One of the biggest detractors to living in an apartment over your own home is a lack of freedom when it comes to upgrading your apartment’s technology, specifically when it requires changes that are forbidden by the landlord. We’ve compiled a list of 10 tech upgrades that will make your life easier while still keeping your property manager happy.

Concerned about your safety and belongings in your apartment?

Interested in home security, but you aren’t allowed to run wires through the walls in your apartment? Check out Canary, a wireless home security alarm solution. The device is placed at a central location in your apartment and connects to your home’s Wi-Fi network. Using a learning algorithm, the device learns when you are typically home versus when you are not. If the Canary senses motion at an abnormal time, the owner receives a smartphone notification and recorded HD video of the event.

The owner can also tune in live at any time, sound a siren or contact the authorities if there’s any trouble. On top of that, it keeps records of when people come and go to the home as well as use cloud storage to save video / audio over the last 90 days. As an added bonus, the device also tracks air quality, temperature and humidity in the home for health benefits.

Pricing: The Canary is a relatively new product that hasn’t seen much of a price reduction yet. The retail cost is $249 and the device is available at Amazon, Best Buy, Home Depot and Verizon stores. If you purchase it directly from the company, it comes with a 60-day money back guarantee if you decide it’s not the right gadget for you.

Are bulky chargers making your furniture stick out?

Want all the benefits of USB charging without swapping out outlet hardware or setting up a USB charging station? Take a look at the SnapPower USB Charger, a simple outlet covering that adds a single USB charging station with just a turn of a screwdriver. The unique design of the outlet plate draws power from the screws on the side of the existing outlet. It’s also completely flat to the fall, ideal for small apartments that have limited space for furniture.

The SnapPower USB Charger comes in two designs and three colors, based off the type of outlets in your apartment. To install, you basically just remove the existing outlet cover and screw on the new cover. When you are ready to move to a new apartment or home, it’s easy to retrieve the hardware and replace it with the old plates. This will keep your landlord happy and give you USB charging without the bulky charger.

Pricing:  At the moment, you can only purchase the SnapPower outlet cover from the company that’s making it: LINK. Preorder pricing is based on the volume of your order. Purchasing a single cover will cost $20 while purchasing 5 covers brings the cost down to $16 each. The outlet covers are expected to ship during September 2015.

Does your apartment lack outlets?

Obviously, it’s easy to expand the number those outlets you have by purchasing a power strip. However, it’s not easy to hide a large power strip in an apartment or fit multiple, bulky chargers on a single strip. Enter the Pivot Power strip, a flexible strip that can be transformed into a variety of shapes.

For instance, you could wrap the power strip around a leg of an end table, effectively hiding the strip from guests. The strip also offers surge protection as well as four feet of cord to reach your nearest outlet.

Pricing:  The Pivot Power retails for $20, however you should be able to find it on sale consistently between $13 and $15 at Amazon. It comes in a variety of colors as well, ideal for anyone that’s decorated their apartment recently.

Love cooking, but hate your apartment’s unreliable appliances?

Arriving in Fall 2015, the Meld Knob is a high-tech automated cooking solution that replaces an existing burner knob on your stove. The knob automatically turns the burner to lower and raise temperature based off temperature readings being received from the Meld Clip. The clip attaches to existing cookware that you already own and measures temperature within 1 degree of the food’s actual temperature.

Utilizing the included mobile app, the user can browse through existing recipes as well as upload their own recipes. Communicating with the mobile device, the knob knows exactly how long to cook your meal as well as the appropriate time to stop cooking completely.

Pricing: The knob was fully funded on Kickstarter this year at a $99 preorder price and is expected to retail for $149 later this year, likely available on Amazon and other Web retailers.

Looking to add an extra A/C window unit in your apartment?

As summer temps are climbing, the need to reliable air conditioning is a must. Take a look at Quirky’s Aros, a smart window air conditioner that was developed in partnership with GE. Learning from your living habits similar to the Nest thermostat, the Aros uses your smartphone’s GPS to determine the best time to fire up before you arrive home.

