Let’s face it. New Year’s resolutions aren’t a favorite subject – we all experience varying stages of success with them. But what if you challenge yourself to improve the quality, efficiency, and enjoyment of your family home? These are changes you and your entire family can get behind. Here are 3 New Year’s Resolutions to make for your home starting now!
Improve Your Indoor Air Quality
You spent a fortune in the past few years renovating, decorating, and updating your home, and it looks amazing. Now it’s time to make improvements to something you can’t see – the air your family breathes inside your home every day. Prolonged exposure to poor air quality can lead to respiratory complications. So, take note of these simple solutions to improve your home’s air quality and keep your family breathing easier all year long.
Maintain Your Filters Regularly
Mary harmful irritants, like dust, pollen, and mold spores that find their way into your home can be eliminated by simply maintaining your HVAC system. Change your furnace filters on the regular. Make a habit of using localized ventilation in your kitchens and bathrooms to eliminate cooking fumes and humidity, which can create a perfect home for molds and mildews.
Stay a Step Ahead of Radon
Odorless, colorless, and deadly. It sounds like a superhero’s nemesis. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, radon causes about 21,000 lung cancer deaths each year. Also alarming, one in every fifteen homes tests with elevated radon levels.
Tests kits run as little as $20 at local hardware or home improvement stores. Professional radon testing costs a bit more but may still be a low-cost solution to put your mind at ease. Keep in mind, your neighbor’s home, though perhaps only yards from yours, may test totally different radon levels than your home will.
Check Your Safety Devices
Make sure you install a carbon monoxide detector on every bedroom floor. Carbon monoxide detectors should be installed in addition to fire detectors. For example, a blocked furnace vent or chimney flue can create severe levels of carbon monoxide in your home. These detectors are also a small but essential investment — around $40, but well worth it.
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De-clutter Already!
De-cluttering is cheap, but it’s not easy. For many of us, the task itself is overwhelming – but de-cluttering is a sure-fire solution for creating the sort of environment that gives your family room to thrive.
Clothing
Most professional organizers’ rule-of-thumb is to donate items you’ve not worn in over two years. It sounds simple, but we do get attached to our clothing. If you consider that many organizations like churches and shelters re-use donated items to improve the lives of others…it makes it a little easier to let go.
Household items
it’s time to allow your “trash” to become someone else’s “treasure.” Imagine the excitement you could bring to someone’s hunt as they come across the perfect set of dessert plates that sat collecting dust in your home. The same holds true for games and toys your kids have outgrown.
Your newfound space will help promote efficiency in the household. You will all spend less time looking for what you need, or worse, buying duplicates.
Bring on the Calm: Declutter and Donate this Today
Include the KIDS in a Little DIY
We all heard that collective groan. We get it. DIY means “do it yourself,” not “do it yourself while instructing a small novice.”
Children imagine themselves as the perfect assistant, so what better way to spend some quality time with them this winter and prove them right. Depending upon their age, have them help you:
Paint a room.
Do the prepping, taping, and drop cloths yourself before calling in the troops.
Clean the windows.
Hand them a cloth and a solution of vinegar and water and let them at it. Yes, you may have to follow up.
Oil a hinge
Quiet squeaky door hinges with a quick spray of WD40. Just show your young helpers how to catch any runs with a cloth.
Replace filters
This is a simple, important task, and kids love seeing an icky, dirty filter replaced with a new one.