Anita Clark Realtor

20 Ways to Brighten Your Home this Summer

20 Key Ways to Brighten Your Home this Summer

Summer is speeding towards us like a freight train, and people are scrambling to figure out how to get ready for it.  Instead of guessing, and leaving a lot of things unfinished, follow this list of 20 smart ways to brighten your home this summer. The more of these tips you take to heart and implement, the better your home will look.

Whether you are getting your home cleaned up for summer or just looking for new ways to brighten up a dull space, getting your home in shape will improve your chances of having a breathtaking home this summer. I know that is what I want!

Ideas to Transform Your Summer Home

Pack Away Winter

The very first step of opening up to summer is making sure every mote of winter is gone.  Pack coats, thick blankets, and everything else that you only need when it’s frosty out. If space is tight, this is a great time to consider vacuuming air out of storage bags.  You can make a make-shift one (instead of paying too much for a set) by using your vacuum and good-quality trash bags. 

Bring Plants Indoors

Plants offer a connection to the outside, and warmer weather, that not many other things can replicate.  Plants provide tons of benefits to your home as well, like air filtration and adding a visually appealing place to rest your eyes.  Consider getting a plant that can brighten your home and that you know you’ll be able to keep alive.

If you have a lousy history with keeping plants, consider a succulent, which only has to get watered once a month.  If you like more work than that, look for a plant that’s more hands-on. The good thing about taking care of a plant is that there are endless varieties to match any kind of work, aesthetic, or size needed. 

Decorate For SummerHow to Brighten Your Summer Home

This tip doesn’t necessarily mean you need to put up a bunch of beachy art; decorate your house in a way that speaks to you.  A lot of people put away hummingbird feeders, wind chimes, and garden decorations during the winter. Don’t be afraid to pull out that birdbath, or stained glass window hanging, and let summer shine.

Some colors lend themselves best to summer, so if you’re not sure what those are, don’t be shy about using a site online for help. Open houses and friends/family homes are also good options to get inspiration. The ways to brighten your home this summer are only limited by your imagination! 

Give Yourself A Place To Relax

Summer is the time to cut loose and enjoy just laying around.  Think about what makes your most, and least, comfortable in your home.  If you love your living room couch, amplify that by adding more cozy pillows, if your bed is hurting your back, you could have a mattress delivered to your door instead of having to run out and get one.

This step doesn’t mean you should throw out your home office just because you can’t relax there, but make that space more comfortable for you.  Softer lighting, less clutter, and comfortable furniture can help create even an office you won’t want to leave.

Work Together

Don’t let yourself be the only person working on your home unless you live alone.  By working together to clean, decorate, and get your house ready for summer as a team, you give everyone the chance to be proud of their home. 

Everyone will enjoy their home more in the summer, and it can offer the opportunity to bond and bring people together. Working together means you will be working smarter, not harder, which frees up more time for fun activities.

Make A Schedule

Making a schedule doesn’t scream “Summer!” to most people, but it does offer the chance for anyone to make the most of these warmer months.  Schedule out chores so that everyone knows what they expect to do. Tasks like weeding, mowing the lawn, scrubbing out parts of the house, all add up to making your house shine.

Nobody wants to have to do all of those at once, or even within the same couple of days.  Space out the chores, and enjoy your unscheduled time to its limits.

Keep On Top Of Things

Once you have your home how you’d like it for summer, set up a schedule to make maintaining it more manageable.  Schedule a day for mowing, or create a pact with everyone to take turns deep cleaning the kitchen every night.

Setting up a plan, and making sure to stick to it, will ensure that you don’t end up overwhelmed by a new mess. Summer means more people will be at home, so make sure that time at home is good.

Don’t Be Afraid To Have Fun

Although a lot of Americans put endless work into maintaining their yard, there’s not much of a point to it if we don’t let ourselves enjoy the fruit of those labors!  Don’t be afraid to have fun, even if it might risk a yard being pristine. Slip and slides, sprinklers, and water balloon fights can be incredible fun for every family even though they can muddy things up.

Most of the time, if you put in a little work to make sure everything gets cleaned up soon after: no actual damage will happen. If your home is already fun-filled, you can venture out and enjoy local fun things to do

Use Your Outdoor Space More

Yards shouldn’t just be pretty to see!  If you have the room for it, consider making more use of that plot of land around your home.  One way would be getting a cheap projector, and a large white sheet, and playing movies out in your backyard that you can enjoy the summer nights.

You can use your backyard for almost any hobby or interest, from archery to painting.  Think about what you’d do indoors if you had more space, and work to make that possible in your yard instead!  Anything from camping to hanging up a hammock can make your yard feel like a more critical part of your home. A well planned out exterior area is one of the easiest ways to brighten your home this summer.

Take The Time To Declutter

Clutter kills good moods.  Not only can clutter hold people back from decision making, but it can also leave people feeling anxious and depressed.  Go room by room, spaced out over time, and figure out what you don’t need in your life anymore.

By going through your belongings, you offer yourself the chance to take a walk through memory lane, while also clearing space for new memories.

If you aren’t sure whether or not to keep something, leave it to revisit later.  There’s no rush, and coming back to something with a fresh mind may offer you the insight you didn’t have before.

Get InspirationCreative Ways to Decorate Your Home for Summer

If you aren’t sure what you want for your yard and home, but you know what feeling you want it to evoke, don’t be shy about googling around.  Pinterest has thousands of backyard design ideas, YouTube has millions of DIY videos, and thousands of other sites and blogs are out there to make sure your home succeeds.  Take advantage of these excellent resources.