It also uses a predictive algorithm to determine the temperatures you will like at different times of day. Using a mobile application, an Aros user can track an estimate of how much you have spent on cooling each day and compare that against the national average.

Pricing: The device currently retails for $249.99 and is found at Amazon and Walmart. While sales will be scarce during the summer months, look for the best price at the end of summer. Last September, the price on the Aros dipped down as low as $180 as summer came to a close and inventory was still high.

Do you have horrible central air / heat in your apartment?

Some apartments are notorious for having terrible air flow in different rooms, either the room is too hot or it’s too cold. Ideal for apartment roommates that can’t agree on the temperature, the Keen Smart Vent is a replacement vent for existing air flow vents in most apartments. Powered by four AA batteries, the vent connects to the home’s Wi-Fi network and automatically opens or closes the vent based off the existing temperature in the room.

Similar to other learning devices, the vent will tech itself the best pattern for the person using the room. It can also be controlled manually from a mobile device, but it’s specifically designed to work autonomously.

Pricing: The vents are expected to start shipping in Summer 2015 and can be preordered for a price of $145 for two vents (MSRP: $180). Similar to the SnapPower outlet cover, the price per vent will fall based on the volume of your order.

Do you have a windowless bedroom in your apartment?

Are you subleasing a “bedroom” (probably a closet) in an expensive city like New York or Los Angeles? Does your bedroom simply lack a window? You need the Philips Wake-up Light, an alarm clock that simulates sunlight pouring into your room at the start of each morning. It can also be used as a bedside lamp at night at a variety of different intensities.

Ideally, you should place the clock a couple feet from your head on a bedside table and allow it to slowly wake you up with light. Of course, the alarm clock also includes a standard alarm, FM radio as well as simulated birds chirping to go along with the light.

Pricing: Philips sells multiple models of this design for prices between $69.99 and $99.99. Look for discounts up to 25 to 30 percent off the original MSRP frequently at retailers like Amazon and Walgreens. The device can also be purchased from Philips directly.

Hate fumbling for your keys at your apartment’s front door?

Assuming you have a landlord that’s willing to let you swap out your front door deadbolt, check out the Kwikset Kevo. While there are multiple types of smart locks that interact with your smartphone, this is one of the only models that provides a physical key for the landlord to carry as well as look similar to existing hardware in an apartment complex.

Using Bluetooth connectivity with your mobile device, all you have to do is tap the lock when you arrive home and it will unlock due to the proximity of your smartphone. You can also provide access to guests by supplying a guest eKey that expires after 24 hours. Basically, you can let someone into your apartment without having to be physically at the location. Of course, if your smartphone dies, you always have a physical key as a backup to unlock the door.

Pricing: Retailing for $219 at stores such as Amazon, Home Depot, Lowes, Best Buy and Newegg, you can often find the Kevo on sale at the $199 price point. Amazon occasionally drops the price to $180, but the lowest recorded price to date was $150 at Sears during April.

Want whole-home audio without running wires through walls?

Easily one of the most popular wireless solutions for whole-home audio, the Sonos Play:1 speakers are a compact audio solution that lets you stream music simultaneously to all Wi-Fi connected Sonos speakers. The music you are listening to in your kitchen can carry over to the living room, bedroom and any other room in your apartment.

There are also more robust speakers in the Sonos line, if you need a more expansive sound across a larger space. Music can be controlled from a Wi-Fi connected mobile device, either playing from a personal collection or all the streaming music services available today.

Pricing: The bad news is that wireless comes at a price. A single Sonos Play:1 speaker runs $199 and the more robust speakers run between $299 and $399. However, you can find deals on a set of two Sonos Play:1 speakers at a $349 price point at retailers such as Amazon, Crutchfield, Best Buy and World Wide Stereo. During Christmas sales, you will also find discounts on a single Sonos Play:1 speaker as low as $160.

Hate setting off your apartment’s obnoxious smoke detectors?

