[AD] Property is expensive, isn’t it? The average cost per square foot of property in England in Wales sits at around £2,400 but that amount can vary hugely depending on where you live. In the South Valleys of Wales the average cost of property per square foot is £777, but in Chelsea and Kensington, it is nearly £19,500 pounds!
Regardless of the exact value of your home per square foot, the fact is that you have paid a lot for it and every month, you continue to pay a lot for it with bills and maintenance. You spend time in it washing and sleeping, cooking and making lovely memories.
With those facts in mind, it makes sense to make the most of your property, each and every square foot. With these easy-to-follow 7 tips, you can make the most of each and every square foot of your home:
1. Is Anywhere In Your Home Unsafe?
Exposed lighting wires, broken tiles and falling plaster could render some areas of your home unsafe. Prioritise those in your DIY plan to instantly regain those parts of your house for use.
2. Can You Get To Every Square Foot Of Your Home?
Is it possible for you to enjoy all areas of your home? Perhaps there are areas of the garden full of clutter that could be cleared to make room for a beautiful new patio? Or what about the spare room? Is it ever used? If you moved that bed out and cleared out the clutter, could you have a wonderful home office there instead? Take a walk around your home and look at it with fresh eyes, with the areas you may have previously ‘written off’ which could now be a goldmine for making even more of your beautiful home.
3. Do Areas With A Specific Use Work?
Does your kitchen offer you the kind of cooking experience that works well for your family? Does your bathroom enable you to bathe and get ready in the way that you would like? Is your wet room enjoyable to use?
Areas with a specific use need to work for you, especially as you probably spent additional money paying for them when you bought your house. These are the most valuable areas of square footage you own so it is important to ensure they are working for your family.
4. Could Your Spring Clean Go A Little Deeper?
According to statistics Britons spend nearly 500 hours cleaning every single year. With that in mind, maybe your spring clean could go a little deeper and you could freshen up parts of the property that you might spend more time in if they felt more clean and open.
Your dining room might seem more appealing than dinner on the sofa in front of the TV if you cleaned the windows, steam cleaned the floor tiles and got rid of that dust in the corner that seems to just stare at you whenever you walk in.
Your bathroom might be much more spa-like without all that mould and mildew around the tiles. It doesn’t have to be a professional clean, just a deeper version of your spring clean, which could freshen up your home enough to make it more usable and more enjoyable to live in.
5. Could You Utilise External Storage?
Maybe you do use your home incredibly well and yet you are still short on square footage to enjoy. If this is the case and you cannot upsize, maybe external storage is a good idea. It can be very reasonable and is like having a temporary room added to your home, you just don’t have instant access to it. It can be handy for seasonal items that really do just take up a lot of space in between uses, such as camping gear and Christmas decorations.
6. Is Your Home Comfortable?
Naturally, when we are at home we relax. So, if there are parts of your home that are not comfortable, you’re not going to be able to relax in them and they may become unused. One of the most common parts of the home to be unused is the conservatory. The conservatory is often an exciting home addition when first built, but then it never really gets used long-term.
That is because it is often decorated to ‘look nice’ but the design doesn’t go further than that, so it isn’t comfortable. It can be boiling hot or freezing cold, there may be no WiFi, the blinds might not be effective so you might get bright sunlight on you at certain times of the day, and your furniture could be uncomfortable because you chose it to look nice, not to necessarily feel nice. The best thing is, you can change all this very easily.
Here are some suggestions to help you make your conservatory more comfortable:
- Consider temperature regulation additions like underfloor heating, air conditioning or an innovative conservatory roof replacement like the type offered by Leka Systems.
- Shop for conservatory furniture you can lounge in, and really nestle down in
- Get WIFI set-up and any other tech that will draw you to that space
- Give the room a practical use in addition to relaxation such as making it suitable for yoga, or as a home office
- Decorate it in a colour or style that you love, regardless. According to statistics blue is the world’s favourite colour so perhaps a splash of aqua or royal blue could make your conservatory more usable?
7. Could You Have Less Stuff For More Clear Square Footage?
Sometimes we think we have the least possible stuff that we could have, and yet a little rethink about furniture, storage or other ‘things’ can be surprising. Take a look into Feng Shui, the Minimalists documentary on Netflix and the Marie Kondo series on Netflix for some chunky food for thought when it comes to considering what you really need. Queer Eye on Netflix is also really good for general entertainment, but also for tips on transforming your space and getting rid of things you don’t need.
The question of what you want to own is actually the question of how you want to live your life. ― Marie Kondō, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing
There are lots of reasons to rethink every square foot of your property to make the most of its cost, and its potential for use. It might take a bit of time, energy and in some cases, investment, but the result will be a home with much more value to your family, with plenty of practical use and the potential to make endless beautiful memories in the place you love the most.
(Disclosure: Paid collaborative post)
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