The Perfect New Year Gift For Your Home

The New Year in Nigeria always comes with loads of excitement, anticipation and optimism. It is that time of the year when you find people reeling out New Year resolutions to sleep less, to quit alcohol, to exercise more, to stop smoking, to pursue their dreams, develop home goals and so much more.

Many of these New Year resolutions often revolve around lifestyle, career and other personal ambitions and then we thought, wouldn’t it be nice to have New Year resolutions for your home. You know, resolutions and home goals that transform your home into one you have always wanted or even better as you step into the new year.

Below is a list of 5 New Year resolutions to take you closer to home goals that transform your house into one you always imagined but never had the time to follow through on:

Develop a cleaning schedule and stick to it

You should start this off by coming up with a daily and weekly schedule and what is even more important is that you stick to this schedule.

For the daily schedule, you should strive to ensure that the dishes are done every night. For your dirty laundry, put them all in the laundry basket or hamper. For your clean clothes, hang or arrange them all in the wardrobe.

In essence, ensure everything is put in the space assigned to it. Don’t fall into the trap of procrastinating doing those simple things that are on your cleaning schedule.

For the weekly schedule, ensure you clean the entire house. Gather all the cleaning cloths, gloves and cleaning items in a portable bag and carry it with you as you clean the kitchen, toilet, bathroom, living room, bedroom and every other room in the house.

You should also strive not to work on different types of cleaning at the same time. instead, concentrate on a specific type of cleaning at a time. This helps you save time. For instance, if you are going to spray and wipe all counters first, then you should do that before moving getting all the cabinets wiped.

Later on, you can proceed to the windows, mirrors and appliances. You could then have the task of sweeping and mopping the tiles as the final task. If you have rugs instead of tiles, then get your vacuum cleaner ready.

If you live with members of the family, then the task of adhering to your cleaning schedule gets easier and faster as you have more hands to get the job done.

One person can take up the vacuuming, sweeping and mopping as the case may be. Another person wipes all cabinets as well as the bathroom and toilet while you have one person clean the kitchen and empty the trash.

Do you know that you can get the entire house clean in one hour if well planned and execute? This leaves you with more time to relax, go to the cinema, the beach or even a party.

Reduce energy consumption

Like humans, homes also consume energy. While we consume food, homes consume energy. The lesser the energy your home consumes, the better.

You can start by taking out all the incandescent light bulbs (that produces light by heating a filament wire to a high temperature until it glows) in the house with a CFL bulb (which contains a mixture of argon and mercury gases that produce invisible ultraviolet light when the gas is stimulated by electricity) or an LED bulb (that contains electrons that recombine with electron openings, releasing energy in the form of photons and illuminating the bulb.

For those who do not know, one incandescent light bulb lasts 1,200 hours. A CFL bulb lasts 10,000 hours while an LED bulb lasts 25,000 hours.

Still, on reducing energy consumption, this should be the year when you have a resolution that ensures you switch off bulbs in the house when you are not using them.

Also remember to turn off the taps when they are not in use. All these help you reduce your bills eventually and help prolong the lifespan of your appliances and gadgets.

Keep polluted air out of your home

Do you know that extended exposure to contaminated air can eventually lead to health complications like heart diseases, cancer of the lung as well as other respiratory diseases?

With this knowledge, one New Year’s resolution gift you can give to your house is ensuring that contaminated air stays out of your home.

For people who have a preference for keeping their doors and windows closed all the time, this is dangerous. The new year, strive to have more ventilation in your bathrooms and kitchen to have an outlet for surplus humidity, smoke and cooking fumes.

Make your home safer

Make sure you check that all doors and windows are locked every night before you go to bed. This is a really important step in keeping your home safe and secure.

You can take it a step further this new year by buying inexpensive security gadgets like alarms for the doors and windows.

If, before now, you preferred leaving your window open, this new year, you should consider obscuring the view with curtains.

It wouldn’t be a bad idea to plan to burgle your own home. That way, you would spot and fix any weakness you notice in your home.

If you plan to leave your home in the care of someone who has been hired to clean your home, you might want to double check on all references. This helps you check out if the person is honest or has a good reputation. Don’t take anything for granted.

Always lock your house even if you are stepping out for a very short time. You never can tell who has been watching and monitoring you.

Strive to make your home appear occupied at all time. Burglars are often reluctant to invade homes with human presence. To achieve this, consider using timers on your light switches or radios that have this functionality.

Don’t make your departure and arrival from your home predictable. Try to later the time you leave your house and when you arrive. The harder it is to predict your movement, the harder it becomes for a burglar to be successful in your home.

If the door of your home has its hinges on the outside, consider taking down this door and having the hinges on the inside. This is safer because when you leave the hinges on the outside, a thief would find it easier to take out the pin of the hinge.

You can make your home more secure by installing a deadbolt lock on all doors with exterior access. A deadbolt or deadlock is a locking mechanism that cannot be moved to the open position except by rotating the lock cylinder with the key.

If you move into a new home, it is better and safer to change all the locks.

Get a pet

Pets are amazing companions to have in the home. There is a wide variety of animals you can choose from including a cat, monkey, rabbit, fish or a dog. For dogs, in addition to having a big playful pet around in the home, its heightened knack for sensing danger comes in handy when you are not at home or when you are asleep.

Interestingly, when you have a pet, you will find yourself exercising more. Pets especially dogs are naturally playful in nature. Consider taking the dog out for walks.

They also help you avoid depression because of the company they provide. A pet could be the best resolution for your house in this new year in Nigeria.

Final thoughts…

The New Year in Nigeria is the best time to get the perfect start for your home. Remember that it’s not enough to have personal New year resolutions for yourself. Give your home a treat with the five suggestions we have shared with you.

Which of these resolutions would be the easiest for you to execute?