Many apartments have smoke detectors placed near the kitchen with a sensitivity that alerts the entire apartment to some slightly burnt toast. Enter the Nest Protect, a combination smoke and carbon monoxide detector that allows you to simply wave off the alarm rather than seek out your step stool to reach the ceiling.

Connecting to your mobile devices over Wi-Fi, the advanced hardware sends messages when the batteries are running low as well as constantly runs a test nightly to make sure everything is working. It also uses a human voice alert to specifically identify the problem as well as the area of the home that set off the alarm.

Pricing: At a $99 MSRP, you can find the 2nd generation Nest Protect coming soon to retailers such as Best Buy, Home Depot, Amazon and the company site. Sales on the device are extremely infrequent, rarely dropping below $90. However, the device originally debuted at a $129 price point, thus the reduced MSRP could be considered a deal for people that aren’t early adopters.

10 Awesome Tech Upgrades for Apartment Dwellers

If you purchased a house using a conventional loan & put up less than 20% for your down payment, you are paying PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance) on top of your mortgage payment each month.  That insurance isn’t for you, it’s for the lender. PMI protects the lender in case the home is sold in foreclosure for less than what’s owed in the mortgage.

So you get to buy the home without putting up a hefty down payment, but you are forced to pay that premium each month to protect your lender. Aargh! PMI is automatically cancelled once you build up equity in your home, specifically 22 percent or more.

Of course, this can take several years depending on your interest rate. For instance, if you want to buy a $250K home, put $10K down and borrow $240K at 4%, you won’t hit that 22% mark in equity for about 8 years. PMI typically costs between 0.5% to 1% of the entire loan amount annually. You could pay between $1,200 to $2,400 a year ($100 – $200 monthly) on a $240,000 loan.

There are a few ways to escape PMI early, if the value of your home rises based off rising home prices or remodeling. For instance, if that $250K home in the example above rises in value to $300K, then the 22% threshold is now at $234,000. Escaping early could translate to saving thousands of dollars over the next several years!

However, your lender isn’t monitoring your home’s value all the time. It’s up to you to make sure they know. To get the ball rolling, contact your lender and see if you can get PMI removed by doing an appraisal. If yes, your lender will send you a letter via snail mail detailing multiple options.

Here’s a sample of options a lender could send over:

• Option 1: Send a check to cover an amount that will reduce the LTV (Loan-to-Value) ratio to 78%. You must be current on all mortgage payments.
• Option 2: Send a check to cover an amount that will reduce the LTV ratio to 80%. You also must provide proof the property value hasn’t declined (appraisal) and be current on all mortgage payments.
• Option 3: If you closed on your mortgage within 2 to 5 years ago & have made structural improvements, an appraisal must show the LTV ratio has been reduced to 80%. You must be current on all mortgage payments.
• Option 4: If you closed on your mortgage within 2 to 5 years ago & have NOT made structural improvements, an appraisal must show the LTV ratio has been reduced to 75%. You must be current on all mortgage payments.

Every contract is different, thus you should check with your lender to see their version of the options listed above. Many lenders add terms about not having any late 30-day payments in the last 12 months or late 60-day payments in the last 2 years.

An appraisal typically costs between $450 to $600 depending on your area, so you should be reasonably confident in the value of your home before ordering one. Your lender will typically recommend an appraiser local to your area, but you can take an extra step to shop around if your lender is open to that option.

An appraisal will include a physical home inspection (the interior and exterior of the home), inspection of any additional buildings on the property, a tour of the neighborhood, research into recently sold homes in the area, and a market trend assessment.

Interestingly, there’s a cheaper option than the appraisal (and less in-depth). It’s called a BPO (Broker’s Price Opinion). Your lender will offer this as an option, if available in your area. Typically between $100 and $200, the BPO is performed by a real estate agent.

They come to your house, take pictures of the property and make an estimate of the value based on comps in the area. This is an ideal option if you haven’t made structural improvements (an appraisal is better for that since the that process is significantly more in-depth).

