With the transition from summer to the beginning of a new school year (and maybe some back-to-work blues), August can feel like a sudden downshift. Stretch out these last days of summer by squeezing in a few more home projects, savoring simple pleasures and, when the time comes, preparing the house for fall.
These six Home Maintenance To-Do’s can be done over a weekend.
1. Organize family photos. Have photos from the year’s special moments? Take this opportunity to sort and organize them — back up digital photos with cloud-based storage, and make an album or a book of recent photos. If you would like to display some of your photos but are finding it difficult to choose, put them in a big collage instead or hang them from clothespins or bulldog clips on a wire.
2. Clean carpets and floors. Sand and garden dirt tracked in over the summer can really take a toll on floors. Vacuum and mop floors, and have area rugs and carpeting professionally cleaned if needed.
3. Get organized for back to school (and work). Consider what would make this fall run more smoothly for your family: a few extra hooks in the entryway to handle coats and bags? A better workspace or study area? If papers are a constant problem, take the time now to set up a simple filing system and an inbox for each family member.
4. Check emergency kits. Emergency supplies don’t last forever. Open up your kit and check expiration dates on food and any medications; replace as needed. Don’t have an emergency kit yet? Make this the month you create one.
5. Organize closets. Before making any new purchases, spend some time assessing what you already have in the closet: Try on clothing, fold and hang up any clothes on the floor, get rid of items you don’t wear and make a list of what you need. Doing this before shopping can help save money and prevent cluttering up your closet.
6. Schedule some relaxation time. It can be surprisingly hard to relax and simply do nothing, even when you do have free time. The key is not calling it “free time” at all: By planning to do nothing, you are actually giving yourself permission to fully relax.
So what do you do during do-nothing time? Make time to find out.
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Photo Credit: soft_light / Shutterstock.com