When you bought your home, did you consider all of the hard-work and outflow of money that comes with being a homeowner? According to MSN Real Estate, the minimum price for fixing and maintaining a home every year is one-percent of the home’s total worth. For example, if you buy a house worth $500,000, your minimum upkeep will be approximately $5,000 annually.
Of course, home maintenance and improvement often goes beyond replacing PVC plugs, light bulbs, and locks. As Warmly Yours Radiant Heating writes, Americans spent $150 billion in 2013 to upgrade their bathrooms, kitchens, and other rooms. Much of that spending was discretionary and was only meant to improve the aesthetic qualities of their homes.
Whether you want to improve the look of your home or the safety it offers to you and your family, it doesn’t have to cost you thousands, or even hundreds, of your hard-earned dollars. With these three easy homehacks, you can improve your home with the time you have on the weekend and still have some to spare to watch a movie with the wife and kids.
Stop Fire Hazards, Unattractive Displays with Cable Ties
Did you know, according to the National Fire Protection Agency, that upwards of 50,000 fires are caused in American homes every year by an electrical malfunction or failure? As our homes become ever more modern, incorporating smart-devices, new TVs, and a host of other technologies into our every day lives, this risk only grows. One of the biggest hazards? Lose wires hanging all over the place.
Lose wires, whether they’re hanging behind your entertainment center or from a socket, are easy to sheer with vacuum cleaners or even just by walking over them. It only takes one spark from one of these to start a fire that can take your home from you. Try using cables ties to bind these wires together, hide them away, and keep them off the floor. Doing so can greatly improve your home’s safety and make things look better, too.
Use Magnetic Catches to Secure the Cabinetry in Your Kitchen
Have you ever been in your kitchen only to have the overstuffed cabinets open and deposit a can of soup on your head? Try attaching magnetic catches inside the cabinet to secure the door shut and avoid any danger posed to your head. Of course, you could also stop putting so much food into the cabinets.
Make Plumbing Easier with Bolt Covers
Whether in your bathroom or around your pool, one of the biggest challenges to repairing and maintaining your property is rust. Rust can cause leaks in your pool and make it impossible for you to remove pieces of hardware, like nuts and bolts, when you need to repair your plumbing. By placing plastic bolt covers over the bolts on your toilet and around your pool, you can protect them from moisture and keep them from rusting. As an added bonus, bolt covers are exceedingly affordable.
As you can see, making your home safer, easier to repair, and better to look at doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg. With just a few small finishing products, like bolt covers and cable ties, you can upgrade your home in a weekend.