BPO typically takes a few weeks to accomplish, from the time you first contact the lender to the eventual decision. Appraisals can be weeks longer, depending on the complexity. You will receive a full report of the BPO / appraisal from your lender, ideal if you are planning on selling your home a couple years down the line. Your lender should automatically remove PMI from your monthly payment, if you hit the right value.

If your lender doesn’t have any options to remove PMI early based on your contract, consider refinancing your loan (assuming your home’s value has risen). It’s definitely a more time consuming process, but you may be able to reduce your interest rate while also removing PMI.

Good luck!

Real Estate: How to remove PMI early from your mortgage & save money

Have you ever chosen snoozing over your job?

For some of us, it’s a critical decision we make every single day of our lives. Those first moments in the early morning are a chaotic warzone where your primal love of sleep battles a gradually growing voice of reason. Regular alarm clocks don’t wake us up.  They just make us go back to sleep angry.

We’re not alone. There are many of us who, try as we might, just can’t succumb to the sweet wiles of responsibility.

For people that need extra help getting up, there’s a whole industry of alarm clocks that go the extra mile… to hell! These evil alarm clocks are the last thing we want in the morning, but exactly what we need.

Below, we list the 5 evilest alarm clocks, organized from least to most evil.

Sonic Bomb Dual Alarm Clock with Bed Shaker

If the bed is rockin’… maybe you should get up. The Sonic Bomb Dual Alarm Clock with Bed Shaker ($33.26) is designed specifically for people who sleep through most alarms, not really snoozers. The first assault is a 113-decibel sound blast that dwarves most alarms, coupled with a pulsating light show. But the heavy artillery is the vibrator unit placed under the bed or mattress. This desperate measure works miracles with even the heaviest sleeper.

Buy the Sonic Bomb Dual Alarm Clock with Bed Shaker Now

Walk Me Up! Alarm Clock App

You’re up, but so what? It won’t stay that way for long… unless you get moving. The Walk Me Up! Alarm Clock App (Free App) requires you to walk a certain amount of steps before the alarm turns off. You set up the number of steps you want, and can modify the step sensitivity. And don’t try to cheat! The advanced “shake” detectors will punish disobedience.

Buy the Walk Me Up! Alarm Clock App Now

Screaming Meanie

The Screaming Meanie ($31.95) is another alarm designed to wake up heavy sleepers, except with no pretense of courtesy. The reviews read like confessions from an S&M forum (“it just about blew me out of bed, and all I could think was ‘make it stop! make it stop!'”).

This loudmouth comes with three settings of audio levels similar to a vacuum cleaner, a lawnmower, and a full-throttle chainsaw. Many alarms only claim to hit 120 decibels, but real customers confirm this was one, unfortunately, really does.

Buy the Screaming Meanie Now

Alarmy (Sleep If U Can) Alarm App

Don’t be fooled by the cutesy name of the Alarmy (Sleep If U Can) Alarm App (Free App). It’s nickname of “The World’s Most Annoying Alarm App” is more accurate.

This user-friendly, user-hating technology only shuts off when the sleeper completes mild tasks. The most common is taking a picture in a specified location (where you first register the app), so for example, it won’t shut off until you take a picture of the toilet. Other options include a number of shakes and brain-waking arithmetic.

Buy the Alarmy (Sleep If U Can) Alarm App Now

SnūzNLūz Wifi Donation Clock

Last, we arrive at the evilest alarm clock in the world. The games are over, and this clock is not f*cking around. Instead of relying on gimmicks like loud noise or tasks, the SnūzNLūz Wifi Donation Clock ($39.99) uses psychological — and financial — warfare. Every time you snooze, it donates $10 or more to a charity/non-profit you hate.

While alarm clocks that shred your real money turned out to be illegal, this one uses a wifi connection to your bank account in order to waste your money responsibly. You choose the donation amount (at least $10) and recipient — anyone from the Republican Party, PETA, or your neighbor with the loud dog. This is the only clock that gets in your head to wake you up from the inside out.

