When it’s time for the weekend, you may be thinking about partying with your friends or relaxing with your family. You may just want to sit on the couch and catch the latest ball game. You can do some of these things, however, if you’re concerned all about the home, there may be some DIY projects you need to get to. If you’re unsure where to start, here are some of the best DIY projects for your “all about the home” weekend.

1. Clean Your Systems

Your “all about the home” weekend should start with cleanliness. After all, before you get to inspections or removing items, you should ensure that your surfaces, floors, and appliances are clean. After all, a clean home is a safer home. If your AC has clogged ducts filled with mold, dust, or allergens, that’s a lot of poor air you and your family are breathing in. Therefore, use your weekend to change and check your air conditioning filter. Look out for signs of dust around the vent. Remove your AC vents and clear those built-up elements. Otherwise, you may have a fire hazard on your hands, especially if the unit begins to heat up.

Another area for deep cleaning might be your floors. Hardwood floors are fine with a simple sweep and mop, but your carpet often involves more work. If your carpet has a nasty smell or stains, now is the time to borrow a deep cleaning machine. Carpet steam cleaning can help ensure that your “all about the home” weekend results in a fresh-smelling home. After all, carpet can harbor loads of nasty smells from pet dander, dust, and dirt tracked in from outside. When you have any unsightly stains on your carpet that you can get rid of, spot cleaning can only do so much. If you’re tired of embarrassing carpet stains and having to cover most of your carpet with rugs to avoid embarrassment, this weekend is the time to test your DIY skills. Borrow a steam cleaner from somebody you know or see if you can rent one for the weekend.

2. Rearrange Your Garage

Your garage isn’t just to store and protect your cars. It’s also a place where you may spend time working or storing items. Even if you only use your garage for your car, you should still keep it as clean and sanitary as possible. By taking the time to use your “all about the home” weekend to clean out your garage, you may see it in a whole new light.

Just as a cleaning house can allow you to see possibilities, the same thing can happen in your garage space. After all, your garage is a separate structure and there are many possibilities depending on the layout and how many vehicles you have at one time. Some people even use a garage for a home office. Others may use it as an additional rental space, especially if they have an apartment area on top. Start going through items and boxes in your garage and see what can be removed or reorganized. Make plans to call a garage cabinet company that can install custom storage elements to make a garage even more organized.

Pay attention to how well your garage door opens and if your remote is working properly. You need a garage door that can open and close efficiently without making a lot of noise. If you’re having problems with it, look into garage door opener repair. After all, you don’t want to get stuck inside your garage because it won’t open at all. That could affect your schedule and make you late for work on Monday.

3. Inspect Your Appliances

Your appliances can make life easier. Thanks to a washing machine, you don’t have to do hand washing, which would take all day. Your dishwasher allows you to protect your manicure and avoid scrubbing dishes after a large meal. An AC means you don’t have to sit under a small fan during the hot summer months. Now is the time to test and inspect your appliances for issues. After all, your appliances may need servicing to fix them, so you can extend the lifespan.

Products from high and respected companies like Miele and Energy Star are worth servicing, as they can last decades with good maintenance. Such high-end products are also extremely energy efficient. As a matter of fact, appliances from the Energy Star brand can save homeowners as much as 15% on their typical monthly electric bills. So if you notice that some of them may not be as efficient as normal, now is the time to inspect and test them to see if there is a major problem. Test your washing machine and dishwasher out for a cycle to see if they’re cleaning efficiently. Notice if there is still grime and food particles on your dishes after a cycle. Listen out for excessive noise and see if there are signs of leakage. If you notice these things, it’s time to call an appliance repair specialist for that brand.

Before summer hits, make sure your AC is operating at its most efficient level. If you have ductless HVAC mini-splits, they operate by having one central unit that controls many separate units throughout your house. Turn on each unit and see how fast it turns on. Make note of any weird sounds and notice if the thermostat matches what you’re feeling. Is the air blowing efficiently? This testing during your “all about the home” weekend can save you problems from heat-related illnesses later on.

If you’re in the mood for getting your appliances checked, you may want to consider working with someone else too. Have your drains been clogged? Is your shower running properly? Is your water pressure exactly where you’d like it to be? Have you found any leaks recently? If you’re running into any of these types of issues, you may want to consider looking at the services of a plumber. This type of professional will be able to look at your drains, pipes, and more to determine what the problem might be. Not only will they be able to identify the problem pretty fast, but they will also be able to fix it in a timely manner in an affordable way too. If you’ve been chipping away at home improvement projects, don’t hesitate to call your local plumber and ask for help. They’ll be able to guide you and help you figure out all the problems you may be running into with your home’s plumbing system. The earlier you call them, the better! Contact some professionals today to get started with their expert services today!

