Do you have a running list of home remodel projects in the back of your mind? One you constantly add to, but have trouble checking things off? Does your head ping pong back and forth from one task to the other? Do you feel you don’t have enough (or anything) to show for all the head-spinning that’s happening? This post is for you.
The Hacks Life will show you how to prioritize your home remodel list so you can actually get some of it done!
Step One:
List all your remodel projects – I use excel for this process (because I’m a geek and it really helps), but you can definitely do it with old fashioned pen and paper. It may just take a few pieces. At this point, just try to get the projects in your head down on paper.
Step Two:
Next to each project, write its level of importance- you can use HIGH, MID, LOW, or A, B, C. This is your call, but I would strongly encourage you to prioritize any safety concerns/issues. Other than safety, a project’s importance could be determined by:
- How many people would benefit from the project’s completion?
- Does the project improve the function or usability of a space?
- Does the project repair a broken or damaged item?
- Does the project prevent future damage?
Step Three:
For each project, list the estimated cost. Now, this is a chicken or the egg topic. Do you start with what you can afford, or do you start with how much something will actually cost? And the answer is both. You should understand what you can afford before beginning a project and plan your remodel accordingly. However, the estimated cost for each project should reflect a realistic price. Do some homework to learn the ballpark costs for the project and reflect it here. We talk more about how to do this in Quick & Quality Cost Estimator.
For larger scale projects, I suggest listing the pieces that make up the project and an estimated cost for each. Compare this to how much you can spend on the project. See how many pieces you can do for your budget and decide if that’s acceptable to you. If not, keep saving until you have enough to do it the way you really want. We talk about how to stretch your dollar in Give your Money Superpowers, so you can get more of those pieces into your budget.
Step Four:
Sort your list in a tops down fashion. I prefer to rank mine by importance. If an item at the top of the list is one I’ll have to save for, I can skip down to less expensive items. Also, because I use Excel, I can resort by cost or any other category easily.
That’s another benefit to this process (especially if you use Excel, Google Sheets or iWork Numbers). You can add other categories easily. As you see in my examples, I’ve added things like timing (in this case, there were projects I wanted to make sure I completed before a long trip away), or even status (This is for my list people out there! Oh, how we love to cross things off the list!).
There you go! A prioritized list of all the Projects on your wish list out of your head and down on paper. Sort them, tackle them, complete and cross them off! (And add more!)
Here’s to a better remodel: more beautiful & economical with less stress!
