9 Budget-Friendly Ways to Improve Your Home in 2018

Here are 9 ways to improve your home this year without breaking the bank.

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, read my full disclosure.

I still can’t believe it’s 2018. I always look forward to the new year because it’s a time for new beginnings and fresh starts. Besides making personal goals for improvement every year, I also like to give my home new life with budget-friendly home improvements.

Already this year, we have tackled several home improvement projects including decluttering our kitchen cabinets and purging our basement closet. Both projects were a bit of an undertaking, but I can tell you that I’m already feeling calmer and happier when I’m in those spaces. I’m justifying that as time well spent!

In addition to decluttering our home, I am planning to make several other improvements in my home this year that won’t break the bank. I came up with a list of several budget-friendly ways I want to improve my home in 2018. If you’re looking for easy and frugal ways to update and improve your home this year, try tackling some of the ideas on my list.

As I mentioned above, this idea is already in full swing at my house. When I purge items in my home, I love to do it an organized way. This time around I made four piles for my items: one to trash, one to donate, one to sell, and one to keep.

It may seem interesting that I made a pile for items to keep rather than just keeping them in the closet or space I am cleaning out. The reason I do this is because after I purge items, I like to have the space empty so I can do some reorganization in those spaces. Of the items I decide to keep, I can easily round up the like items and place them in a way that makes sense for our family.

My kitchen pantry is one of those spots that always seems to get unorganized the quickest. I’m sure I’m not alone in this. No matter how much I try to keep it organized, there are always cereal boxes in the wrong spot or vegetable cans hiding behind peanut butter jars, which makes me forget they’re there. I’ll go out to the supermarket and buy more cans of vegetables only to find out I already have some. This is just one example of how organization saves money!

This year, I decided to add white shelf liners throughout my pantry in hopes that they’ll help keep it (and me) more organized. One thing I am already noticing is that the liner I used is the type of fabric that makes indents when items are placed on it. The indents are actually helping me stay organized because I am able to return items to their exact location after use because I can see the indents. I realize this is incredibly perfectionistic, but the type A in me is jumping for joy.

One of my most favorite things to do every year is go through my tupperware cabinet in my kitchen. I’m not sure how but I always seem to have an excess of lids and an excess of containers with no matches for either. I also seem to end up with at least ten of those round Chinese food containers. You too, right?

I went through my entire tupperware cabinet last week. I matched up each lid to its matching container, returned tupperware that was not mine, threw out random pieces, and did an organization overhaul to that cabinet. It took me about two hours (yes, I had THAT MUCH tupperware), but it was well worth my time. Now I have my nice and neat stack of my most-used tupperware and it feels like a breath of fresh air.

Say it with me: Deep cleaning isn’t just for spring.“Spring cleaning” happens at least four times a year at my home, with the start of a new year being one of them. If you’re in need of a checklist, because let’s be honest – we all forget to clean certain things, you can peruse this checklist I made for springtime.

Speaking of spring, this idea probably needs to wait until then. The beginning of a new year is, however, a good time to start planning how you want to update the curb appeal of your home. That way, when spring rolls around, you’ll be ready to put your plan in action.

I have put off updating the curb appeal of our home for a couple years now and it’s in desperate need of a revamp. In the coming months, I will create a plan and timeline to update the curb appeal of our home. My goals are to replace the shrubbery and do a complete mailbox area makeover.

Often times, the mailbox area gets neglected but when it’s given a little TLC it can really be a stunning part of your home. I am planning to add a small garden to the surrounding area around my mailbox. I also want to paint the mailbox or replace it altogether and add new house numbers on it.

Depending on the condition of your house surroundings, you could make some easy budget-friendly updates including adding a new house number sign on your home and/or mailbox, displaying pretty potted plants, and/or removing overgrown shrubbery.

A little paint goes a long way. Take, for example, my end tables that I bought for just $12 each. I updated them with chalk paint and now they look like brand new tables. This is the paint I used for the side tables. Here’s a before and after shot:

Here’s the complete tutorial to chalk paint furniture if you’re a beginner.

Another chalk paint makeover I did was for our dining room hutch. Here’s how it looks right now for winter. 

I went a darker route for our hutch and used this paint. Head over to the full tutorial for more information.

If you have a piece of furniture that you don’t love, consider giving it a paint makeover. It’s such a budget-friendly project and makes a dramatic difference.

We already talked about giving your furniture new life with paint, but there are some other ways to improve those furniture pieces that need a bit more TLC than paint. One of my favorite ways to improve the appearance of furniture pieces is to give them legs. I did this with two of my recent furniture projects, and I love the way both turned out.

Here’s an example of my bookcase that we made over with the addition of legs and crown molding.

You can read about the entire bookcase makeover process here.

I also updated our buffet with paint, leg additions, and new hardware.

You may notice that I love furniture makeovers, but it’s important to not overlook the importance of the small details around your home either. Though some improvements are just minor ones, they can make a major impact.

Some awesome and budget friendly minor home improvements include swapping out your outlet covers for new ones, updating your door handles, filling random nail holes in your walls, and repainting your baseboard, trim, and/or ceilings.

We recently rearranged our dining room furniture and it made a world of difference. As I mentioned above, we transformed our buffet that once lived in our dining room into a completely different, more modern piece that now lives in our family room. I actually was on the hunt for a TV console or entertainment center for years…YEARS. I could never find one that was affordable, fit our current television, or was our style.

I finally had an epiphany one day to move our once-black and gothic style buffet under our TV. It was one our best decisions because, after its transformation, the buffet now fits seamlessly in the space.

Sometimes it takes some imagination and other times it takes just trying something out. Remember, if you move your furniture around and hate it, it’s not permanent and can be moved back to its original location. Hopefully, though, with a simple new location, you’ll find a new home for the furniture pieces you’re not pleased with currently.

I hope these ideas to improve your home will help you achieve some of your house goals this year!