Most of us find winter boring, although this time of the year offers endless home improvement opportunities. If you’ve been looking for practical things to do as the winter sets in, you came to the right place. There are a number of useful and incredibly easy projects you can engage in to put your time at home to good use.
Patch Holes
Like other homeowners, you must have one or more holes in your walls that you’ve been trying to hide. Clumsy furniture movers, sharp doors and playful kids can make a hole in a blink of an eye, but the good thing is that repairing it is nearly just as quick.
During winter, you can purchase a wall patch containing a fiberglass mesh with a peel and stick backing. Depending on the hole you’re trying to fix, you can get a patch between 4 and 8 inches large. This can make a great family activity that even the least savvy members of your family can participate in and enjoy.
Increase Your Kitchen Storage
You can create a storage wall out of your kitchen wall to make yourself resourceful this winter. We always need a bit of extra space for our stuff in our kitchens especially when they start looking cluttered. Unlike the projects above, this one requires a bit more work, although it’s generally simple. This project entails covering your kitchen wall with a pegboard on which you can hang different utensils, like cutting boards, pans and pots. You can easily find an easy-to-install pegboard from your local store with different styles and colors.
To install it, all you need to do is drive ¾ inch screws through the pegboard to mount it on frame. Align the outer edges and space the wood screws at uniform intervals.
Clean the Ceiling Fans
The ceiling fan is one of those items in the house that we often neglect. It can spend an entire year gathering dust, as very few people ever think of cleaning it to maintain its function.
There are ways to clean the ceiling fan, and one of the easiest of them involves using a fan duster. All you need to do is run the duster over the blades and the motor housing, and then vacuum the floor when you’re done.
Trim and Prune Your Lawn
There’s no better season to prune the hedges, remove damaged branches and trim overgrown shrubs than winter. The hedges and shrubs usually leaf out quickly in spring and tree branches often fall victim to damaging ice storms. When untended, they can make your compound look untidy. This winter, you can improve the overall look of your lawn by removing damaged tree branches, trimming and pruning the hedges and shrubs and even cutting the perennial grass at the ground. To complete these tasks effectively, consider using a good hedge trimmer and a pruning saw among other tools.
When you’re done, avoid inviting mice, insects and other destructive pests by cleaning up the lawn. Get a good blower and clear the grass after mowing your lawn. Collect other pieces of debris and leaves accordingly, and remove snow from all the sensitive growing areas such as flower beds. To offer a bit more protection to your greenery during the cold season, mulch around the trees, shrubs and other plants to reduce water loss.
Insulate The Attic
According to the U.S Department of Energy, it’s important to seal all the places of your home to prevent air and heat loss during winter. You can get an insulation contractor to help you determine the amount of insulating material your home requires. Nonetheless, you can begin by sealing the holes where the plumbing and wires enter the attic. Next, go to the area where your chimney enters the attic before finding other areas that need insulating. For this project, you can use fiberglass because it is cheaper and easy to use.
