Freshen Up Your Home For Summer

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Are the kids driving you nuts yet? Ready for school to start back already? Why not give them a project to do? Summer is here – so how about freshening up your home a little to reflect summer’s bright and sunny days.  Let’s look at a few simple ways that you can freshen your home and get organized for summer.

Quick Ways To Freshen Your Home For Summer

There are some easy, fast, and inexpensive ways to freshen up your home for the summer months.  The Relax Nation gives us a lot of great tips.  Here are a few.  Let’s start at your front door.

Change Your Worn Out Welcome Mat – Summer is great for having people over and enjoying long days and warm evenings with friends and family.  But, your welcome mat may not be too welcoming.  Take a look at it.  If it says, “Go away” more than, “Come on in,” then it may be time to replace it.

Place fragrant flowers near the entrance to your home or in windows.  Not only will the flowers be beautiful, but their fragrance will give your whole home a nice fresh smell.

Use crisp clean white to display a feeling of summer freshness.  Nothing really says “clean” like the color white.  Swap out your darker linens for this lighter color.  Change your accessories such as candles, picture frames, and lampshades to a bright white.

Use a bright pop of color to really bring out the happiness of summer.  After white, bright pops of color truly say that summer is here.  Consider some bright reds, yellows, purples, and turquoise to brighten your rooms.  Pick your favorite bright color and then use that color in small amounts throughout the room (throw pillows, candles, etc.)  This will make your entire home feel like summer!

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Clear The Clutter

If you are like most of us, you probably feel like you’re drowning in clutter.  Summer is a wonderful time to get some of that clutter cleaned up and organized.  Why summer?  Many of us have some extra pairs of hands at home (and, by now they are usually saying, “I’m bored.”)  So, get them involved!

Declutter Your Refrigerator in 5 Minutes – Take a look at your family’s favorite big kitchen appliance.  Can you still see it or has little Tommy and Sally’s artwork taken over?  While I know you cherish their art, maybe it’s time that you displayed it somewhere else.  A great idea is a frame in which they can pick which art they would like to display.  Keep the other favorites behind the displayed piece.  Then, every week or so, simply swap it for the next one in the collection’s rotation.

I have even seen some families put magnets on their frames.  This way one very important piece will be prominently displayed on your home’s “place of honor” while leaving the rest of the refrigerator neat and tidy.

Organize Those Toys – While the kids are home, now is a great time to organize their toys.  Let them help you go through and get rid of those they have outgrown.  I suggest four clearly labeled piles in the middle of the room:

1.  Things to Keep

2.  Things to Donate

3.  Things to Sell

4.  Trash

After you and your kids have gone through all of their stuff and walked down memory lane, you should have everything in one of those four piles.  Now, here comes the really easy part.  Bag up the trash, box up the things to sell and take them to a re-sell shop, and box up the things to donate and take them to your local center (and I highly suggest taking your kids with you so they can feel the joy it brings to help others).

Wow!  Look at that.  Now you only need to organize and put away those items in the keep pile.  How refreshing is that?  That’s a wonderful summertime project for you and your kids.  It will help you, your kids, and your home be more organized and ready to do all the fun summer activities…like swim, have a picnic, go bowling, etc.  The sky is the limit.  Enjoy!

photo credit: that kind of day via photopin (license)