12 Great NewYear's Resolutions for Your Home

Resolutions to Improve Your Humble Abode

Relationship Advice Expert April Masini

Advice Seeker: Dear April Masini,

I just bought my first house and I am very excited to put my own touches on it. My New Year's Resolution is to make my house --currently a little bit rundown and in need of some TLC-- a home that I would be proud to invite my friends into. I've always lived in apartments, though, so I'm not sure where to start. Any suggestions?

Signed,

New Homeowner

April Masini's advice:

Dear New Homeowner,

We all make resolutions for ourselves — lose weight, spend more time with family, grow our hair longer, wear it shorter. However, few make resolutions for our biggest asset — our home. Here are 12 great ideas — one per month — for what you can do this coming year to maintain your home, make it a nicer place to live, and an easier place to sell in the tighter market.

12 Great New Year’s Resolutions For Your Home

1. Clean out the closets — all of them! Give what you don’t use to a charity. There are plenty of them. If you can’t find one, call The Red Cross and ask where you can donate.

2. Make sure your hot water heater, water filter (if you have one), heating vents, and other non-noticeable parts of your home are working properly.

3. Roof maintenance. This is a preventative measure that is worth value in your home.

4. Clean your chimney. Yes, there are such things as chimney sweeps.

5. Clean the windows — or have them professionally cleaned.

6. Do your tree-trimming and finish the landscaping you wanted to do.

7. Clean out the garage. Have a garage sale with everything you don’t need any more in the house.

8. Book sweep. Go through your bookshelves and make a box of all the books you are not going to read again, and donate them to your library or sell them to a used book store. Use the money you make to buy new books you want to read.

9. Light bulb patrol. Replace burned out bulbs (inside and out), and try to use fluorescent bulbs that save energy where possible. If you live in a place that is dark outside, and possibly unsafe (either because of dangerous steps and walkways or crime), add some outdoor lights.

10. Have an open house. Invite your friends and neighbors to an open house — cook or have it pot luck. Make sure you invite all those people you’ve meant to call, but haven’t gotten around to in the last year.

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April Masini -- nicknamed "the new millennium's Dear Abby" by the media, is author of the best-selling books Date Out Of Your League and Think & Date Like A Man, the two (just released) step-by-step dating and relationship manuals, Ideas for a Fun Date and Romantic Date Ideas, and the critically acclaimed dating and relationship online magazine www.AskApril.com.