5 Easy Home Improvements for When You’re Stuck at Home

The call to service is simple: stay home, and help Western North Carolina flatten the COVID-19 curve. But in a society where we’re on the go so much, spending time at home and social distancing can come with its own psychological challenges. The answer? Finding things to do to fill the time, and renew your sense of daily purpose while you wait the virus out. 

Here are five easy home improvements to knock out when you’re stuck at home.

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Caulk your Bathtub and Shower

Caulking your bath area gives it an instant facelift. Replacing dingy or cracked caulking with a fresh application can also prevent water from getting into the space between the wall and the tub and getting moldy. It’s a quick fix, and you don’t even have to run to the hardware store. Caulk is cheap and easy to find online and can be delivered to your doorstep.

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Paint it Neutral

Now that the temperatures are a little warmer in Western North Carolina, it’s a good time to throw open the windows and repaint the interior of your home—especially if you’re looking to sell anytime soon. But before you paint the kitchen a sunny yellow, or cover the dining room in a spicy red, research shows that buyers prefer neutral. So, take advantage of this time to paint your walls gray, beige, or cream—and give your home a little boost to boot.

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Green Thumbs Up

Spring showers in Western North Carolina bring flowers all season long, especially if you plant a rain garden. The Asheville metro area gets about 45 inches of rain a year, well above the national average. You can take advantage of all that precipitation by planting water-tolerant flowers in your rain garden. That swamp hibiscus and Virginia sweetspire will be blooming in no time. And since the plants are native to North Carolina, they’ll be working with, and not against, Mother Nature.

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Yard TLC

This is the perfect time of year to give some TLC to the cool-season grasses common in the mountain areas. According to the NC State Extension, the grasses typical in Western North Carolina do best with overseeding in the early spring, if you didn’t do it last fall. But avoid fertilizing it until the fall, because it could end up giving brown patches a stronghold in your lawn.

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Clean Your Gutters

It’s time to get your mind and hands in the gutter—literally! You may think of it as a fall chore, but spring is also a time to get up on a ladder and remove any dead leaves, twigs, or debris that fell in your gutter over the winter. While you’re at it, eyeball the condition of the gutters themselves, and look over your roof as well. You might catch a small problem that’s a quick fix for a contractor. It will save you the money of having to replace the gutters or roof later. 

These five easy home improvement projects are sure to give you a sense of accomplishment while you’re stuck at home. They will make your home look and function better—making your home a better place to shelter in place.

This is an unpaid guest post from LawnStarter.com. Author Yianni Demetrios grew up in a home built from Sears-Roebuck house plans and found his calling as a do-it-yourselfer. He’s working his way up to building his own house from a kit.