3 New Year’s Resolutions to Upgrade Your Home

When it’s time to declare your New Year’s resolutions for 2023, don’t forget how simple home updates can spark a revolution. We’re not talking about building an addition or tearing down what once was to make way for what will be.

Instead, focus on a few minor changes that can lead to big dividends. So, come with us as we explore how to enact impactful New Year’s resolutions for your home.

1. Improve Your Home’s Air Quality

Americans spend a lot of time indoors — sometimes up to 90 percent of our day is inside. Unfortunately, pollutants and contaminants are far more concentrated there than outside.

For those susceptible to respiratory illness or allergy attacks, poor indoor air quality can be torture. And long-term exposure to some indoor air pollutants can lead to further health issues, such as pneumonia, asthma, or even cancer.

That means one of the most effective New Year’s resolutions for your home will be improving its air quality.

Perhaps the simplest way to improve indoor air quality is by cleaning or replacing your HVAC’s air filters. Even more importantly, maintaining a consistent air filter replacement schedule can help keep your air clean.

Depending on the type of filter your system employs, you may need to conduct monthly replacements. However, other filters may only need replacement every three to six months.

Another easy way to improve your home’s air quality is with green. No, not money, but plants.

Specifically, snake plants. These plants can absorb indoor pollutants such as carbon dioxide, formaldehyde, and xylene.

Since snake plants are highly adaptable and capable of thriving in low-light environments, almost every home could benefit. 

If you want to take the next step in indoor air quality, consider cleaning your HVAC’s entire ductwork.

Dust, mold, and debris can build up inside these ducts. Then, when your A/C or heat switches on, these pollutants are blasted throughout your home.

Cleaning your vents can help remove these potentially harmful irritants and leave everyone in your home breathing fresh air once again.

2. Refresh Your Home Décor

Even if your interior design style incorporates timeless classics, there comes a time when a room begins to feel stale. A simple refresh can change the whole vibe of a space, and you can do it without an extensive ding to your pocketbook.

Before bingeing on new fixtures and flooring, take a moment to assess what exactly feels off about the room. If you’re having trouble putting a finger on what’s not working, knowing what’s going out of style can help you identify the culprit.

Maybe your all-white kitchen needs a touch of natural wood to add a farmhouse feel to the space. Conversely, perhaps that once heralded accent wall looks more like an eyesore than a complimentary design piece.

Again, you don’t have to tear everything down to its bare bones to start anew. Often the best New Year’s resolutions ideas are the ones that are the most practical and straightforward to carry out.

So, if you don’t want to swap out fixtures or shuffle through wallpaper designs, try a gallery wall. Art can spruce up any bare wall, and if you have a deep enough roster of hanging pieces, you can have infinite style options throughout your home.

If you’re starting your collection from close to nothing, take this opportunity to think about what you want to highlight. Family photos can warm up even the coldest feeling rooms, and an assortment of framed vacation pics can turn a staid wall into a conversation starter.

And if you’ve already spruced up your wall with photos or art, swap in new frames or repaint old ones. You can also rejuvenate lackluster frames with some sanding and painting.

3. Paint Yourself a Whole New Room

Some home New Year’s resolutions may take a little more effort, but the results will still outweigh any sweat equity put into the project.

Take painting, for instance. Yes, you’ll need some equipment and time to get the job done without looking like you paid a literal tornado to paint the room, but you’ll end up with a completely refreshed space for what ends up being not that much money and maybe a weekend’s worth of work.

With the right tools and tips, you can transform a space and make it feel like an entirely new room. In fact, changing the color of a room can positively affect your mood, sleep, and the taste of food.

That said, if you’re planning on re-painting your kitchen to give your cooking some extra oomph, you may be overthinking things. Instead, refresh the space with some of 2023’s trendiest paint colors.

A home office may feel less stressful and more sophisticated with a splash of calming vining ivy. Alizarin, a rich auburn hue, offers a natural, neutral look to those tired of dull grays and boring beiges.

Really, regardless of the mood you’re looking to evoke, there’s a paint color to match. Using what’s staying in the space as the start of your room’s new palette can also help narrow options when the sheer variety of colors seems overwhelming.

And while, ideally, you probably want the color of a room to remain for at least a few years, the beauty of paint is that it doesn’t take much effort to start over from square one and reinvent the space whenever you need. It’s a New Year’s resolution for your home that you can take on easily and repeatedly.

New Year’s Resolutions for your Home

They say that a new year means a new you. Well, the same can be said of your home, and there is a wide range of simple projects you can undertake that will lead to positively outsized results.

Whether you want to breathe easier or transform a space, you have plenty of options to start your New Year off right for you and your home.

For more interior design tips, info, and advice, check with AskWetAndForget.com throughout the New Year.