Here are 10 small project ideas that can each be easily accomplished in a week while still having plenty of warm weather vacation time to enjoy.
1.) Paint one room in your home. Bring warmth to your living room, add a spa feel to your bathroom, or create a dining room ready for guests, all with the efforts of a smooth paint roller and a steady hand around the edges.
2.) Shuffle your wall art. Taking down the things hanging on your walls and reordering them to all hang in different applicable places can renew their visual interest without spending one red cent. Just get a little spackle and touch-up paint ready for unused nail holes.
3.) Rearrange your furniture. Bet you could have guessed this was coming next. Moving the big pieces around, too, can be a breath of fresh air for spring right indoors. Get some placement ideas from online images and reposition your couch, chairs, tables, and beds for a new feel and a new look without a new buy.
4.) Arrange new centerpieces on your dining table and buffet. Use simple pieces that can stick around right up until it is time to pull out your fall decorations again. Think glass, grass, sand, shells, rocks, candles, bright fabrics, and other spring and summer elements that make your list of favorites.
5.) Prep the closets for higher temperatures. As the flip flops make a comeback, get the whole family on board with arranging closets and dresser drawers to just move or remove the winter pieces and bring the shorts and t-shirts front and center. It is a great time to gather unworn or outgrown winter clothes and donate them. If those cords didn’t see one day of jacket weather this season, they probably won’t next year either. Let them go, and make room for things that will get plenty of use.
6.) Shop for shoes. As the winter boots get stored away, take advantage of early spring sales to replenish your footwear wardrobe. For kids moving up a size, tackle the size-and-select job when they are out of school and ready to show some toes again.
7.) Clean out your products. Sort through the bathroom drawers and cabinets and throw out medicines, makeup, and other personal care products that are past their prime, haven’t been used in a long time, or have changed in color or consistency. Replenish your supply with new bottles of sunscreen, aloe for sunburns, any makeup that needs updating, lotions or creams, and medicines to treat the basics of a cold or allergies.
8.) Stock up on household basics. Now is a good time to make that run to the store and purchase essentials like paper towels, toilet paper, tissues, detergent, etc., and replenish your cabinets for the season ahead.
9.) Tackle the dirt at entry points. Replace or really give the floor mats a good beating that sit at your front and back doors, inside and out. The more stuff clinging to shoes that you can stop from ever crossing the threshold, the less cleaning up you have to do this spring.
10.) Swap accessories. Whether you get together with friends for an exchange or just reorder your accessory drawers and shelves, put away the scarves and pull out the colorful necklaces and purses to get set for a bright Valley season ahead.
DesignInMind column; appeared in the Valley Morning Star March 13th.
