By Kevin Gillies
Contributor
When a year ends and a new one arrives, plans, promises and resolutions proliferate because this is that time of year when we look at what we’ve been doing and consider what we could or should do, going forward.
They tend to focus on personal health — resolutions to start working out, quit smoking or starting a new diet rank among the most popular resolutions annually.
But it’s a worthwhile endeavour to consider these resolutions for our homes, too.
So, while we’re fresh in the new year, it’s worth making plans to improve things around our homes in 2016, and we’ll try to do so without using the ‘R’ word.
In an effort to increase probability of success, it’s important to find household improvements that aren’t so challenging or ambitious that they either never begin or that they cause you to quit before they’re completed.
It’s just as important that your plans don’t set standards so low that they become meaningless and therefore don’t garner much attention.
So without further ado, here’s five easy resolutions for 2016 that will make your home more pleasant and healthier.
• Install a programmable thermostat. By simply installing a programmable thermostat, a homeowner can cut his or her home’s heating and cooling costs by approximately $180 this year alone.
This is one of the main ways to reduce your energy use, shrink your carbon footprint and save a few sheckles on annual home-operating costs.
• Reduce air leaks. Air leakage — outside air entering and conditioned air leaving your house uncontrollably through cracks and openings — can result in poor indoor air quality, cause higher energy costs and contributes to moisture problems.
Sealing cracks and openings by using weather-stripping around doors and windows, filling holes in the wall, and/or trading lightweight sheers for heavier winter-friendly draperies reduces drafts and cold spots, improves comfort levels and reduces your energy usage.
Don’t forget to change your furnace air filter if you haven’t already done so. This improves a home’s air quality and makes your furnace more efficient.
• Repaint at least one room in the house. Changing the wall colour in one room is an easy and inexpensive way to update your home and signify fresh beginnings. A quality paint job is one of the least expensive ways to renew your home and give the home dweller a sense of accomplishment.
With the appropriate interior paint, and some fresh design concepts, a room can be completely transformed into something new and exciting.
• Install (or update) CO detectors, smoke detectors and fire extinguishers. Smoke and carbon-monoxide detectors are easy ways to protect your family and your home — as well as your insurance-premium prices.
Smoke and flames from a fire can be easy to spot visually, but a fire that begins in an unoccupied part of the house, or that begins in the night, can spread undetected and grow quickly.
Smoke detectors alert you to this danger when you can’t be watching.
Carbon monoxide (CO) is a colorless, odorless gas produced by fuel-burning appliances or fixtures (furnaces, water heaters, fireplaces) and can build up in the home because of malfunctions or improper ventilation. Carbon monoxide can also enter the home via an attached garage where a vehicle is running.
A combination smoke and carbon monoxide detector can warn you when either threat is present and help protect you and your family as well as your home.
If you already have detectors in place, the new year is an excellent time to test their batteries as well as consider adding new fire extinguishers to kitchens, laundry rooms or areas, and other hazardous places.
• Incorporate more indoor plants. If you don’t already have a lot of live indoor plants in your home, the New Year is a good time to consider adding plants.
Indoor plants can instantly change a room’s atmosphere and there are lots of ways you can include plants into your home’s décor that don’t all involve the classical vases and pots.
Plus, there are great health benefits to having plants in your home. For instance, adding plants to rooms can increase oxygen levels.
When you breathe, you take in oxygen and release carbon dioxide while plants, during photosynthesis, absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen — making plants and people natural partners. Plus, indoor plants filter volatile organic compounds (like benzene, formaldehyde and trichloroethylene) from indoor air.
Also, as part of the photosynthetic and respiratory processes, plants release moisture vapor, which increases humidity of the air around them.
Plants release almost all of the water they take in. So by placing several plants together, you can increase a room’s humidity level to help keeps respiratory issues at bay.
These are five relatively simple resolutions that will make 2016 happier and healthier around your home.
Good luck and Happy New Year.
