Home Projects Room by Room

Do you have a million ideas swirling around your head at any given time?  Do you tell yourself you'll remember that thing you need to do, but then forget before the day is even over?  Do you see that same little imperfection or incomplete project every time you walk into the room but never seem to find the time to get it taken care of?  If you answered yes to even one of these questions, I'm here with a simple idea to help!

​Track your home projects room by room.  It's so simple it's hard to believe it would work, but just give it a try. 

• Decide on Paper or Digital

The first step is to determine how you prefer to track your home projects.  If you are a paper person, you can have fun selecting a binder or notebook, dividers, and a nice pen or pencil.  But if you prefer digital, you can use a tool like Evernote to easily get organized with a new digital notebook and notes.  The benefit of a digital version is that it can be accessed on your phone and is more portable.

• Define your areas

Make a quick list of all the rooms or areas in your home.  Make sure to include garage, barn, deck, yard, basement, etc. Now, create a section in your notebook for each area.  You may want to group some together if it makes sense.  For example, I combined deck and yard into one section.  

If you go the Evernote route like I did, create a notebook titled Home Projects and then create a note for each room/area.  Insert a checklist so that when you are done, you can simply click to check the item off!

• Do a walk through, and write it all down

With your new notebook, take a walk through your home, and take a good look around each space.  Make a checklist of all the things you want to do in each room's notebook section.   Include little items like "replace the light bulb above the kitchen sink" or "get a new air freshener" to bigger projects like "clean out the refrigerator" or "wash the baseboards."  You can include ideas or daydreams, too, like "get new carpet in the living room" or "rearrange the bedroom furniture."    You should indicate if something is a  "now" project or a "future" project.  If you're using paper, you could highlight or star the future projects.  If you're using digital, you could change the font color or put an * in front of them.

Once you have all of the to do's out of your head and into your notebook, you will waste less of your time trying to remember what you wanted to do and can spend more time getting things done!  (Getting things out of your head is great for more than just home projects - read a Brain Dump How -To for more info!)

• Start a shopping list/wish list

This is where you are going to record what you need (or want) to purchase.  If it's as easy as a light bulb, you likely aren't going to have to do much research or shopping around, but if it's a new light fixture or paint color, you may want to keep track of some websites, photos, or paint swatches.  This is why I like digital - because it's easy to insert a link or a photo.  I prefer to keep my shopping list in the section for each room, but if you'd rather, you could make one master shopping list.

• Add to your lists

Now when you are in your bedroom and notice a scuff on the wall that you think would probably come off pretty easily with magic eraser, just add it to your bedroom list!  In the past you would have noticed it and thought to yourself that you should probably write that down somewhere, but when you left the room, you likely forgot and then never got around to it!

• Designate a time to work on home projects weekly

The hardest step is making time to actually DO the projects.  As you will notice, many of them are so small they will only take a couple of minutes, so if you find yourself with a few minutes to spare before it's time to go pick up the kids or you have a unexpected burst of energy before bed, you'll be amazed how many little items you can check off in a short time!  To make steady progress on your list - especially if it includes some larger projects - you should set aside time weekly to work on the tasks.   I'm a big fan of timing myself so that I feel that sense of urgency to get things done.  Don't forget to get your family involved, too!

• Check things off!

​​Make sure to give yourself credit for all that you get done, and check items off of your lists!  At some point you may want to edit your lists to remove some of the completed items.  If you use paper, you can simply rewrite, and if you use digital, you can delete or reorder items on your lists.

This time next week will be a brand new year, so this is a great time to gather up all of the tasks and projects you want to get done around the house so you can be productive in 2021!

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Sources
Photo by Roselyn Tirado on Unsplash