New Year's Resolutions for you Home

Here is some great information for getting 

your home in shape.

Instead of making resolutions you probably won’t keep, like losing weight, or running five miles a week, why not focus on your home and use the new year to accomplish your home’s to-do list. Find tasks that not only need to get done but will also enhance the pleasure of living in your home. Maybe you want to paint all of your bathrooms – easy enough. But perhaps you want to start a remodel. That takes a lot more effort in time and money.

Here are some ways to break it down so at the end of the year you can look back and see that you have actually accomplished quite a bit!

Start with making a list of everything you want to do this year. Don’t leave anything out. Include all the easy stuff and the hard stuff too. Once you have your list, go through it and separate the items into three categories: Easy, Medium, and Hard. Easy means you can do it yourself and it cost nothing or not much. Medium means you can probably do it all yourself and maybe you’ll need a little help with some of it. It also won"t cost too much but you might need to make a budget for it. Hard would mean you will probably need to bring it outside help for most of the work and it’s not cheap. You’ll either have to budget for it or start saving.

Now that you have your three lists, take each item and break it down into micro tasks. Break out every step you’ll need to do to accomplish the task. Make a list of supplies you’ll need, create a budget too. Maybe start pulling ideas from magazines or start a Pinterest^® board. Once you have all of your micro tasks completed, arrange each task from Easy to Hard. Easy might be starting the Pinterest board or gathering paint chip samples.

Now you’re ready to start. Begin with the low-hanging fruit – the easy items from each list that you can accomplish right now. If it helps, put each micro task on a calendar and start checking things off.

Before you know it, you’ll have most of your list done, and hopefully, within the first few months you’ll have your entire “Easy” list finished. And with a few things accomplished and your list pretty checked off, those Medium and Hard items won't seem so daunting and you’ll feel a real sense of accomplishment. Don’t just sit there – get started!

(information from First American Home Warranty