Spring Cleaning Tips to Decluttering

Decluttering continues to be a buzzword, but the idea is nothing new. Heard the phrase, “a place for everything, and everything in its place”? Some attribute the quote to founding father Benjamin Franklin.

Here are six organizational tips to help put everything in its place:

1. Add shelves to your garage. Get tools, boxes and holiday decorations off the floor by installing shelves in your garage.

2. De-junk the junk drawer. Every house has (at least) one. Start fresh by dumping it out, and relocate as much as you can, preferably to the trash. Sort what’s left into an organizer tray.

3. Simplify cooking. Reorganizing your kitchen can make whipping up dinner a breeze. Customized cabinets are the quickest shortcut to organization, but you can start by storing items closest to where they’re used.

4. Go vertical. Built-in bookcases and dining room storage are all the rage, and better yet, they’ll add resale value to your home.

5. Make a mudroom. You don’t need to build an entire room, but creating a landing location for coats, shoes and bags by your home’s most-used exit limits clutter to one corner.

6. Update the vanities. Today’s bathroom vanity cabinets offer better thought-out storage than ever before. Swapping them out can be easier than you’d think.

3 Improvements for the Best ROI

Before you tackle a home improvement project, be sure it’s adding value to your home. Here are three updates that may give your home value a measurable boost:

1. Insulate your attic. Energy efficiency remains a top draw for buyers, and blow-in fiberglass insulation is an inexpensive way to make your home warmer in the winters and cooler in the summers.

2. Replace your garage door. New garage doors come equipped with better insulation and higher-strength steel, making for fewer dings and dents.

3. Upgrade your front door. Steel entry doors offer enhanced security and eliminate the hassle of flaking paint jobs down the road.

How Owning a Home Benefits You

You probably know that owning your own home can benefit you financially, but home ownership comes with a surprising number of health, wealth and social perks too. Check out these five ways home ownership could be making your life even better:

1. Homeowners report better psychological and physical health than non-owners.

2. Homeowners are far less likely to become crime victims than non-owners.

3. Homeowners are more likely to live in neighborhoods with more opportunities for school involvement or participation in neighborhood activities.

4. The average homeowner’s net worth is 35 times that of the average renter.

5. Homeowners bring stability to neighborhoods. They move far less frequently than non-owners, and hence are embedded into the neighborhood and community for a longer period.

Source: National Association of REALTORS®