Do You Need to Improve Your Home for the Holidays?

As the holidays roll around, you likely have a lot on your plate, both literally and figuratively. However, before you start enjoying the food and festivities, you should improve your home for the holidays. After all, without a warm and welcoming house, the spirit of family and spending time with loved ones just doesn’t have the same meaning. Even if you are working on a limited budget, following through with a few simple and easy tasks can make a massive difference in your home’s appearance, thus letting you have an extra special and enjoyable holiday season.

Organize and Declutter Your Kitchen

Refinishing Furniture is a Great Way to Improve Your Home for the Holidays

One of the first things people notice when they walk into your home is the furniture located throughout the house. This is a simple thing to do to improve your home for the holidays. Odds are good that you have at least one piece of furniture that you’d like to hide, especially during the holidays. But you don’t necessarily have to buy new furniture; you can simply refinish your existing pieces to give them a completely new look.
For wood pieces, adding varnish or stain, after stripping the existing coats, can breathe life into these old pieces and have them looking like new after a quick and easy weekend project. If you are extra handy with fabric, reupholstering your couches, chairs, and love seats creates a new look that radically alters your home décor. So long as the existing framework and stuffing is usable, this idea can save you money and surprise your guests at Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Update Your Furniture to Improve Your Home for the Holidays

Improve Your Home for the Holidays by Touching up Paint

Similarly, touching up the paint throughout the house can dazzle guests and create an entirely new aesthetic for your home. To start, spend a couple of minutes walking your house and pinpointing the problem spots in every room. With these notes, you can make a decision on completely repainting or merely touching up the areas in question. Of course, if you don’t have matching paint for touch ups, you will need to speak with a paint professional to find a new match. If the abrasions on the wall have significantly deep gouges or ruts, a simple dry wall patch can restore the integrity of the wall and give you the perfect canvas to improve your home for the holidays.

Improve Your Home for the Holidays by Cleaning up the Bathroom

Having a downtrodden bathroom is any holiday host’s worst nightmare. With this being the one room that everyone will need to visit at some point during the festive seasons, giving it a little love and attention is essential. You should do this to improve your home for the holidays. To spruce up your bathroom before guests and relatives start arriving, try polishing the faucets, shower heads, and any other metal fixtures. This can help clean up hard water stains and mineral buildups. Doing the same with the porcelain bowl of the toilet, as well as installing a new seat for the commode, rounds out the process and gives your bathroom a look you can be proud of.

Clean Up the Bathroom

Improve Your Home for the Holidays by Polishing or Cleaning Flooring

Of course, no quick home renovation is complete without taking care of the floors. After taking the brunt of foot traffic throughout the home, your tile, carpet, or hardwood may be a little worse for the wear. However, with the right approach, you can undo some of this damage and restore your floors to “like new” condition. For hardwood floors, polish and restorative cleaners can help remove sneaker scuffs and other build up. Similar products are available for tile and linoleum. Carpet can be a little trickier, especially if you have pets or young children. However, renting or borrowing a carpet cleaner can help you fight back against even the toughest stains and gunk deposits.

Improve Your Home for the Holidays by Placing an Emphasis on Organization

As far as cost-effective tricks that can help improve your home for holidays, simply picking up the house and organizing your possessions will go a long way. By optimizing your closets, attics, basements, and other storage areas, you can hide away extra clothes and other things that you don’t need on a daily basis. You might even find it worthwhile to sort through items and sell or discard things that are only taking up space. This way, you not only have a tidy and neat home for the holidays, but you can enjoy this new approach to organization into the New Year and beyond.

Giving the Small Things a Little Love Will Improve Your Home for the Holidays

If you want to go the extra mile after renovating rooms and organizing your possessions, turn your attention to the little things around the house. Cleaning door handles, cabinet and draw knobs, lampshades, power switch plates, and all other manner of accessories throughout the house can make a big difference in your overall home presentation. In some cases, you can replace these items for next to nothing, thereby giving your home a sharp, new look.
To improve your home for the holidays, it doesn’t have to cost a lot or take much time. With the help of these quick and easy tips, you can give your home a completely new look and dazzle your guests and loved ones when they show up for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and everything in between, while also letting you sit back and enjoy a job well done – making the holiday season truly special.

About the author
Jim Van Landingham – Sales Professional in the Luxury Bath industry connecting architects, designers, dealers and contractors with luxury products for 18 years. Jim is a Family Man, Runner, IDPA Member, Artist and Cook and currently working as the VP of Sales in the Residential Division for Quick Drain USA.

Try using a few of these quick and easy steps to improve your home for the holidays.