Is your patio oh so shabby? These super-easy projects will make hanging outside fun again.

#1 Use Pine Cones to Stop Patio Pests

It’s hard to enjoy your patio if it’s covered in debris scattered by the wind or by critters with a penchant for digging and trampling. Stop critters with the humble pine cone — instead of regular mulch.

#2 Make a Concrete Patio Pop With Color

Rejuvenate that dilapidated patio with color in a can.

Try painting it a bold, bright color or a fun pattern, like chevron. You can also mimic the appearance of upscale stone patios with just a bit of paint and some stamps.

#3 Remove Rust from Outdoor Furniture

There are several ways to remove rust. If the damage isn’t too extensive, the job can be as simple as scraping it off. Use a wire brush, sandpaper, or steel wool — and a bit of elbow grease — to scour it away. For less effort, use a drill with a wire brush attachment.

#2 Express Yourself With Kitchen Color

Kitchen color is the great game changer for a creative kitchen. It’s a quick and easy way to update your kitchen’s look and feel. White, gray, and beige are still popular palettes for kitchens, but livelier hues are showing up, according to a 2021 Houzz survey. If you’re timid about the new shades — lots of blues and greens — consider small doses in a few perimeter cabinets.

#3 Blend Your Spaces for Seamlessness

The kitchen has become more of a room to live in. Even if you already have an open floor plan with adjoining spaces, you may want your furnishings, color palette, and accessories to blend more seamlessly. That way, there’s no jarring change from one room to another.

#4 Go for Convenience With Smart Appliances

Your tech-savvy side wants to find ways to use the latest developments in kitchen equipment to save time and effort. Why not get a jump on preheating the oven for the chicken you plan to roast after a hard day at work — or reheating the one you bought at the supermarket.

Clean or Replace Door Hinges

Telltale paint on door hinges says someone did a sloppy job.

To restore hinges, try these techniques:

• Wash with sudsy hot water.
• Scrub with a nylon brush or a toothbrush. A wire brush could damage the finish.
• Brush on paint stripper that is safe for all surfaces.
• Polish with beeswax furniture polish or brass polish.

Ahhh! Sparkling floors, gleaming windows, and zero dust bunnies. A thorough cleaning can make your abode feel brand new. But that immaculate house comes with a price — sore biceps. Here’s how to deep clean your house without skimping, or pulling a muscle.

Best of all, these brilliant hacks — for nine pain-in-the-butt tasks — will deliver the same pristine results with half the time and energy.

#1 Break Out the Drill on Your Bathtub
Cleaning a grungy tub can be back-breaking work. But here’s a genius idea that’ll save you time and sweat: Use your drill. Simply attach a scrubby (or a foam ball polishing attachment if you happen to have one) and use it to do the deep cleaning for you. Look in the automotive section for the attachment, which is made specially for tackling grime without scratching surfaces.

#2 Soak Stove Burners in Ammonia
Your stove burners take the bulk of the greasy, gunky mess during cooking, so do them a favor and give them a deep cleaning. Don’t worry: No scrubbing involved. To clear the crud, combine your stove burners and one-quarter cup ammonia in a plastic bag and let them sit overnight. They should come clean with a light sponge the next day.

#3 Run Floor Vents Through the Dishwasher
When debating how to deep clean your house, you can’t go much deeper than tackling your floor and ceiling vents. Scour as you might, removing all the accumulated dirt and dust from vents can be a spring cleaner’s nightmare. If your vents are made of aluminum or steel, there’s a shortcut to spic-and-span: Just run them through the dishwasher on a water-only cycle.

#4 Iron Out Bad Carpet Stains
Don’t spend an hour scrubbing out that nasty, set-in carpet splotch. Iron it out instead. Spritz a solution of one part vinegar and three parts water on the stain, and lay a clean cotton cloth on top. Turn your iron to its highest steam setting and run it over the stain for about 10 seconds to transfer the stain to the cloth and off your carpet.

#5 Tie a Bag of Vinegar Around Your Showerhead
Mineral build-up on your showerhead can cause low water pressure and wonky water streams. But deep cleaning them is easy without removing them. Using a rubber band, attach a bag of vinegar to your showerhead, making sure all the holes are submerged in the vinegar, and soak it overnight. Voilà. Good as new.