Get A New Grill, Or Clean Yours

There are few joys as good as delicious food.  Summer gets to treat you to that by letting you grill and spend time outside while cooking.  If you have a grill, now is the time to clean it out and get it ready. 

Put some elbow grease into it: make sure that both the inside and outside of your grill are clean.  Not only so that you’ll be comfortable cooking on it- but also because a grill can help with the aesthetic feeling of your home.

If you don’t have a grill, what’s making you wait?  Beginner charcoal grills just cost around $150, while more advanced gas ones can run around five hundred to six hundred dollars.

Consider Bug Repellents

Summer is for the outdoors!  Bug repellents can make sure that you don’t shy away from warm summer nights.  Instead of having to spray anything, consider citronella candles.

If you’d rather avoid candles, you can use the plants themselves: citronella, lavender, and catnip help keep bugs at bay while adding some new texture and color to your yard.

No bug repellant is entirely effective, so you might have to trial and error what works best for you.

Add Pops Of Color

Summer is the most colorful of seasons.  If you want to change the feeling of a room, but don’t want to throw thousands of dollars at it, consider making a small but loud color choice.  Bright red pillows on a dark grey couch, or a statement wall that gets painted a different color, are fundamental ideas that can achieve this.

If you’re not sure what color or where you’d like it, free editing software like Gimp can allow you to try on color without having to commit to a bucket of paint or a couple of pillows.

Your home is unique to you, so even if you’re not sure other people will like a color decision: go for it anyways.  It’s your home, and you’ll be the person to see the decision most, make sure it’s one you’ll love seeing.

Grow For The Table

Consider making a garden that’s food-driven.  Tomatoes, herbs, bell peppers, there’s a lot out there that you can grow to eat.  Fresh food is better for you, plus you’ll get to save money on groceries by providing your vegetables.

This tip can also work for plants that are grown inside.  Utilize a window in your kitchen and grow spices and herbs.  Basil, oregano, and rosemary all grow exceptionally well indoors and add a delicious touch to any meal.

Make DIYs Work

You don’t need to spend a couple of thousand dollars getting your house ready.  Consider DIYing things where possible. You can brighten your driveway with dish soap and vinegar instead of renting a power washer, or get stains out of your carpet with any number of home-made concoctions.

Don’t be shy about trying things out for yourself, from sewing to painting, and save money that you can put towards a more fun summer.  On top of saving you some dough, you’ll also be pleasantly surprised by how proud you’ll feel in your freshened home, knowing that you did everything yourself.

Give Things A Shine

Deep clean your home!  This way to brighten your home is not the most fun- but it’ll let you enjoy your summer a lot more.  Deep clean everything from your carpets to cobwebby corners of your house that haven’t gotten touched in ages.  Aim to make your home look brand new, and you’ll surprise yourself on how close you can get to that goal.

There’s no reason to do this all at once, though.  Instead of overwhelming yourself, go room to room- and tackle large projects on their own.  If you need to schedule out how to clean your home, there’s nothing wrong with it. Move at your own pace.

Don’t Fear Creativity

If you’re nervous about trying something new or bold, you need to work on it this summer.  Step outside of your comfort zone by painting something to hang in your living room (YouTube has hundreds of Bob Ross videos and tutorials up).  Give a new hobby a chance, or consider moving furniture and redecorating.

Let your ideas and creativity, flow, and don’t let how things have been hold you back.  Change is right for your mind and heart and can help your home feel brand new.

Clean Your Windows

Although sunshine is a beautiful thing to see, it makes every smudge and speck of dust just that much more visible.  You can take your windows off and wash them down with a hose if they’ve built up a ton of pollen or you can scrub them by hand.  If you want to be entirely sure they’re streak-free, you can mix half a cup of vinegar into a gallon of water, and when you wash your windows with this solution, you won’t see a single streak.

If your windows have screens, you will want to take the same cleaning approach to get those looking their best too. There is no sense doing one without the other so plan for a full clean when you tackle the windows.

Work On Personal Connections

If you are spending more time with your family or partner, make sure this time gets put to good use.  Work on bonding and understanding each other more. Get to know each other through games, movies, and different ways to understand each other’s interests.  

Don’t be afraid to let down that guard that winter is so good at building up and let in a little sunlight and understanding.  Be sure to work together on resolving conflicts, and make sure there’s a good foundation of trust and love. After all, the essential part of a summer home is the people that live inside of it.

Twenty Ways to Decorate This Summer

Additional Summer Resources to Keep Your Family Busy

With kids out of school and itching for opportunities to have fun, this list of 100 fun things you can do this summer is sure to keep you busy from Memorial Day thru Labor Day! Several of these are on my list to keep my grandson’s busy during their visits this summer.

If you are getting your home prepped to put on the local real estate market this summer, you want to ensure the projects you take on make the most sense. Here are 6 home improvements that provide good return on investment.

If you found this article on 20 Ways to Brighten Your Home this Summer helpful, please share it so other consumers can also benefit from the information.

20 Smart Ways to Brighten Your Home this Summer

About Anita Clark Realtor

Anita Clark has written 645 posts on this blog.

Anita is a residential Real Estate Agent in Warner Robins Georgia, with Coldwell Banker Access Realty (478) 953-8595, aiding buyers and sellers with all their real estate questions on her Warner Robins blog.

  • Anita Clark Realtor

    470 S Houston Lake Rd
    Warner Robins, GA 31088

    (478) 960-8055

    anitaclark160@gmail.com

    Coldwell Banker Access Realty

    (478) 953-8595

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