A good rule of thumb is nothing is ever so good that it can’t be improved.
With more of us spending more time at home than we have in recent memory, optimizing our homes to get the most mileage out of every room is of the utmost importance. Whether we go into quarantine again or not, the pandemic has effectively shifted our culture towards being able to do most things from home. And steps that companies and real estate agents are taking in the present seem to suggest that this trend isn’t going away any time soon. The home is now the center of recreation, a workplace (for most), and a living space all at once. And many of our homes were not designed with that arrangement in mind.
As such, we owe it to ourselves to audit how our homes are serving us, taking a hard look at areas that might be able to serve us better with a little investment. The below list will touch on upgrades that you can make to different areas of your home.
Let’s get started.
The Living Room: The Heart of the Home
One of the best places to start is to take a look at your living room, to evaluate how and how much you’ve been using it; If your living room is a well-lived-in community center, great, but if it looks like a staged room that nobody ever touches, it might be time for some changes.
One of the best places to start is with custom-made furniture. The folks over at the Amish Craftsman build furniture pieces made in America with durable materials. To accommodate your family and get more use out of your living room, you need couches that are spacious, durable, and comfortable. They create quality one-of-a-kind pieces built to your specifications.
You can also take a look at the general décor of your living room, changing out the drapes, carpeting the floors, and adding elements like fleece blankets and throw pillows to really make it your own. You can also take a look at converting your living room to an open-concept layout if you find that you feel claustrophobic while lounging on the couch. Open-concept layouts are getting more popular among consumers for a good reason, expanding the amount of space available and making customers feel more comfortable in their own homes.
The Kitchen: Dinner is Served
Being the center of all meal prep in the home and an area that needs to have a certain amount of utility to be satisfactory, the kitchen should be your next stop. The first thing you should check is your appliances. Are they working the way they should be, and do you have enough room to store all of them in easily accessible spaces? While there are hacks that can help you get more use out of appliances like microwaves, you may want to invest in new ones if they’re too far gone to be of much use.
As far as space goes, you can expand the available space in your kitchen by adding a feature like an island, a combination countertop, and a shelving unit in the middle of your kitchen that gives you more room to work while prepping meals and more space to store tools below. You can also consider changing out the material of the countertops you have, as certain materials are liable to stain easier or even crack; granite or a cork substitute are great places to start.
The Bedroom: Resting Easy
Finally, there’s the bedroom. Your bedroom should be a comfortable, cozy place for you to relax, separating yourself from the rigors of daily life (even more so than your living room).
As such, if you’re having trouble falling asleep in your room, you may want to consider investing in measures like a memory foam mattress or a new bed frame. The issue may be one of proper support, and both of the above measures will address that in different ways, depending on budget and personal preference.
You may also want to consider removing any objects in your bedroom that you would associate with daily stressors; If your bedroom also works as a combination office, move that office anywhere else. You don’t want to be thinking about work while trying to sleep.
Your home should feel like it’s completely yours, a wholly unique domain that’s closed off to the rest of the world, built and customized to serve your needs. Feel free to try any of the suggestions listed above, as well as experiment on your own; Your comfort is the only priority.
