Home improvement projects are an excellent way of improving your home’s comfort and functionality. They also ensure you keep up with your home maintenance and can help to enhance your property’s curb appeal and value. However, most projects are lengthy, taking several days or weeks. As a result, you can have difficulty setting time aside for these projects, especially if you lead a busy life.

However, you don’t need expensive, time-consuming renovations to improve your home. Instead, there are one day home improvement projects that require very little time but can significantly enhance the look and feel of your home. Below is a look at some of the top home improvement projects you can complete in a day or less.

1. Deep Clean Your Home

Deep cleaning is one of the top one day home improvement projects you should try. It offers many benefits, such as eliminating mold, dirt, dust, and other contaminants. It also helps to declutter your home, making it more spacious and comfortable, and it can even add value to your property.

Deep cleaning is pretty involving and will require you to clean your home from top to bottom. However, some vital areas to pay special attention to include the surfaces (kitchen, bathroom, table tops, etc.), walls and floors, furniture, carpets, etc. Of course, you’ll need to pay attention to every room in the house, including commonly overlooked spaces such as the garage, attic, and basement.

Window cleaning is also an essential part of deep cleaning. Clean windows are visually appealing and can help bring in more natural light, making your home more inviting and comfortable. When deep cleaning your windows, you should wash the exterior and interior surfaces of the window and any window treatments.

While tiring, it is possible to deep clean your home entirely by yourself or with help from family and friends. However, you can also consider hiring professional cleaners to lessen the workload. As a bonus, the cleaners can give you access to specialized products and equipment, which can be very effective in furniture and carpet cleaning.

2. Repaint a Room

Painting a room is one of the simplest but most effective one day home improvement projects. It can offer many benefits, such as making your home more appealing and protecting the walls. The best part about painting is that it is inexpensive, with the average cost of painting a room ranging between $150 and $2,000.

You can pick several rooms for a repainting project, including a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, or dining room. You can also opt to paint the exterior walls of your house. The amount of time required will depend on the size of your home, but painting an entire room will take a few hours.

However, if you find it too overwhelming, you can also paint an accent wall. This will reduce the time your project requires while also improving the look and feel of the room. Alternatively, you can go for an even more straightforward project such as repainting a piece of furniture, for example, a drawer, bookshelves, cabinets, etc.

3. Clean and Maintain Your Fireplace

A fireplace is an important feature that keeps your home warm, especially during the cold season. However, it is also a magnet for dirt, dust, and other debris, which can quickly accumulate. These contaminants can then spread through your home, making it unsafe and unhealthy.

Your fireplace can also become clogged with soot and tar when you fail to maintain it. It can also lead to the growth of mold and mildew. Therefore, cleaning and maintaining your furnace is one of the most important one day home improvement projects you should try regularly.

To properly clean your fireplace, you should follow the top-to-bottom approach, i.e., start with the chimney and work your way down. For chimney cleaning, you must go up to the roof, from where you can access the flue. Then, you should scrub the passageway with a wire brush, which will dislodge the dirt, dust, soot, tar, and other debris.

Once you’re done cleaning the chimney, you can focus on the fireplace. Start by collecting the debris you dislodge from the chimney and dispose of it carefully in a sealed plastic bag. Then, thoroughly clean the firebox by scrubbing it with a wire brush before vacuuming off the dirt and debris. You can also wipe away the firebox using a sponge and a mixture of spray and water.

4. Clean Your Drains

Are your sink and shower drains clogged or slow in draining water? Or are strange noises and foul sewage smells coming from your sinks and other plumbing fixtures? If so, it might be time to clean your drains.

Drain cleaning is a simple yet essential home improvement project which helps to ensure that your plumbing system is functioning correctly. It also prevents the buildup of debris and grease in your drain line, which can cause blockage and lead to expensive plumbing repairs. More importantly, it prevents dirty water and foul smells from seeping into your home.

Cleaning your drains is relatively simple and will only take a few hours. First, remove any visible debris blocking your drains, such as hair from the bathroom drains and food particles from kitchen sinks. Also, you can use a plunger to unblock your drains if you have any issues with slow-moving water.

Another effective drain cleaning method is to pour boiling water down the drains, which helps dissolve fats and grease that may have accumulated. You can also use chemical drain cleaners, which help to dissolve debris and other clogging materials. Homemade drain cleaners such as baking soda, vinegar, and lemon juice are another excellent option for unclogging and deodorizing your drains.

5. Clean Stained Tiles and Grout

If you’re looking for more one day home improvement projects, cleaning your tiles and grout is another excellent idea. Regardless of how often you tend to your home, your tiles and grout will collect dirt over time, leading to ugly stains. These can be hard to eliminate during regular cleaning sessions, making more advanced cleaning essential.

Grout and tile cleaning is a relatively simple process. First, you should remove all the loose dirt and debris from the tiles you want to clean by either vacuuming or moping. Then, you can use a chemical tile cleaning product to remove the tough stains. Alternatively, you can use homemade cleaners such as hot soapy water, vinegar, hydrogen peroxide, etc.

