10 Weekend Projects

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No matter how much time you have, you probably have enough to tackle a home improvement project this weekend. Sometimes a reminder that things don't take as long as you think is enough motivation get some of those projects done.

30 Minutes or Less
1. Change the hardware on your kitchen cabinets. You'll be surprised at what a huge difference modern hardware can make on your kitchen for not much money or time. Get out your screw driver and knock this project out in half an hour.

2. Wash the entry walls and door. This is probably the highest traffic area in your home. Especially in the winter, snow and dirt brought in can take a toll on the surfaces near the entry. A good scrub with a magic eraser will clean the area up in no time. You might not have noticed the dirt, but you'll definitely notice how clean it is!

3. Touch up nail holes with filler and paint. Remember when you moved that picture to another place in the room? Of course, the hole is still there. Grab some wall filler, patch up the hole and wipe up the excess. Then get a small amount of the wall paint from that room and paint over the filler. This will probably take 10 minutes total. What an easy way to feel accomplished!

4. Clean out lighting fixtures. Thankfully the cold weather has killed all of the house pests, but there might be some evidence of their tenancy in your lighting fixtures. Fill your sink with water and lysol (the recommended amount from the bottle) and unscrew the dome fixtures in your home. Dump out any debris in the trash and soak the fixtures in the sink solution. Rinse, dry and put back. 20 minutes or less (for all the dome lights in your home!).

5. Sweep your sidewalks and wipe down your mailbox. Brace the cold for 10 minutes and sweep the rocks and salt from your entryway sidewalks. Keeping this clean keep all of the floors in your house cleaner by default. While you're out there, give a quick wipe down to your mailbox with lysol. Who knows if the mail carrier transferred the flu from one mail box to another.

Half of a Day
1. Paint the walls. Have a room that could use a sprucing? Take 5 hours out of your day to purchase, prep and paint. Valspar Premium is $5 off this week with this coupon from Lowe's. Once you pick out your color (I recommend paint and primer in one, like Valspar, to make the most of my time), make sure to grab drop cloths and painters tape. My tips is to do the taping the night before so you can focus all your energy on painting when you first get up. Then it's done in just a few hours!

2. Install storage shelves. Don't forget about the vertical space in your laundry room or garage. There's great storage potential there! Purchase your preferred wall adhered storage unit - do you want wire open shelving, mdf open shelving or closed solid wood cabinets? So many choices. Make sure you have another person helping you with this. Someone to man the pencil and another to hold the level is an unbeatable team.

3. Deep clean carpets. Look for coupons online and rent a steam cleaning machine. While you're at it, clean your upholstered furniture and draperies. It takes a bit of time but it's worth it for the satisfaction of clean floors.

A Full Weekend
1. Refinish your kitchen cabinets. Whether you want to turn them glossy white or stain a new color, this is a fairly time intensive project, but not hard. Remove the cabinet doors and hardware. Sand the cabinet boxes and cabinet doors. Prime & paint or stain and seal (read labels for dry time) the cabinet boxes and then the doors (make sure all hardware is removed but kept together in an easy to remember place). Let everything dry over night. The next day reattach (or attach new) hardware to the cabinet doors and attach them to the cabinet boxes. A brand new kitchen in 48 hours!

2. Install hardwood flooring. There are so many options in hardwood flooring to easily install in your home now. Home Depot and Lowe's are great resources with several color options. You can tackle this project in a weekend easily. Make sure you know what you're doing by reading instructions carefully. This is one of the most significant improvements you could make in just a few days on your own.

Are you going to be doing any projects in your home this weekend? We'd love to see before and after photos!

Spring Cleaning Tips - Part 2

5. Stick to One Room at a Time - Similar to tip #2, don't go overboard and organize sections of different rooms without finishing one. If only a small portion of every room is clean, it will be hard to see the progress. Tackle it in pieces and go one room at a time. The accomplished feeling after one room is clean will be worth it to move on to the next room.

6. Double Time - When pulling things out of drawers, cabinets and off of shelves to clean, remember to organize as you go. As you taking things out, put the things you're going to keep in groupings with similar things. That way when the space is clean, your things will already be sorted and ready to be put in place, rather than laying in a giant pile of chaos.

7. Mix & Match Cleaning Tasks- There's always that one (or several) task in each room that makes you want to give up before you even begin. By recognizing the harder parts of the room to clean, you can balance the nitty gritty with the simple stuff and alternate your focus.

8. Reward System - If a clean, organized home isn't enough to keep you spring cleaning, create small and larger rewards for yourself that won't interfere with your cleaning. Maybe for a 10 minute break, you can read a magazine and then after you're done for the day, you get to watch a movie without checking your email! When the house is looking beautiful inside & out, host friends and show off your hardwork.

While you're going through all of your things, why not take inventory of your home with an iPhone App like this one or this one? There are also inventory apps for Android users here and here.

Need some ideas on what to clean? Here are some thoughts & ideas.

What is the task you dread most when seasonal cleaning?

Spring Cleaning Tips - Part 1

For a few weeks in March and April, I thought spring had completely forgotten us. With highs in the 80s and 90s some days, Ames seemed to be in Summer Mode. Spring weather has come though and it's a good reminder that deep cleaning, organizing, and purging unused items really is ideal in mild weather like we've had lately.

Though the results are almost always a great feeling, getting the house to that point can be stressful for most people. Here are a few tips to get the ball rolling on cleaning out your home for spring and summer:

1. Gather Supplies - Nothing can kill motivation to clean and organize like having to make trips to the super store to get one thing several times. Gather what you have, assess what you'll need and go to the store on the front end.

As you run out of supplies, try to finish what you can with what you have and then go to the store when you need/can foresee needing at least 3 things. Wait to buy your groceries and toiletries after you're done spring cleaning for the day to avoid distraction when you get home.

2. Tackle It In Pieces - An entire house is to daunting a task to tackle - but one section of kitchen cabinets is doable, then onto the next section, and then onto the hall closet. By moving in sections, you aren't tempted to pull everything off of every shelf in the house. This makes small, manageable amounts of mess instead of one large overwhelming pile in every room. You'll feel accomplished after each portion and be motivated to move to the next.

3. Time It - You know when you set aside an entire day to do something? It usually takes the entire day. Whether the task of a 16 hour project is so daunting that you distract yourself with other things or 16 hours makes you feel like you have to use the time up, you're usually wasting some of that time.

Set aside manageable, yet slightly challenging amounts of time for specific projects. This way you will work towards the deadline and remain focused while not spending time over thinking things. Set a timer or make an upbeat playlist that ends after your allotted amount of time.

4. Keep, Trash, Sell/Donate - As you're cleaning and organizing, only organize the things worth keeping. The rest, sort into two bins: 1. Trash & 2. Sell/Donate. Once their in those bins, leave them alone until you're done with your organizational task.

These two bins are important because you don't want to waste your time cleaning around things you don't even want. These things are taking up room in your home when they could be elsewhere. A good rule of thumb is if you haven't used it for one year, you don't need it.

Tips 5 -8 on Friday