4. Plant New Grass

There’s nothing like being able to kick your shoes off and walk barefoot on your own grass. If you notice your grass isn’t as green as it should be in the spring, there may be some work to do. Use your “all about the home” weekend outdoors and lay down new sod. Sod can provide the nutrients and healthy dirt that your landscape will need to grow. Thanks to sod, you can plant new grass that sprouts in a few weeks. You can turn a dry desolate, looking landscape into a healthy lush one in no time. Once your sod has taken root with the new grass, you can spend another weekend planting gardens and even a tree. Having a beautiful landscape makes it easier to sit outside, especially if you have a nice patio or deck. According to Healthline, being out in nature produces a feeling of wellness and happiness in most people. You can increase that by making the necessary updates starting with a new plot of grass.

Pay attention to any other lawn repairs you need to do at this time. Maybe you need to clean up some old mulch and replace it with new fresh ones. Your lawn fence is looking raggedy and it’s time to repair it. If you have a wooden fence, your “all about the home” weekend is the perfect time to refinish your fence and stain it with a nice color to match your home. Staining and finishing can also protect your wooden fence from hungry bugs like termites and certain beetles.

5. Wash Your Bathroom

The bathroom is one of the most frequently used rooms in the home, if not, the most used one beside your bedroom. Therefore, it’s one of those spaces that requires constant cleaning. The more people you have in your home, the dirtier your bathrooms will get. Take the time to inspect your bathroom to see what areas you need to deep clean. Start with your shower door, use some glass cleaner, and have it look shiny again. If you have natural light coming to a bathroom window, it reflects much better through a clean and shiny glass door than a dirty and cloudy one. Take a toothbrush and scrub built-up grime in the grout between tiles. If you have a shower curtain, take it down to wash in the washing machine. Get some polish and shine up your metal fixtures.

6. Plant Flowers

What better way to utilize an “all about the home DIY” project weekend than by planting some beautiful flowers? Flowers are one of the most beautiful aspects of nature. There are so many colors, smells, and textures that enhance your senses. If you have a favorite flower you can successfully grow in your environment, go to Home Depot and get some bulbs to get started. Plant annuals in your garden or around your front door. Imagine seeing the site of a beautiful rose garden, stalks of lavender, or hydrangeas every time you leave for the day and come back later on. Planting flowers can be very therapeutic, especially as you tend to them and watch them grow. When you plant flowers like annuals, you know they’ll come back every year as long as you keep them planted.

7. Spruce Up Your Interior

After working outside on your landscape, you may be tired and ready to come back inside. You can take an entire weekend to do some painting work. You can hire a painting contractor to handle most of it for you, or see what you can tackle on your own. At the very least, you can work by picking the right color palette for your home. Start looking at color swatches at your local home goods stores like Lowe’s and Home Depot. Consider the mood you want to set. If you want to relax and create a meditation space, purples and blues are ideal, as they naturally relax the mind.

If you need to create a sense of openness in a closed kitchen, white is usually the go-to color. Maybe you need to energize the space such as a game room or playroom. In that case, work with brighter colors like orange, neon pink, red, or yellow. You don’t even need to have all the walls painted in a bold color. Pick one wall and use it as an accent space. If you’re not a trained painting contractor, sticking with an accent wall may be the best thing to do. Then you can focus on painting and decorating it with the decals and proper trimming. From there, you may even want to add a mural if you have some decent art skills.

8. Beautify Your Exterior

Once you’re satisfied with your painting work, consider going back outside. You can continue to vamp up your exterior by working on your siding and gutters. Local siding companies have several materials to use, such as brick, fiberglass, wood, metal, vinyl, and stone. While most of the siding may be too intricate for a DIY job, you may be able to replace damaged vinyl siding in certain areas. However, if you want a siding made from stone or brick, you’ll need professionals who specialize in that skill. However, you may be able to beautify your siding by borrowing a power washing machine to clean things down.

It may be time to see if you should contact gutter installation companies. Gutters move water away from the home so you can’t have them filled up. A full gutter is a gutter that’s clogged and will eventually cause water to back up on the roof. Your “all about the home” weekend should involve cleaning out those gutters of any debris, such as leaves, or twigs that could prevent it from doing its job. As a result, those clean gutters will help keep your roof equally beautiful as it prevents wood rot from water damage.

Your “all about the home” weekend won’t be boring. You have plenty of things to do from cleaning out gutters to repairing your landscape to working with paint and testing your art skills. Many DIY projects are safe to do and others that you should certainly call a contractor for. Testing things to repairing them yourself will allow you to become even more familiar with your home. The more familiar you are with your home, the better homeowner you can be. Your knowledge and skills can help prevent large issues from occurring in the future. Have fun testing your DIY skills over the next few weekends.