Holiday Prep

The holidays can be stressful as it is, but once you add in entertaining guests at your home it can become downright overwhelming. With family visiting from out of town this year, I asked Chris to knock out a few easy DIY upgrades in our home to get an early jump start on preparing for our holiday guests.

To make sure he had no excuses to get to work, I headed over to The Home Depot to pick up all of the items needed for each project. I even grabbed Chris an early Christmas present as a little extra motivation. The Home Depot always has the best tool deals during the holidays!

He's been talking about upgrading all of his tools to the Milwaukee line for years! I even upgraded his small old toolboxes to this huge Husky Heavy Duty 15 Drawer Rolling Tool Chest!

Chris is definitely a happy man!!!

Now let’s put these new tools to work!

Here are 5 easy DIY upgrades you can knock out this weekend to help prep your home for your holiday entertaining.

We love its sleek design and that it really is “smart” enough to help track our daily energy usage while learning how we live in our home, helping us to save on our energy bill all while still keeping our home feeling comfortable.

It makes controlling the temperature in your home super easy for everyone and it conveniently allows you to adjust the temperature for your guests remotely via your cell phone.

If you're the one traveling out of town for the holidays this year, a smart thermostat like the Nest is the perfect way to conserve energy while you are away. And again, it can all be set up and monitored via the app on your smartphone.

I can’t tell you how many times we’ve taken a trip out of town and forgotten our phone charger adaptor but had an extra charging cord plugged into the car or thrown in our bag. With this simple upgrade, your guests can easily charge their phones with just their cords while freeing up the 3 prong outlets for other devices.

It's actually been said that the charge is up to 40% faster this way! I'm loving this simple upgrade so much that I've already convinced Chris to convert all of the outlets in our bedroom, living room, and kitchen over to USBs as well!

Adding a smart lock system to your home makes it super easy to lock and unlock your doors from afar with the convenience of your smartphone.

You can also give your visitors a temporary keypad code which gives guests the freedom to come and go as they please without having to worry about needing a key.

Not only does Lockly’s smart keypad make things more convenient for you and your guests, but the HD Video doorbell also adds another level of security to your home, which during the holiday season is a must!

The Chamberlain Smart Garage Opener is a decently inexpensive option for those looking to add smart technology to their home. With many homes having a guest bedroom above or near the garage, installing an ultra-quiet system like the Chamberlain is a great way to add additional comfort to your guests stay.

And with the convenience of the MyQ mobile app, you can easily give your guests access to your home while you are away.
Now, do you see why it's on our holiday prep list?!

A smudge here… chip there…or in our case a whole wall, Behr Ultra Scuff Defense is a paint and primer in one with advanced scuff resistance and outstanding durability for all your high-traffic areas. It totally lives up to all of the hype!