Buy the SnūzNLūz Wifi Donation Clock Now

5 Evil Alarm Clocks That Will Force Snooze Addicts to Wake Up

While some Americans are downsizing their lifestyle from expensive homes to cheaper apartments, what about upsizing? As the housing market rebounds, more people are thinking about buying their first home and saving up that 20 percent down payment.

Of course, there are a number of things that you may not be aware of when moving from an apartment to a full-sized home, much of which was likely taken care of by the management at your apartment complex. Whether you are buying or renting your first full-size home, here’s exactly what you should be ready for:

The NeverEnding Story (minus Falcor, plus lots of grass)

See all that grass growing in the font yard? It needs to be cut. Every week, without fail. There’s no landlord to take care of it anymore and you may have a HOA breathing down your neck making sure your home is maintained. While you can certainly hire a gardener to take care of your lawn each week after moving in, you can also pick up some lawn care equipment and grab some outdoor time during the weekend to cut the grass, pulls the weeds and trim the shrubs.

To start, you will probably need gas powered tools such as a push mower and a weedwacker as well as a batch of hand tools that include hedge clippers, a rake, a shovel, a water hose, a sprinkler and a spreader to fertilize your lawn. For cold climates, you should also consider a snow shovel. For hot, desert climates, you may have to invest in multiple sprinklers or a sprinkler system to keep that grass green all year long.

Look for deals during April and November at Home Depot and other retailers like Lowes and Sears that also sell lawn equipment. Home Depot likes to treat April as the Black Friday of the Spring, thus you will see significant discounts on lawn care gear.

Check Ben’s for Home & Garden Deals

You Don’t Want to Become Bane (So Buy Some Lights)

Most apartments have built-in lights at the center of the room, typically attached to ceiling fans. That’s not always going to be the case within a home, especially older homes that were built fifteen years ago or more. Some homes may only have light fixtures in the kitchen and bathrooms while ignoring the rooms that people spend the majority of their time in, like the living room, family room or bedrooms.

If you are handy and the wiring already exists, peruse through the lighting fixtures at Home Depot or Lowes to find something that works with your taste. If electrical work scares you, consider outfitting your home with floor lamps after moving in. Many homes have outlets connected to electrical switches, thus you can leave the light on all the time and simply use the switch to turn it off and on.

If you are looking for some inexpensive floor lamps, check out the collections below:

Target  Walmart  Amazon

Without Fail, Things are Going to Break

It’s an inevitability of owning or renting a home. Something will happen that require more than that starter tool kit that you got in college. You know, the one in the plastic case that’s missing all the screwdrivers. And the hammer. And the tape measure. The one that’s been buried in the back of your closet for the last 4 months and only makes an appearance when you need a penny nail to hang up a picture (using your shoe as the hammer, of course).

It’s time to invest in a real tool set. There are tons of deals on full hand tool sets, but if you want to buy the tools separately after moving, here are the essentials: a toolbox, a hammer, vice grips, needle-nose plyers, screwdriver set, a metal pry bar, wire cutters, a utility knife, a hand saw, a steel chisel, a drill bit set (assuming you have a power drill), a tape measure, a torpedo level and safety glasses. That’s going to take care of the vast majority of household fixes.

You are also going to want storage and organization when it comes to your tools. Assuming your new home has a garage, invest in some cheap pegboard, metal hooks and a stud finder at a hardware store. Mount that pegboard an inch or two off the wall and you can easily hang up all of your large garden tools. Looks for deals on storage chests for your small hand tools as well.

Check Ben’s for Deals on Tools

You Will Be Invaded By an Army of Millions

You know what else that your apartment management company did on a regular basis? They sprayed for all sorts of bugs, basically whatever type of insect is predominant in your area. Now the job of protecting your family from scary bugs falls to you, both on the inside and outside of your new home.

Depending on the size of your property and the nastiness of bugs in the area, you may want to consider paying for monthly spraying around the exterior of your home. The quality of pesticide that an exterminator will use if much more deadly to bugs that the can of Raid that you purchased at Walmart. For those of you with pets, be sure to ask for the pet-friendly version. It may not be as strong, but it’s specifically formulated to be safe for your dog or cat.

