Successfully Manage Your Renovations for Less Stress (and Mess)

Renovating your home is exciting, but it can also be extremely stressful.

It disrupts your life, often making it impossible to continue living your life in the way you usually do. It can cost a lot of money and take a lot of time too. Trying to live around your renovations is difficult, and it can be enough to make you want to give up and not bother with it. Making a plan to help you avoid some of the stress can help. If you're prepared for anything that might happen, you can avoid getting too stressed and have some useful coping methods for the rest of it.

Compromise While Planning

Planning home renovations often means doing so with a partner or occasionally another family member or even a friend. If you're usually on the same wavelength, the planning stage might be the easiest bit. If one person is happy to let the other take charge, that can sometimes be useful too - although only if the other person is happy to make all the decisions. But when you're trying to make decisions together, you can often have disagreements.

Learning to compromise is important, so you need to keep communication open. A lot of renovation experts recommend spending time looking for inspiration together, using Houzz and other resources. This helps you understand each other's likes and dislikes, and it helps you to explore more ideas to find things that you both like. It's also a good idea for one of you to have the final say. So, while you both have equal input, one of you might get to make the final decision. This could be a blanket rule or you could divide up who gets the final say on different issues.

Set a Clear Budget

Money is obviously going to be a contentious issue with any home renovations. Renovations can be very expensive, depending on the size of your project. Spending more than you have is certainly going to cause stress. If you're hoping to keep your spending under control, setting a budget is an essential step. The most important thing to do is to choose a realistic budget. Even if you want to save money, there's no point setting a budget that would be impossible to stick to. To help yourself out, make an itemized budget so you know what everything will cost.

Create a Schedule

As well as keeping an eye on your costs, you also need to think about how much time your renovations will require. Creating a schedule that you want to follow will help to stop your renovations getting out of hand. Your schedule will give you an end date, so that your renovations don't seem like they're going on forever. While you can have a desired schedule to begin with, you can't really solidify your schedule until you're booked any contractors you want to use. Get the ball rolling on this before you set your schedule in stone.

Prepare for Both Your Budget and Schedule to Run Over

Even if you've planned to stick to a budget and a schedule, the best way to reduce stress is not to depend on everything going right. If you're determined to finish on a certain date or only spend a certain amount, you'll probably only end up disappointed. If you do manage to stay on schedule and within your budget, it will be great. But it's better to be prepared for going over budget or over schedule. Then it won't be so much of a shock or so stressful when it happens.

Know When to DIY and When to Go Professional

If you're planning to do any DIY work on your renovations, the best thing you can do is know what you can handle and when you need to call in a professional. There are plenty of things that you can do yourself. The more experienced you are, the more you can handle. However, you should know what you're capable of and stop short of going over your limits. You might be able to install a new shower, but perhaps electrical work is best left to a professional. Maybe you're capable of doing some painting, but knocking down a wall isn't the best idea.

Work Out a Plan for Living Around the Renovations

Before your renovations get started, you need to think about how you're going to live around them. Many renovations don't have much impact on your home. They might be finished in a day or two, or carried out in a less significant area of your home. However, other projects can take longer and disrupt your life. If you're getting a new kitchen, you could be unable to cook for a while. Spend some time working out a plan for how you're going to live around your renovations. What will you do while work is ongoing in your kitchen or bathroom? What about when you have to turn off the water or electricity?

But Get Out of the House If You Need To

While you can often work around renovations, it's not always possible. Even when it is possible, you don't always want to. Sometimes you have to admit defeat and get out of the house. When you're planning your renovations, decide when it might be a good idea to live somewhere else for a while. It might be smart to stay in a hotel or to stay with family or friends, even if it's just for a couple of days. You might also just want to get out of the house for the day so that you're not getting under the feet of anyone working.

Keep Things Tidy

Keeping your home tidy will definitely help you to reduce stress during renovations. It's also important for safety. You don't want to have rubbish and debris kicking about all over the place. If you want to keep everything tidy, first make sure that your contractors will clean up after themselves. You can also arrange for garbage and renovation waste removal to make sure that any waste gets taken away. Your renovations might mean that you have much more waste than usual, and your usual collection probably isn't equipped to handle it. Make sure you have a way to deal with your waste, and perhaps consider recycling some materials.

Ensure Good Communication

Good communication is essential, not just between homeowners but also with contractors. Miscommunication could certainly cause a lot of stress, especially if it results in some big mistakes. Make sure you choose contractors who can communicate well and understand what you want. Start by looking for reviews and recommendations, and assess their communication skills during your initial contact with them.

Take Some Time Out

If everything is getting a bit too stressful, it might be time to remove yourself from your renovations. That might mean going out for the day, or doing something fun that cheers you up. Sometimes, it could even be a good idea to put your renovations on hold for a bit. You don't want to leave a job half done, but you might want to have a break between projects.

Make a Plan for Pets

If you have pets, it's worth thinking about what to do with them while there are renovations in your home. You definitely need to move them out of the way, but where is the safest place for them to be? You might be able to close off one room at a time, or perhaps try to keep your pet contained. Some pets might need to be removed from your home to prevent them escaping and to avoid causing them stress. If you have a particularly nervous pet, the noise and busyness of renovations could upset them.

Stick to Your Usual Routine

While you're carrying out renovations, it's a good idea to stick to your normal routine as much as you can. Some things might need to change, but there's plenty that can stay the same. This is especially important if you have children or even pets, who might be upset by everything changing. Keep up with your usual activities, from going to work to going out to eat at the weekend. It will help you to keep some sense of normalcy while the work is ongoing.

Get the Kids Involved

If you have children, renovations aren't always fun for them. You can help to make it more fun and exciting by getting them involved in any way that you can. They won't be wielding power tools, but they can make choices about their bedrooms and family spaces. They might even be able to do some painting or some other small tasks to help get the renovations finished. It's a good idea to also be sure to treat the kids to a few things during your renovations, just in case the process is as stressful for them as it is for you.

Reduce stress during your renovations by having a clear plan before you start. Know what will happen and when, and what changes you need to make at each stage.

.This is a contributed article written for WhimMagazine.com