You can use either a chemical or homemade cleaner to clean stained grout. Apply the cleaner to the grout and use a brush to scrub and agitate the grout. You can also use a drill brush or an old

electric toothbrush for more efficient cleaning.

When planning to clean your tiles and grout, you can do it yourself or hire professional tile and grout cleaners. The good thing about a professional is that they come with specialized cleaning equipment and products, making the process faster. Also, depending on the condition of your tiles, you may have to hire a contractor to regrout the tiles.

6. Build Extra Storage

Storage is an essential resource in any home. Without enough storage, your house can become cluttered and disorganized, significantly affecting its look and feel. But luckily, several one day home improvement projects can help you create more storage for your home.

If you want to add more storage to your home, building shelves is an excellent project. They are easy to build and require little technical expertise. They also need a few construction materials, making them an inexpensive storage solution. Furthermore, shelves are ideal for several places in your home, from your kitchen to the living room, bathrooms, and bedrooms.

Besides shelves, other storage projects you can carry out include closets, drawers, and cabinets. You can also create some multifunctional furniture pieces with storage spaces, for example, a bed, sofa, or ottoman with hidden storage. These projects are simple, and you can complete them in a few hours. However, you can hire a contractor to speed up the process and provide more professional storage solutions.

7. Fix or Update Your Door Hardware

Updating your door hardware is another quick and easy but effective home improvement that can transform your house. You can enhance the appearance of your home by changing hardware items such as door knobs and handles. Likewise, changing or updating the door locks can help improve your home’s security, especially after moving to a new home or suffering a security incident.

If you’re looking to update your door knobs and handles, you’ll be glad to know that it’s a straightforward process that you can do yourself. On the other hand, fixing or replacing door locks can be complex. Therefore, hiring a professional locksmith might be a good idea – it will ensure your new locks are secure.

When planning to repair or update your doors, you should also remember your garage. On top of being a huge inconvenience, a faulty garage door can be a safety and security risk. Furthermore, it can sustain more damages over time, thus requiring more expensive repairs. Therefore, you should hire a garage door repair person to fix your garage door at the earliest opportunity.

8. Update Your Light Fixtures

Updating your light fixtures is another one of the most straightforward one day home improvement projects. You don’t need much in the form of finances and expertise to update your home’s lighting. However, it can offer many benefits, such as increased energy efficiency.

Another benefit of updating your light fixtures is that it can help improve the appeal of your home. Lighting is an essential element of interior design, and it can help transform the look and feel of your house. Light fixtures can also act as décor, making your home even more attractive.

There are numerous ideas to consider when looking to update your lighting. For interior lighting, recessed, surface-mounted, wall-mounted, and pendant light fixtures can give your house a new look. You can also consider installing LED lights under the cabinets, shelves, and on the stairway, which can significantly improve the mood of your home.

Lastly, you should also remember to update your outdoor lights, which will help improve security. Additionally, it can make your outdoor living spaces more inviting and help enhance your home’s curb appeal once darkness sets in.

9. Clean Up Your Yard

Yard cleanup is another one of the top one day home improvement projects that are simple but very effective. Cleaning your yard will help to improve the aesthetic appeal of your home. It can also promote the healthy and vigorous growth of your lawn and other plants in the yard.

To clean up your yard, you can start by raking up leaves and removing any debris in your garden and lawn. Mowing your lawn is another cleanup activity that will help your yard look neat and beautiful. Tree pruning is another excellent idea, especially if you have overgrown trees or branches overhanging the roof or gutters.

Yard cleanup is easy and will only take a few hours. However, you can hire professional landscaping services if it’s overwhelming. A landscaper can also help you develop cool ideas for your yard to boost your home’s curb appeal.

10. Start a Garden

A garden is another one of the top one day home improvement projects you can carry out. Gardening has many benefits, especially in helping to improve your home’s beauty. It’s also an excellent way to add healthy foods to your dinner table. On top of that, gardening is a soothing and relaxing activity that can help improve your health.

Starting a garden is easy – you only need space outdoors to grow your plants. But even if you don’t have much space, you can use creative ideas such as hanging planters and vertical gardens to grow your plants. Gardening supplies such as top soil, manure, mulching, fertilizers, and pesticides are also easy to find and inexpensive.

The type of plants you will grow in your garden will depend on your preference. For example, you can have a vegetable garden where you plant kale, tomatoes, lettuce, broccoli, and other edible plants. You can also grow decorative plants such as flowers, or better yet, plant both edible and ornamental plants.

Are you worried about finances or lack time to carry out home renovations? You need not be! Improving your home can be inexpensive and take little time. With the above one day home improvement projects, you can transform the look and feel of your house within a few hours. And since most of these projects are very easy to plan and execute, you can DIY them or hire professionals per your preference.