On the inside of your home, consider spraying for bugs before you moving in. It’s definitely easier to get to all the nooks and crannies before the furniture is moved in. Your local hardware store will likely have the best selection and provide some helpful assistance on the best spray for your area.

Check Home Depot for Pest Control Gear

Fear Not! That’s Just the Music of Burning Toast

While many homes will come with smoke detectors, it’s going to be up to you to purchase carbon monoxide detectors and fire extinguishers. Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors should be on all floors of your home and near the sleeping areas. You should be testing the alarms monthly, replacing the batteries annually and removing dust from the grilles of the detectors every few months.

Regarding fire extinguishers, you need one in the kitchen and one for each floor. You also need to check them annually to make sure they are charged. If you have a second or third story on your home, consider purchasing a roll-up ladder to escape the home if needed. Don’t overload your electrical outlets (particularly in older homes) as it could cause a fire. You should also keep rechargeable flashlights near beds in case of a fire.

When it comes to home security, make sure you have a deadbolt on all doors that go outside. Install motion-sensing lights in the backyard and along the sides of the home. Insert a metal bar or wooden dowel to lock access to a sliding glass door. Prune all bushes that hide windows (and would hide a burglar) as well as tree limbs leading to windows.

Of course, if you really want to get high-tech with security, you should invest in home monitoring solutions. There are plenty of cheap solutions that will use motion sensors to monitor the interior and exterior of your home as well as record video of any intruders.

Check Bens for Deals on Surveillance Gear

Five Things You’ll Need When Moving from an Apartment to a House

UuuuuuuuAH? Aaaaaaarooh? Ooooooogh! That’s right, feel free to let your best Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor grunt out. (If you don’t understand that reference, hop in a time machine, head back to the early nineties and enjoy the Al Borland show.) It’s time to talk about garage upgrades. You know, the place where you park your cars, pile up old boxes and store the fake Christmas tree.

Your garage can be much more than that though. It can be a respite from screaming kids, ideal for “Serenity Now” chanting. It can be where you work on that clunker you purchased as a fun fix-it-up project, soon to be road-ready in 2023. It can be a place to hang out with nosy neighbors that want to borrow a hammer, and your ladder, and your drill, and everything else you own.

Here our our favorite garage upgrades that can be knocked out in a weekend:

1. Insulate your Garage Door

Insulation can swing the temperature in your garage as much as 30 degrees cooler in the summer and roughly the same the other way in the winter. There are a ton of DIY kits that will allow you to apply insulation to the majority of the surface of your garage door interior. This is particularly ideal if you have an appliance running out in the garage, like a large freezer for storage or a second refrigerator for drinks.

If you are looking for relatively lightweight roll-on insulation, check Amazon for some solid deals. If you are looking for more rigid, moisture resistant insulation, Home Depot sells polystyrene board kits starting around $60. Keep in mind that additional weight will be added to your garage door, thus it may be worthwhile to make sure your garage door opener can handle the additional weight.

Check Insulation Kits on Amazon

2. Make Hauling Stuff into the House Easier

One of my favorite (and least expensive) garage upgrades was something I didn’t know I wanted until I used it; a mounted, flip-down doorstop. Attached on the door leading into the house from the garage, this is ideal for bringing in groceries every week or anything else that’s in the garage. I can flip the doorstop down with my foot and prop the door open while attempting to bring in 20 bags of groceries inside at once (like a crazy person).

In addition to that, consider converting to a horizontal, handle style doorknob as well. It makes it simple to push down to open the door. You don’t have to free up any of your hands to actually twist a knob, again ideal for hauling in bags.

Check Flip-Down Doorstops on Amazon

3. Smarten up your Garage Door

Connecting your garage door to your home’s wireless network can be very helpful, especially if you have kids that leave the door open all the time. You will receive smartphone notifications when the door is open as well as the ability to open / close it remotely. You can also share access with people that need to get into your home, ideal if you don’t have additional remotes.

