Best Cost-Saving Tips for Home Improvement

<div class="block">Courtney Mason, general manager and vice president at The Spruce, joined Cheddar News to provide some cost-saving tips on home improvement. </div>

Closing Bell

Time. Now for stretching your dollar where we give you tangible tips to help you make the most of your money. So, let's talk home improvement. Now that the weather is warmed up and summer is here, you might be thinking about ways to spruce up your home. Well, according to a recent study from house home improvement projects have increased 15% over the past year. The average cost for a bathroom upgrade comes at $3200 and kitchen upgrades average $12,000. So we invited a home improvement expert on to discuss affordable ways that you too can take part in spruce up your own living space. Joining me now is Courtney Mason, general manager and vice president at the Spruce. Courtney. Thank you for joining. Thank you so much for having me this afternoon. All right. So let's get started. What are the affordable ways to approach this? One of my favorite, low cost or honestly even no cost ways to get my home ready for the summer is to give it a top to bottom, clean dust, everything, vacuum, everything, make a big donation run of those things you haven't used in the last couple of months this past weekend, I cleaned both the inside and the outside of my windows and that changed the lighting in my whole apartment. And I find that giving myself a really clean base is a no cost for me to start off a new season. It helps me to just understand what's the inventory. What do I have? What are you working with here? Exactly. Ok. So that's step one. What is step two? So step two. Now that we've got our clean base, we can have a little fun. We can think about how we want to decorate our space for the season. I love to think of plants as a low cost way to decorate your home for the season. They bring life, they bring greenery, they bring color and there are so many places to get them at different price points from your Trader Joe's inventory to your local nursery. So you can really stock up without breaking the bank. And then I also love to do a quick linen check, trade out heavier throw blankets for lighter throw blankets. If I haven't already swapped my sheets, trade in some lighter cooling sheets. And then my secret underrated tip I think is to think about curtains. They take up a lot of visual real estate in your home. So a small change there can have a really big impact and there are so many materials and patterns and retailers that offer curtains that something is always going to be on sale. So you can make a quick change that has a big impact. It's actually really renter friendly as well. I like that. So in this environment, I mean, we do know that rent prices, for instance, even mortgages, obviously, as we just learned higher, right, prices are still high, other inexpensive ways to approach this. Yeah, I like to think about what I'm going to do for my outdoor space this summer because I can make some small changes there and find a second living space. It's really an extension of the living space. So again, giving that a really deep clean, a low cost investment, like an outdoor rug or some weather resistant throw pillows can really help bring that to life. And there are some really affordable lighting options that you can use in your backyard which create this total ambiance change and create a really charming back space without spending a ton ways to save money. I know you've given us some tips, right? Obviously, prices do range. But are there specific steps that people should know? I think there are some things you can do before heading into your stores before you're going to make any purchases that will really help you come in with a plan of attack. You don't want to go in and think, hey, new season, what am I going to buy for my house? We love suggestions. Like if I'm going to be painting a wall, which is a really fun decor idea for a new season plan out. The space that I'm going to be painting the Spruce has a calculator that can help you with that. Enter the dimensions of your room. We will tell you how much you need to buy and not, you know, not too much that you can save money when you're about to embark on a large project. So, let's talk more about those projects, right? If you are looking to make the actual improvements, right? Obviously, aesthetics are nice but general improvements, what do our viewers need to know? I think one tip that we always recommend at this Bruce is to focus on your high traffic areas when you're making an improvement, a short term or a longer term improvement for an investment return, the kitchen, the main bathroom, focusing on improvements there and not worrying about spaces that get less use like a guest room or something can be ways to get your budget to stretch further. You don't need to tackle every room. The rooms that your guests or future visitors or future homeowners might spend the most time in are places that are worth the return. I like that. Any tips for renters versus owners? Yes, renters face a different challenge, right? It's not my space. Am I allowed to touch anything? Always talk to your landlord before you do anything. But there are some tips like peel and stick wall, which can totally change a space, not only a wall, but you could also use them to upgrade cabinetry, which you might not have a chance to kind of rip out and totally start over, but you could face them or line the interior of them and that's totally removable at the end of the day, which is really what we're optimizing for if you're a renter, any trendy items that the spruce has their eye on this season. I have my eye on a whole bunch of plants. Um And actually my little tip here is they don't all have to be real plants. I'm away a lot this summer, but we have tested and reviewed faux plants that really look quite real and will allow me to spruce up my space safely for the health of the plant. Right. I like that. Uh For all of us, somewhat failed plant parents as well. I'm with you. It is a struggle, right. Cory Mason, uh general manager and vice president at the Spruce uh court. Thank you. Thank you.