Little Things, Big Impact

Now that I've decided to give myself a few days off from staging/home improvements, I thought I'd gather a list of a few things I've done and saw a major difference. It's quick, painless and I think "WOW, I should have done that a year ago!"

  • Retouch paint -- on walls and trim. I found a half-full can of yellow paint (called Mellow Yellow) in the basement and went over some frame nicks and nail holes in the dining room. I've also taken some white trim paint and fixed up areas where the turquoise trim is starting to show through again. I'm haunted by the turquoise! 
  • Old English on the cabinets in the kitchen -- a little rubbing of that magic goo on the wood and my old cabinets are simply glowing! 
  • Wash the windows -- huge difference. YES, I've washed my windows many times but I always forget the impact it has on the room. 
  • Remove extraneous furniture and fixtures -- "we all live like this" as my realtor says but once you peel back a layer of stuff, the room seems 10-times bigger. Unfortunately, this has the opposite effect of my basement, where everything is going. 
  • Garbage Collection -- you have more trash laying around the house than you think. I've done dozens of trips through the house tossing things. I think: "Is this something I want to see when I unpack in my shiny new house or will I just store it away again?" Trash becomes obvious under this scrutiny. 
Clearly, I'm a genius and no one has thought of these ideas before. 

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