No matter how much we love our homes when we first move into them, we all grow tired of them after a while. We start to believe that our fixtures or furniture is dated, or that there’s too much wear and tear visible on carpets and wall coverings. Whether that’s true or not is irrelevant – once we’ve got the idea into our head, there’s no shifting it! This is why the whole home improvements industry exists – to make large or small-scale changes to the places we call home, and give us that ‘new house’ feeling without changing address.
Most of us would probably like to implement some home improvements more often that we do, but find ourselves put off the idea. We convince ourselves that improvements are going to cost more than they really will, or we set about tasks that we’re never likely to finish. According to the latest data on the topic, the average American has almost ten unfinished home DIY projects laying around, waiting for someone to come back to them!
Going about the task of improving your home doesn’t have to mean paying thousands of dollars to have a new kitchen installed, or spending hours watching YouTube tutorial videos to work out how to build yourself a new drinks cabinet or lounge table. You can adopt the same strategy with home improvements as a casino player does when playing mobile slots; minimum investment and effort, maximum return. Very few slots players on sites such as Amigo Slots slap down thousand dollar stakes for one spin in the hope of receiving an instant reward; they’ll place a series of much smaller bets, looking for a much larger win further down the line. With a series of small stakes, slots players can walk away with big profits. In the same way, you can walk away with a better looking – and potentially more valuable – property with a series of small improvements that will cost you far less than you imagine. Here are some basic ideas!
- Use Vinyl To Liven Up Walls
The majority of people would like a little art on their walls, but can’t find a suitable piece to use. Paintings – especially good ones – are either very expensive or very specific. Posters are far cheaper and more varied, but there’s something tacky and cheap about sticking a poster to a wall when you’re no longer a teenager. That’s where vinyl wall decals come in – and they’re all the rage at the moment. Even Cosmopolitan thinks so. Best of all, they’re even easier to put into place than a poster! Wall decals are basically giant stickers, which adhere perfectly to whichever surface you want to put them on, and can be taken down just as easily when you tire of them or want to move them elsewhere. As a pro tip, try combining several of them together as a collage – and you’ve effectively created your own custom wallpaper!
- Paint
The phrase “a fresh coat of paint” exists for a reason – everything looks better when the coloring of it looks fresh and new. Paint is cheap, and all of us can paint to some degree – yet we rarely do. Does your kitchen, living room, or bathroom really need re-shaping and remodeling, or does it just need a fresh coat of $20 paint? Don’t just think about walls either – how about furniture? Old, chipped wooden furniture may look shabby now, but if you apply a fresh coat of paint to it and leave it to dry it goes from shabby shame to shabby chic. A new shade can change the whole atmosphere of a room, even if all you’ve done is paint a single wall.
- Garden (Even If You Don’t Have One)
Because of lifestyle and location, not all of us have gardens in the way that our parents and grandparents did when they were our age. That means the art of gardening is being lost on many of us, even though it’s known to be soothing and relaxing. A little gardening is a good way to cope with 21set century stresses and strains, so pick up the hobby! If you don’t have a yard, create points of focus indoors by using strategically placed plants. A series of potted plants can change the look of a whole window. A hanging plant will add new shape to a hallway. Everything in general will look and smell better. Just remember to keep them alive and replace them often!
- Dress The Windows
What do you spend the most time in your home looking at, other than the television or your mobile phone? The windows. You look out to check the weather, or to contemplate a thought, or for inspiration. That view is the one you see more often than any other, but also the one that receives the least attention. You can’t change what’s on the other side of your window without moving house, but you can change what the window looks like. How long has it been since you bought new curtains or drapes? How much do you think it would cost you to do so? Basic shades and drapes are less than twenty dollars, but like a new coat of paint, they can introduce color into a room that wasn’t there before.
- Throw Everything Out!
OK, not ‘everything.’ We’re not about to go all Marie Kondo on you here. Throwing all of your personal possessions away is probably going to lead to some deep regret further down the line, but all of us probably have too much clutter. Part of the reason that show homes and show apartments always look so great is that nobody else has been inside them to mess them up with the assorted junk of life yet. Think about the things you have around your home that occupy space that could be open. Big piles of DVDs, for example. Will you ever watch them again now streaming services exist? Are there long-forgotten shoes and coats in the hallway? Are plastic bags full of miscellaneous items you’ve been meaning to get around to in the corners of bedrooms and spare rooms? Get rid of what doesn’t need to be there. The chances are that if you haven’t worn an item of clothing, used a device or otherwise interacted with an object for twelve months, you never will again. Look at it, go with your gut, and throw it out if you don’t want it. Your house will look cleaner, and more spacious.
These are just five ideas you can take and use at low cost, but large reward! A home improvement doesn’t have to be a home expense – just a little thing that makes life better. We hope you found one in this article.
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