A home renovation will cost you money and a whole lot of focused energy to plan and execute. Follow these 5 rules for a stress free renovation to make sure you’re not losing your mind when the deliveries start showing up and the walls start coming down.
Set Up a Temp Kitchen
If your kitchen is going to be out of commission for more than a few days, avoid having Uber Eats and takeout food drill a hole in your wallet by setting up a temp kitchen. Find a space in your home where you can store a mini fridge and plug in your microwave for quick meals and food prep. Try to keep it as far from the construction zone as possible.
Keep Every Receipt
Admin work is nobody’s favourite thing to do, especially if it’s been neglected. During a bathroom or kitchen remodel, after a week of lazy accounting, you’ll be facing a mini-disaster getting back on top of your budget. Keep all of your receipts and immediately file them when you get them. Make sure you have a system in place for staying financially organized before you or your contractor starts drilling so filing is simple and easy. Consider an app or an online service like Mint or Smart Receipts to keep it paperless. Just take a picture of your receipt with your phone and instantly file it electronically with all details included. These apps and services do the math for you so they make budgeting much less stressful.
Get Incredibly Organized
Getting organized means strategizing your design, your deliveries, your timeframe, and your budget. The more organized you are before your renovation, the less chance there will be for error – and errors create major stress. Keep dedicated folders on your computer that outline your plan for each category and review and adjust them daily as your remodel commences. For the design aspect, open up a free Pinterest account and create a board of all of your creative ideas. Keep dedicated folders for each category with sub categories so that you’re never confused about your plan, and you can easily show or email your contractor whatever you need.
Make Sure Your Contract Is Detailed
To avoid unnecessary stress, make absolutely sure your contract is detailed, signed and understood before you start knocking down walls. A bad or loosely detailed contract can delay or even get your renovation canceled. Make sure your start and completion dates are outlined and make sure your terms, and your contractor’s terms, are outlined and understood as well.
Move Your Most Valuable Possessions Out Of the House
There is nothing worse than having something deeply important to you ruined by dust or broken during your renovation. Before the start date, inventory your home and make a plan to move your most valuable heirlooms, antiques, and important items to a friend or family member’s house, or even a heated storage unit. There’s no need for the added stress of hoping your valuables will survive your kitchen cabinet installation or bathroom renovation. Just move them out of the house and feel good about it.
Your home renovation is going to cost you time and energy whether or not you’re totally organized, but if you fail to stay on top of your plan, you can add major stress to the list of things you will have to manage. Dedicate and commit to the above rules to stay as stress free as possible during your next remodeling project.
