Maintaining a home can feel like a full-time job on its own. Between managing other aspects of your life, it's understandable if home maintenance falls through the cracks. However, a home is such a massive investment. You owe it to yourself to keep your home in tip-top shape with the following tips.

1. Cultivate a Daily Cleaning Routine

If you have a busy schedule, it might seem difficult to carve out time to clean your home every day. However, you'd be surprised at how much you can do in 15 minutes. Set the timer for 15 minutes, and solely focus on tidying up the most commonly used areas of your home. By wiping down the countertops and surfaces, sweeping the floor, and putting items in their rightful place, you'll create a great start to a fruitful and consistent cleaning routine.

2. Prioritize Indoor Air Quality

When you're living in your home, you're used to its scent. Therefore, it's easy to get used to a bad smell and not realize it exists. This phenomenon is called nose blindness. By prioritizing indoor air quality, it's much easier to keep a clean scent in the air. Open the windows for 15 minutes each day. Make sure to take out the trash routinely, and address foul odors as soon as you detect them. Instead of burning candles for hours, set up essential oil diffusers to release natural fragrances through the air.

3. Create a Quarterly Maintenance Routine

Whether you hire various service providers or inspect areas on your own, make time for a quarterly maintenance checklist. Whether you're checking the gutters before the fall months or inspecting the HVAC unit before the winter cold comes in, check areas that you'd normally forget about because they're not immediately causing issues.

4. Keep an Eye Out for Industry Changes

Smart technology continues to evolve as people enjoy the benefits of smart refrigerators, lighting systems, and more. Keep an eye out for some of those fun amenities you can add to your home in order to upgrade it. When you incorporate improvements such as tiling by tile roofers in Palm Beach County, you're more likely to find intentional ways to maintain them.

5. Make It Visually Appealing

Maybe the color scheme in your home is less than inspiring. If your home doesn't look great, consider the aesthetics. In fact, it's a great idea to change them. A can of paint can do wonders for the look or appeal of a home. Whether you opt to paint the walls, add some throw pillows, or hang beautiful wooden blinds, cultivate beauty inside of your home. It'll inspire you to treasure your home more.

6. Make Small Improvements Over Time

Don't try to remove the carpet, install hardwood floors and change the stove in one week. Give yourself the space and grace to make improvements over a period of time. Work on one project at a time. As you take your time in beginning and completing projects, home maintenance becomes more manageable.

7. Set Home Improvement Goals

At the beginning of the year, most make resolutions. Instead, consider areas in which you'd like to gradually make improvements. Make home improvement one of the areas you'll work on. Whether you'd like to replace the windows, get a new roof, or get new furniture, write those goals down. Then, create a plan to make those goals turn into your reality over the next 12 months.

8. Host Friends and Family Members

For some reason, many people wait until they have company to clean up. If you know you'll be hosting friends and family in your home, this can serve as a fun incentive to make sure your home is always ready for guests.

9. Set Aside a Specific Budget for Home Maintenance

For many people, home maintenance is more about having the money to pay for the upgrades. In the same way, you'd create a budget for your groceries and utilities, and set aside a certain amount for home improvement projects and maintenance. Also, look for ways to get homeownership grants to cover the costs. Many counties in various states offer incentives for homeowners who want to improve their homes.

10. Create a Digital Vision Board of Inspiration

Without a vision, it's difficult to know how to move forward. Download home decor apps or social media apps like Pinterest in order to get visual inspiration for how you'd like to maintain your home. Peruse the apps once or twice a week to remind yourself to remain inspired to keep your home's maintenance up.

Bottom Line

Take your time in cultivating these tips. Find a rhythm that works for you. Don't be afraid to ask for help. You don't need to DIY the process. By developing a plan that's feasible and realistic for your life, keeping your home in tip-top shape will eventually become an effortless process.

 Guest Contributor: Samantha Higgins