If you have some electrical experience, or know someone who does, changing out your electrical outlets is a good start. Nothing says 'worn out' like an outlet that doesn't hold your vacuum's plug. It's actually quite easy, and if you know how to turn off your breakers (as everyone should) and turn a screw driver, it only takes about 2 minutes an outlet. There are a lot of different choices, most regular outlets are under $5. A GFCI outlet can be as cheap as $12. Those go in the bathrooms, kitchen, and for the clothes dryer (if it uses a regular plug.)
Along the same lines are light switches. A worn out light switch feels sloppy and loose. Flicking that new tight-feeling switch seems kind of satisfying to me. Figure $5 or less for each of those too.
Shower heads and faucets can be pretty cheap. Shower heads are the cheapest, between $15 and $30. Super easy to install and can make the difference between a satisfying shower experience or not. Faucets are more expensive and probably have less impact on 'feel', but if there were a place I would splurge, it would be the kitchen faucet.
A new one I've recently discovered are drawer slides. A broken drawer slide lets the drawer fall down when it's opened. Replacements for the plastic 'c-clip' style are only $1.50 for 2. You can replace those with a single metal roller style, which feel even nicer. Those run between $12 and $20. (If you have the 'c-clip' style, it's probably more work than it's worth to put in double metal rollers.)
Door knobs are a little pricier, but even a cheap new knob feels more solid in your hand than a cheap old one. The price range for new knobs is very wide. Less than $10 to more than $100 each. Even without replacing old knobs, you can still do some work to make the old ones feel better. Re-aligning the strike plates so the door isn't loose when it's closed can make a difference.
Probably the most expensive on my list are entire doors. An interior pre-hung door runs about $50, but I've encountered quite a few warped interior doors in the places I've lived. They don't close right and swing when you don't want them to. They're more work to install and require some patience, so get some help if you're not comfortable. An incorrectly installed new door can be worse than a broken old door.
So those are my handy-dandy tips. There are more things to do, like replacing filters, garbage disposal splash guards, and shower curtains, but those are mostly for sanitary purposes.
Do you have any suggestions of you own?
One of the things I did was replace some ceiling light fixtures with fans. That gives me more days out f the year when I can skip using the heater/AC. I had never done wiring before, but it was pretty straight-forward, if time-consuming.
ReplyDeleteWhat great, yet pretty simple ideas! I know it probably makes me sound a bit stupid, but honestly, those are mostly things that wouldn't occur to me. Yet now that I see them it makes so much sense.
ReplyDeleteAnd if you have a place around such as Habitat ReStore you can get things even cheaper! Though I must say, changing electrical outlets is a little trickier because the old outlets don't usually have a ground wire (right?) so is it really safe to simply change to a newer outlet? Another thing is shelf/drawer liner. Sometimes both can be nasty/rough and putting some new liner on/in makes a big difference. Also painting one wall a different color, though as with electrical stuff, you have the expense of buying the stuff to do it. Will try to think of more.
ReplyDeleteThose are great tips. A fresh coat of interior paint doesn't hurt, and you can have a lot of fun by changing the color from drab off white to bright sangria red.
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