Weekend Projects

This Weekend: Start Saving Major Money With This Easy Home Habit

updated Mar 8, 2019
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(Image credit: Alexis Buryk)

This was the most popular weekend project last year, and with good reason! Start using this system for your household stuff and you’ll get more life out of everything you own, and save money in the process. It also has the added bonus of making your home look and feel brand new again. Ready to go?

This Weekend’s Assignment: Rotate, flip or swap out household items so they last longer and feel brand new again.

(Image credit: Alexis Buryk)

The Big Stuff: Grab someone to help and flip those mattresses and rotate your rugs. You’ll prevent odd lumps and bumps in your bed, and ward off any localized traffic wear and tear. While you are at it, flip over your couch cushions so any fading happens equally on both sides. (Unless of course you’ve already tried covering a red wine stain.)

→ How To Care for Wool Rugs

→ 4 Steps to Keep Your New Furniture Looking New
(Image credit: Alexis Buryk)

Smaller Household Items: We all have multiples of certain household items, like plates and towels. If you find yourself reaching for the same ones day after day, rotate your piles so the less-used items get a turn. Pull from the bottom of your stack of plates, or reach in the back of the closet for your extra sheets. They might look the exact same, but you’ll distribute the use more equitably.

→ 4 Things to Rotate (That Aren’t Your Tires)
→ One Simple, Smart Idea: Rotate Your Everyday Household Items
(Image credit: Alexis Buryk)

Toys: I have a basket of dog toys in my coat closet that I regularly reintroduce, and surreptitiously hide old ones when my pup is looking the other way. For human kids who are a bit more with it, create several collections of toys and just make sure there’s enough variety in each set. You won’t have your entire toy collection out at once, and they will get excited to see stuff that’s been put away for awhile.

→ Overwhelmed By Toys? Try a Toy Rotation System

Remember, as with all of our Weekend Projects, just do what you have the time and energy to do. This is a marathon, not a sprint!

  • Help motivate others by letting the rest of us know how things are going! Share your tips and photos of your Weekend Project work on Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #ATweekendproject.
  • Check out 2017’s entire Plan for a Healthy & Happy Home to access all Weekend Project ideas, so you can pick and choose what to do this weekend.
  • Download our July Home Checklist. It’s a free, downloadable, low-pressure list of things to try this month if you want to keep your life and home running like a well-oiled machine. Pick and choose what and how much you want to tackle, and have the satisfaction of crossing them off the list!