There are a number of options to accomplish this. If you are purchasing a new garage door opener, Chamberlain’s MyQ system is relatively simply to use. If you are purchasing an after-marketing upgrade for an existing opener, check out GoGoGate as well as Garageio Blackbox. The former is outfitted with 1 sensor for a single door and the latter has up to three sensors for mulitple doors.

Check Smart Garage Door on Amazon

4. Upgrade Your Parking Zones

While hanging a tennis ball from the ceiling is a tried & true method for avoiding parking snafus, there are a few more subtle options to make sure your teenager doesn’t drive through the wall. One of the most popular is the Accupark strip, a simple yellow, plastic parking strip that lets the driver know to stop. This can be particularly useful for anyone that needs to fit a large vehicle in a small garage. You can also upgrade to a parking mat, if you prefer something you can move around.

Another popular option for a parking zone upgrade is adding a wall guard in the area where you open your car door. The super cheap option is to cut a foam pool noodle in half and screw it to the wall. However, if you want a more professional option that may help your home’s resell value, a simple wall guard will run you about $10 on Amazon.

Check Parking Upgrades on Amazon

5. Give the Garage Floor a New Look

There are a number of options for upgrading your garage floor. You can add a floor cover, which sticks to the garage floor (retails around $130) You can use an epoxy shield paint, like the one Rust-Oleum makes (retails around $90). You can install garage floor tiles, an expensive option that usually runs a minimum of $1,000 for a standard two-car garage. More premium tiles can be found at Racedeck, starting at $4 per square foot (roughly $2,000 for a standard 2-car garage).

If you do decide to upgrade the floors, consider adding a garage door threshold seal to seal off any potential gaps as well as keep water out of the garage during a heavy rain. Also, if you have a vehicle that consistently leaks oil, consider picking up an oil leak mat to soak up and access oil and protect that floor.

Check Garage Floor Upgrades on Amazon

6. Make Working in the Garage More Comfortable

If you like tinkering on projects in the garage, there are a few easy ways to add some comfort while you are hammering away. One simple addition is adding an anti-fatigue mat in front of your workbench. Typically used in any industry where workers on on their feet all day, a commercial-grade, anti-fatigue mat will significantly reduce heel pain and leg fatigue. (These mats are also great in the kitchen or at a standing desk)

If you are trying to keep cool, considering installing a wall-mount fan as well as a motion sensor to flip the power to the fan on and off when you enter the garage. And, of course, there are any number of portable garage heaters for anyone working in the garage during the cold, winter months.

Check Anti-Fatigue Mats on Amazon

7. Go Nuts with Storage / Organization

I’ve never met someone that’s said “My garage has too much storage.” There are a MASSIVE number of creative, DIY storage solutions for garages. Here’s a short list of some of our favorite collections of potential projects:

• 35+ DIY Garage Storage Ideas To Help You Reinvent Your Garage On A Budget
• 38 Borderline Genius Ways To Organize Your Garage
• 50 Genius DIY Garage Storage and Organization Project Ideas

You really can’t go wrong with the basics either. Get some pegboard & hooks to hang up those tools. Get some wire, wall-mount shelving to get boxes off the floor. Buy a freestanding shelving unit for all your paint / cans / car wax. Use plastic bins for all the odds and ends that don’t fit anywhere else. Utilize ceiling space to hang bikes or other large items.

8. Move the Mudroom into the Garage

Ideal for anyone with kids, transitioning your mudroom to the garage will keep the mess in an area that’s supposed to get dirty. Ideally positioned near the entrance into the house, you will need hooks to hand coats and backpacks as well as storage bins for shoes, gloves, hats and anything else your kids are wearing.

This type of area can also double as storage for sports equipment, ideal if the kids are into various sports and need to keep track of uniforms as well as equipment. If you really want to get fancy, you could also consider building a bench area for sitting; ideal for taking off / putting on winter clothing.

8 Ways to Upgrade Your Garage Over The Weekend