Quick and Easy Home Improvement Projects to Do in Winter
1. Give your kitchen cabinets a face-lift. Nothing outdates a kitchen more than dark, drab, flat front cabinets. One easy fix is to add trim to the top, bottom, and faces of your cabinets. Cover with a couple coats of paint and you have an entirely different look to your kitchen. The amount of time and money involved depends on the number of cabinets you have and the tools that are available to you. In my case, the kitchen cabinet project took about one month. My husband and I only worked on it during the weekends and we had many power tools available for use. The total project cost approximately $200. We purchased quality paint, but were able to save some money buying our trim at a local molding outlet.
2. Refinish a piece of furniture. For example, I acquired an antique dining room hutch that needed a major makeover. Winter was the perfect time to do the project because outdoor duties weren’t waiting. If you have a heated garage you can sand and repaint without any problems. The dining room hutch involved stripping paint, sanding, repainting and adding feet and trim. The project took three months of work and cost approximately $150.
3. Organize closets. If painting isn’t your thing, consider this very simple home improvement project. Nothing keeps a house running more smoothly than organized spaces. Go room by room during the winter and sort through items. Buy storage containers, bins, and baskets that will be useful for each space. When everything has a place, items get put away right away, rather than piling up and creating clutter. The cost for organizing rooms is minimal but the effects are impressive. Plan to spend anywhere from an hour to a few days on each room. The time you spend will be well worth it.
4. Rip up old carpet. If you have carpet or linoleum that needs to come out, winter is a great time to do it, especially toward the end of winter. Most communities have spring clean-ups that will take away your old carpet for free. If you get the old carpet up, you’ll be ready to install new flooring, or salvage old hardwood floors first thing in the spring when your house windows can be open and rooms can be aired out. The cost of ripping up old carpet or linoleum is nothing more than a bit of ‘elbow grease’. Seriously, all you need is a cutting knife and old string to tie up the carpet into rolls. The amount of time this takes depends on the size of the room.
5. Fix annoying problems. Winter is the time to take care of small annoying problems that you overlook during busier months. For instance, now is the perfect time to fix that squeaky pantry door or that broken hinge on the computer cabinet door. Take a day and make a list of all the little items that need fixed. It won’t take much time or money, but it will make a big improvement in your daily life.
