Five Spring Resolutions for Your Home

In the spirit of new beginnings, we have come up with some spring resolutions that will make your home a more efficient, clean, and ultimately, beautiful in the coming season. By the first of spring we are ready for a clean slate in many areas of our life, including our home. With a brand new season brimming with possibilities, resolve to move through your house with a can-do attitude, organizing, cleaning, decorating, and entertaining.

1. Streamline Your Home
One of the best and least expensive ways to feel better about our home is to clear out the clutter. Don’t wait until summer to purge cabinets and drawers of the stuff you have accumulated over the past year. Start by going from room-to-room clearing anything that you don’t use or wear and donate it to charity. This year, resolve to make it a habit to evaluate what you bring into your home and make sure it has a place.

Having a specified place for household items will help keep the clutter at bay. For instance, store random items like remotes and magazines in simple woven baskets. Conveniently keep keys, cell phones, and other everyday items on a vintage tray by the door. These are just a few simple ways to streamline and help you to breath a little easier in your own home.

2. Keep the House Clean: Daily and Weekly Schedules

By keeping your house consistently clean, you stay on top of the clutter by bringing everything back to its assigned place. You also avoid the aggravation of having to deal with a suddenly dirty home. Daily, household members need to put their shoes, clothes, and dirty towels in their respective place. Every night, dishes have to go in the dishwasher. You don’t want to spend your morning dealing with yesterday’s mess.

On a weekly basis, clean your entire home. It may sound excessive or time consuming, but staying ahead of the dirt, dust, and clutter– it should take no time at all! To keep easy for your family, keep all of your cleaners, as well as rubber gloves and spare cleaning cloths – in a portable carryall that moves with you from room to room. Do one room at a time for optimum efficiency, and even divide the rooms or jobs with family members. Don’t forget to make your home a safer this year too, by making sure your smoke detector is working, if you don’t have a carbon dioxide detector–get one, and have your furnace checked.

3. Introduce a Little Green
One of the quickest, cheapest, and easiest ways to surge life into your home is by adding a little a green. Having plants or flowers instantly brightens up a room, plus, certain plants even have air cleaning qualities. You can even resolve to buy yourself a bouquet of flowers each week. They may not be practical, but they sure are beautiful and add a lovely pop of color to your home (especially during the drab winter months!).

You can even grow your own herbs indoors on a sunny window ledge. Not only do they look good, having your own herbs is useful in home cooking. Fresh herbs have proven health benefits as well as reduce the need for extra fat and sodium in your cooking. Plus, you will save money, by using what you need instead of buying large bunches of supermarket herbs.

4. Decorate!

If you can’t afford to renovate your home, that’s okay, decorate it! First of all, evaluate how your home is decorated and what you have in storage. Move lamps around, small tables, or art (don’t forget to patch and paint as you go though!). You can paint your kitchen cabinets and add some vintage hardware or if you have a mantle, move things around on it each month by adding fresh flowers, framed photos, etc. Perhaps, buy yourself something for your home that you’ve always wanted but never allowed yourself to buy. May be a new piece of artwork, a sprawling accent rug, or a set of antique tumblers– buy something that makes you smile.

5. Make Your Home Entertaining Ready

This year, spend more time with friends and family by inviting them into your home. The previous home resolutions all contribute to making your new year of entertaining simple. A clean, streamlined home freshly decorated and filled with flowers is now an inviting space. Just take little time to rearrange your furniture so it is oriented in conversation groups (not just facing the television!). This opens up the opportunity for real conversation and connection in your home this spring.

Noella Schink is a writer and fervent home cook from Portland, Maine with an affection for rustic New England decor and culture. She is inspired by local designer Sturbridge Yankee Workshops for home decor elements like rustic kitchen tables, chic country curtains, wool-hooked rugs, and kitchen gadgets.