Most people think of home improvement as making minor or major renovations that enhance the look of a home, such as updating a kitchen, painting the front door, or building an extra bathroom. However, you can do much more than that when it comes to home improvement; you can promote your mental health and well-being, and you don’t even have to spend a ton of cash doing it. From sprucing up your backyard to repurposing an unused room, here are some budget-friendly home makeover tips to boost your health and happiness.
Keep Your Home’s Value in Mind
Before you begin tossing money at different projects, pay attention to which of these improvements will maximize your property’s potential. This is especially important for people who plan to sell their homes in the near future. Thankfully, there are resources available online that can help you determine which projects can increase the value of your home; that way, you can avoid the ones that will potentially decrease its market value.
Tend to Your Backyard
Your home should be a comfortable safe haven where you can retreat amid a hectic and unpredictable life. This not only includes the interior of your home but the outside as well. Putting a little work into your backyard can provide you with a nice space to de-stress and relax in nature. For example, you could build a fire pit for the evenings, and doing it yourself would only require a little time and the cost of materials.
You could also start a garden with drought-tolerant plants and maintain it through low-water landscaping, which uses irrigation to conserve water. There are endless options when it comes to transforming your backyard into a peaceful escape from the world. Plus, working with soil is shown to de-stress by increasing serotonin levels as a result of microbes in the soil!
Add Plants to the Inside of Your Home
It’s known that being surrounded by nature can boost mood and reduce cortisol, which is also known as the stress hormone. Along with turning your backyard into a relaxing space, why not bring some nature into your home? There are tons of inexpensive house plants that can make your home more attractive as well as reduce air pollution and raise oxygen levels. Spider plants, chrysanthemums, and dracaenas are a few examples that are easy to maintain. Just ensure anything toxic is out of access to pets and children.
Keep Your Air Clean
Speaking of reducing air pollution, there are other ways you can purify the air in your home and keep it clean on a daily basis. For instance, adding an air purifier can help to remove airborne pollutants and allergens.
Another way to reduce allergens in your home is to replace your carpet with hard flooring. Laminate and linoleum are a more cost-effective option than hardwood flooring, but having your carpet removed and installing new floors can be expensive no matter what flooring you put in.
If you can’t budget for new floors, try to vacuum your carpet each week and shampoo it frequently. Moreover, be sure to dust throughout your home and replace your air filters regularly, as this can go a long way in keeping the air in your home clean.
Make the Most of That Unused Room
Finally, if you have an extra bedroom, storage room, or closet that isn’t being used, consider converting it into your relaxation zone. You could build a nice little reading nook where you can enjoy your morning newspaper and coffee and kick back with a novel in the evening. You could put a futon in there for naps and/or set your yoga mat out for practicing poses and meditating. Cost-effective improvements like painting the walls and adding a few wall decorations and curtains might be all you need to create a peaceful atmosphere in your new space.
Little changes in your home can make a big difference when it comes to improving your health and well-being. Consider creating a backyard space where you can wind down and escape from the hustle-and-bustle of everyday life. Invest in a few house plants, get an air purifier, replace/clean your carpet, replace your air filters, and dust your home regularly to maintain clean air. Lastly, if you have an unused room, turn it into your own little oasis.
By Sheila Olson