How Do You Prioritize Projects?

What things frustrate you the most when living in your home? Not sure? Start paying attention to them next week and they will come to life.

For example, my wife and I moved within the last few years, and as we settled into our new home, we started to collect a list of things we wanted to change. I always joke that I suffer from the “I can do that” disease where I just add any home improvements we envision to my personal to-do list (you can probably imagine how long that list has become!).

How do we decide which projects we should prioritize? How do we possibly shorten this never-ending to-do list? We started with the things that really bothered us.

For example, it bothered us that the tall ceilings in our dining room didn’t have overhead lights directly above our table. One of my earliest projects was to install fixtures that would illuminate our dining room for important family gatherings and holidays.

Our master bathroom door opened inward and blocked our shower, so I constructed and designed a sliding barn-door that wouldn’t unnecessarily inconvenience us during our bathroom routines. We have continued to go through our dream projects and home repairs with this exact mindset. So, what currently frustrates us the most? The way the water from downspouts drains around our house and into our backyard.

If you struggle with choosing among the many improvements and repairs you want to make in your home, I highly recommend assembling your lists with this mindset.