Over time, homes have a nasty habit of losing some of their luster. They start pristine, but weather, kids, and general wear and tear can cause them to depreciate. Over decades, a once smart property can begin to look dilapidated.

Fortunately, you don’t have to give up at first sight of trouble. There’s still plenty that you can do to enhance the appearance of your home and make it feel brand new again.

Strategy #1: Repaints Your Exterior Doors And Window Frames

Masonry tends to age very slowly, and will often change very little from decade to decade. The same, however, is not true of paintwork. A wooden door or window frame looks excellent on the day you paint it, but after about ten years, it starts looking very sorry for itself.

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Painting all exterior surfaces, therefore, is a quick way to freshen up the appearance of your home. It isn’t sufficient for a wholesale transformation, but it is probably the most straightforward approach available for quick results.

Strategy #2: Replace Your Existing Roof With Slate

Roofing companies typically suggest that homeowners replace their roofs every fifty years or so. Roofing materials have a nasty habit of degrading over time to the point where they no longer serve a useful function.

Instead of replacing the roof with asphalt, though, try using slate instead. Sure, it’s a little more expensive, but, like a fresh paint job, it can make an enormous difference in how the property looks. Slightly blue slate gives your home a neat, premium look.

Strategy #3: Get Your Carpets Professionally Cleaned

Carpets rarely go from pristine to matted overnight. Instead, it is a slow process that takes many years. Over time, dirt becomes incorporated into the carpet fibers, eventually leading to degradation.

But even though regular vacuuming won’t remove these trapped particles, professional cleaning will. Here, a trained operative – usually from a cleaning company – uses steam and hot water to lift dirt from the carpet. Depending on how much dirt was on the carpet, the final result can be impressive. Your carpets can sometimes look as good as new again.

Strategy #4: Repair Your Walls

Old homes have a habit of accumulating poor quality repair jobs, especially on the walls. Handymen or DIY enthusiasts will rip out a fixture or fitting, and then don’t bother plastering over the resulting hole correctly. The final result is a messy, uneven finish that looks terrible.

Fixing these aberrations, however, can have tremendous knock-on effects on how you feel. With proper plastering, you can smooth over bumpy walls and make your interiors look brand new.

Strategy #5: Get Rid Of Dated Fixtures

Old homes have a habit of accumulating ancient fixtures. While some of these features add to the aesthetic quality of the environment, many do not. Furthermore, some actively detract from it. Pay particular attention to ceiling lamps and old electrical outlets. Both of these can age a room tremendously, making it look far older than it is. Where possible, replace old kitchen appliances with modern equivalents.

If you’ve got a new baby on the way, you might be looking at your home with new eyes. When babies grow into toddlers, your previously safe home suddenly begins to look dangerous. You might be noticing all the sharp corners on your furniture, the pond in the garden, and all the cleaning chemicals you keep under the sink, and wondering where to start to make your house safe for a growing child. Here’s how to do it.

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In The Living Room

Keep items like candles and matches well out of reach. It’s easier than you might think for a toddler to accidentally light a match and start a fire. If the child chews on a candle you’ve left in reach, they might choke on the wax. If you love candles, think about switching to flameless LED candles, which mimic the effect of flickering candlelight.

Photo frames should be up and out of the way. A knocked over frame can cause the glass to shatter, which can lead to nasty cuts. Keep them out of grabbing reach or mount them on the wall. You could consider switching the glass for plastic.

Think about mounting your TV. If your toddler tries to climb up onto your TV stand, the set might fall, causing nasty injuries. If you can, securely mount the TV on the wall. If you can’t, anchor the set to the wall even if it is on a stand. You can put velcro straps through the air vent holes and connect them to eye hooks that you screw into the wall.

Cover the fireplace. Heat-resistant gates should be used when the flames are on. Buy pads for the edges of the hearth if it is sharp or stony, to avoid injuries from falls. If you have an artificial fire, check that any small decorative stones that are in it are fixed down, so they can’t become a choking risk.

Cover any power strips. A child left alone for even a moment, can easily unplug a cord and put a metal object into the socket. Buy socket covers, and either buy a power strip cover or push the power strip out of reach behind the furniture.

Cover table edges. The coffee and the dining table have sharp corners and edges that could be very dangerous for a small child learning to walk. They could easily cut their heads or eye area. It’s especially important to cover glass tables, as these can cause real damage. If you have a glass table made of non-tempered glass, consider replacing it, as glass like this can easily shatter.

Make sure you keep windows locked. An unlocked window that a child can open could be the cause of a nasty fall. If you can’t securely lock your windows, or they are easy for a child to open, it might be wise to replace your home’s windows for something more secure.

