has elevated levels of radon. Head to your local hardware store and pick up a radon testing kit for less than $20. You’ll send it to a lab to have the results analyzed, and in about a week you’ll find out whether you need to have a professional mitigate the radon levels in your home.

If your home doesn’t have carbon monoxide detectors, you should install them immediately. Place them on every floor of your home where people sleep. You can install your carbon monoxide detectors next to the fire detectors. For less than $50, you’ll be protecting your loved ones from deadly CO leaks.

B.) Clean Out Your Dryer Vent

Cleaning out your lint trap is a great first step, but your home’s exterior dryer vent needs to be checked and cleaned regularly to prevent a house fire.

C.) Make Sure Your Home Can Breathe

Your kitchen, bathrooms, and attic all need to have unobstructed ventilation to the exterior of the home. Otherwise, your home is far more likely to grow molds and mildew.


3.) Perform an Efficiency Check

A.) Clean Out Your Dryer Vent

We covered this in your home’s safety check, but it’s also a key step in ensuring your home’s energy efficiency. If you skip vent cleanings, you’ll start to see that it’s taking longer than usual to fully dry a load of clothes.

To clean out your dryer vent, detach your dryer from the wall and send a plumbing snake through from outside the house. First, tie a cleaning rag firmly to the end of the plumbing snake, then push it through the vent several times. You’re likely to be amazed at what emerges!

B.) Clear Out Your Gutters

For every 1,000 square feet of roof, your home will shed roughly 620 gallons of water for every inch of rainfall. If your gutters and downspouts aren’t fully directing that water away from your foundation, your home will end up needing major, very expensive repairs.
If you aren’t able to get up on a ladder and haul out debris, look into companies in your area that will perform this crucial task.


4.) Clean Your Home Weekly

  • Load and run the dishwasher daily.
  • Do a load of laundry daily.
  • Keep your cleaning supplies in a portable tote and carry it with you as you move from room to room.
    -Work your way around each room in a clockwise direction, moving from higher to lower (for example, wipe down cabinets and counters before you sweep and mop).
  • Get everyone involved and divide up the tasks. Things like dusting, changing sheets, and cleaning bathrooms are easy to divide. Depending on square footage, you should be able to turn your whole house around in 1 – 2 hours.

5.) Prepare to Entertain More

If one of your resolutions is to spend more quality time with friends and family, it’s time to get your home ready for more frequent entertaining. While a full kitchen remodel might not be in the cards, you can still give your home a fresh feel with a few simple adjustments.

Add plants to make your home look more refined and complete. Whether you want to add a bright pop of color or just fill in an empty space with a flourish of green, there’s a house plant that’s right for the job.

Rearrange your furniture so that it fosters conversation and connection. If your chairs and couches are lined up to face the television, start thinking about how you could move things around to create areas for visitors to sit in cozy groups.


6.) Learn More About Your Home’s Maintenance Budget

There’s more to managing your home’s budget than paying your mortgage and property taxes. On average, homeowners spend about 1% to 3% of the amount they paid for their home annually on maintenance and home improvement.

If you purchased your home for $300,000, you’ll need to budget $3,000 to $9,000 annually just to care for your home. If you still have money left in this budget by the end of the year, don’t spend it. Set it aside for more costly repairs that are sure to crop up later. When it’s time to replace your roof or repair your foundation, you’ll be glad you planned so far ahead.

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