Love Your Home Again - 5 Tips for Home Improvements

My husband has lived in the same house for his entire life. He says sometimes he is sick to death of it and wonders what it might be like to live in a different building.

duck egg front door

I on the other hand have moved time and time again, throughout my childhood, to university and in a variety of thankfully ever improving accommodation types from the flea-infested bedsit I lived in when I started my new job to the idyllic country cottage which looked less idyllic when surrounded by muddy flood water - which it did every year.

I am quite glad to be settled now - we've lived together in this house for over 25 years - but I did start to understand why my husband was a bit bored of it.

Luckily by making just a few changes we have updated it and now love it as much as if it was a brand new home.

Some of the things you can do to refresh your home so you love it again do cost quite a bit of money, while others can cost just a few pounds. However compared to the cost of moving home it's usually more economic to make changes to the home you are in and stay there if at all possible.

So here goes - my 5 top tips to help you love your home again.

1. Mix things up.

I read somewhere once that you stop "seeing" things if they stay in the same place for more than a year. In the olden days Spring cleaning was a thing and actually it's a great thing to do to freshen up your house - and it doesn't need to be spring! 
Move all of the furniture out if possible, give all of your ornaments a clean and then look to see if your room could be rearranged to be more useful or attractive. Maybe ask friends for their ideas as often a fresh view can offer previously unthought of solutions. 

We do it in our house at least twice a year. We've just swapped all of our furniture and had a bit of a cull to make room for the Christmas tree. The room looks much bigger now.

2. Update your kitchen and/or bathroom

Apparently these are the rooms which do most to sell a house. Often people only update them when they want to move but that seems a shame - you don't enjoy the benefit of the outlay and hard work. You don't have to spend thousands on brand new or a total refurb. 

Even just buying a new shower curtain or bath mats and getting rid of all of the half-empty bottles will help, along with a lick of paint. 

paint roller and white paint


Talking of paint, if you are sick to death of your old kitchen cupboards but can't afford an entire new kitchen, look into door replacement options or even just invest in cupboard makeover paint and give your kitchen a whole new look.

However, if you’ve been using the same toilet for more than 10 years or so, you may want to look into switching to a new water-saving macerating toilet. Macerating toilets, also known as upflush toilets, are perfect for bathrooms in hard-to-reach areas (e.g., basements and outhouses), places that are far from the main sewer drain line, or locations with low water pressure. They tend to use less water than the standard so they’re water-efficient too. If your  toilet constantly needs repairs, it’s high time to get a replacement.

 

3. Take a look at the outside of the house

Often we walk in and out of our own houses and forget to really look at them, to see what new visitors see. Sometimes it's just a case of weeding the front garden, painting the front door and moving the bins but sometimes you might see that the walls need some TLC. 

You can repair and restore with exterior wall rendering to get rid of cosmetic cracks, crumbling paint, and old balding pebbledash. Get any brickwork repointed and paint any external woodwork. Got UPVC in a colour you hate? You can even get specialist paint now that will update UPVC.

4. How does your garden grow? 

If it's mostly weeds and piles of stuff that needs to go to the dump you can make changes quite quickly. If restoring the whole garden sounds like too much effort and expense, just create an oasis with somewhere you can rest and enjoy the outdoors when the sun is out. 

Clear any unsightly areas you can see from the windows and maybe invest in some easy to care for pots with flowers or shrubs to brighten the place up without the need for heavy digging.

5. Accessorise. 

A cheap, quick and easy way to freshen up the whole house can take as little as a couple of hours. Choose new cushions, duvet covers or curtains, treat yourself to a rug, throw  or some new pictures. Change the colour of your kitchen accessories cheaply or replace the towels in your bathroom. All of these things will help you feel more pride in your abode.