In The Kitchen

Fit a gate in the kitchen door. There are a lot of potential risks in a kitchen, so make it off limits for when you’re not there to supervise. Never let your child in the kitchen without you there.

Lower cabinets should have child-locks. Cleaning products, like polish and drain unblockers, are very toxic. The cabinet they’re in should be kept locked with a magnetic lock or a latch. If you can, keep items like this high up, where they can’t be reached. Even with chemicals out of the way, keep cabinets low down protected. Children can easily hurt themselves with heavy pans or broken crockery.

Be careful with the dishwasher. The main danger is the detergent, so don’t put any in until right before you need to run the dishwasher. Don’t leave anything in the dishwasher when it’s not in use and make sure knives always go in blades down. If your dishwasher has a lock setting, use it. If it doesn’t, buy an appliance lock to keep it closed.

Keep the microwave high up and out of reach. If your child is with you in the kitchen, don’t turn on the microwave then walk away, and don’t leave hot foods in there. Be careful when removing hot things from the microwave, and try to keep your child out of the way when you do it to avoid spills.

Make the stove save. Buy a stove guard, which is a plastic or metal shield that attaches to the front of the stove to prevent little hands grabbing the buttons and turning it on. You can also buy covers for the stove’s knobs. If you can’t find any to fit, take the knobs off when you aren’t cooking so curious fingers can’t twist them, turn the oven on and end up burned. When cooking, use the back burners of the hob when you can, and always turn pan handles inwards, where they can’t be grabbed. Keep the oven hard to open. An oven that can be opened easily could cause burns or injuries from being hit with the heavy door. Don’t hang a dish towel on the oven door where it can be pulled to open the oven. If you can, lock the oven door, or fit a latch to it.

Make sure small appliances are inaccessible. Most toddlers can reach counters, where they might be able to grab appliances and pull them down onto themselves. Keep cords out of reach too so they can’t be used to pull appliances off the counter.

Keep cutlery and kitchen knives out of reach. A knife block on the counter is convenient for you, but is a risk for a child. Keep knives in an out of reach cabinet, where they can’t be grabbed by little hands.

Secure the refrigerator. If your child can open the fridge door on their own, fit a latch. If you can’t, at least think about the contents. Choking hazards, like grapes, and breakables, like glass jars, need to be out of reach on a high shelf.

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In an ideal world, we would all feel totally positive, motivated, at ease, and in control in our own homes. Our homes would, in other words, be our own personal kingdoms and slices of paradise set apart from the outside world.

In reality, however, it’s unfortunately quite common for people to be dissatisfied with the state of their homes and to feel as if their home environments are generally stressful, out of control, and that they generate a sense of restlessness and unease rather than a sense of calm and positivity.

Here are just a few tips for turning your home into a more positive environment.

Practice the arts of presence and acceptance

First and foremost, it’s very difficult to feel that your home is a positive environment if you are always looking for something more, and are always thinking of the next great project, endeavour, or purchase, that you believe will really make the difference when it comes to how your home feels overall.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with home projects or purchases – but if you want your home to feel like a more positive environment, you should make some real effort to practice the arts of presence and acceptance, so that you can appreciate what’s already right in front of you.

In other words, develop the ability to slow down, take a deep breath, and “be in the moment” in your own home. Relax and take things in your stride, instead of constantly projecting your mind into the future, or the past.

Style the aesthetic of your home to be something that uplifts you

There are all sorts of different design features and choices that will have something to do with the general aesthetic and feel of your home – ranging from things like Kitchen Cabinets, to a selection of wallpaper, or the lighting arrangement you have chosen to utilise.

Ultimately, the aesthetic features of your home really matter – and are at the forefront of shaping how your home will make you feel, and the energy it will seem to embody.

Very few people are likely to feel positive and upbeat in a gloomy and dusty home with poor lighting, for example.

Make sure that you style the aesthetic of your home to be something that uplifts you.

Enjoy more uplifting forms of entertainment in your home, as a rule.

We are all at risk of being chronically busy these days, it seems – and there is good psychological research to support the idea that stress levels are continuously rising, even as material well-being tends to increase.

According to the writer Celeste Headlee, author of the book “Do Nothing“, a major part of this problem is rooted in the desire to always be productive no matter what.

A solution? Allow sufficient time for uplifting forms of “unstructured entertainment”, rather than constantly trying to get more done.

If your home doesn’t feel like a very positive environment to you, it is possible that part of the issue is that you are just not engaging in enough uplifting entertainment there. So, curl up with a good book, watch a good film, or arrange a fun dinner with friends or family.