#6 Make Your Leaf Blower Multi-Task
Forget the broom and rags when you’re cleaning out the garage. Whip out your leaf blower and let it blow all the dust, debris, and dead bugs (yuck!) away from the floor and shelving. Just be sure to put away lightweight things that could accidentally get blown out with the trash.

#7 Get Rid of Crayon Marks with Goo Gone
Removing evidence of your toddler’s overactive imagination from your gorgeous white walls can be a struggle, but a little bit of Goo Gone (traditionally used to clean sticker residue) will remove the crayon and your headache. Spray it on the drawing, wait a moment, and wipe it off cleanly — without exhausting your arms.

#8 Boil Your Range Filter
There’s no need to scrub the grease and grime off your range filters. Use a bit of baking soda and your largest pot instead. Set the water to boil, slowly add one-half cup of baking soda, and submerge your filters for about five minutes. (Make sure to dump the water somewhere safe. Grease in the drain is even worse than grimy filters.)

#9 Sprinkle Your Mattress With Baking Soda
Your mattress needs a spring cleaning refresh, too, but you sure can’t toss it in the washing machine. Cleaning gurus recommend dragging your mattress outside, beating it, and letting the sunshine help freshen it, then dragging it back in. How to deep clean your house shouldn’t result in a herniated disk.

This is much easier: Use a kitchen strainer to sprinkle baking soda over the surface and let the mattress sit for an hour or longer. Longer is better. Then use your vacuum’s upholstery attachment to suck up the odor-absorbing soda.

#3 Use Vertical Space to Organize

It’s surprising how often wall space is overlooked as an organizing solution. When everything you need is right there on your wall and easy to find, your productivity jumps. Buy ready-to-hang cubbies, or create your own system, and hang them just as you would a collection of pictures.

Vinyl Kitchen Flooring Is Ideal When:

• You cook a lot.
• You want the easiest-to-maintain floor.
• You’re on a tight budget.

Porcelain Kitchen Tile Flooring Is Ideal When:

• You want the toughest flooring.
• You like the look of stone.
• You want low maintenance.

2. Capitalize on Crevices

That 6-inch space between your refrigerator and the wall can either be a destination for dust bunnies or the answer to your small-kitchen storage woes. Classy Clutter blogger Mallory Nikolaus spent just $110 to build a pull-out pantry for canned goods and spices.

3. Conceal an Eyesore, Create Storage

Situated next to the back door, the home’s electric and cable boxes and create built-in storage for a garden hose and cleaning supplies was a longtime eyesore, but it took just one day to fix. Farrar and her husband removed the top and back of the armoire and built a concrete-stone foundation to keep the cabinetry out of any standing water.

4. Beef Up Bed Storage

Your bed takes up prime real estate in your home. And for all but eight hours of the day, it doesn’t serve much of a purpose. Why not put that space to work? Beds with built-in drawers are convenient for in-season clothing, while lift-up mattresses like this Ikea model offer a box-spring-size storage area for items you don’t need every day.

Before You Stage, Budget Accordingly

Many listing agents offer staging services to clients as part of their services. If you want to use someone you find yourself, you typically will have to pay out of pocket.

Staging costs vary depending on where you live and how many rooms you’re staging. Home sellers can expect to pay $500 to $2,000. If your house is empty because you’ve already moved, you might also have additional expenses for renting furniture and other homey decorations to make it look lived-in.

Virtual Staging

Keep in mind staging can be conducted virtually these days. If you don’t know of any virtual stagers, ask your agent for recommendations. These stagers offer video consultations, where they can advise while you execute the changes. They may also digitally modify images, which must be fully disclosed to buyers.

Be the home on the block that bugs run from.

A lush spot for outdoor entertaining? Great. Perfect. A constant swarm of insects that invade your patio and home? No, thank you. Here’s how to keep bugs away from your patio and yard, and from getting inside your house.

#1 Install Patio Fans

Mosquitos may have a tough sting, but they’re wimps when it comes to standing up to a breeze. Patio fans can keep your outdoor entertaining space free from mosquitoes (and other little flyers) with the flip of a switch. And you’ll get the benefit of a cool breeze.

#2 Don’t Mulch Too Much (or Too Little)

While mulching is generally a good thing for curb appeal, overdoing it can cause problems.

It could give cockroaches and ants the ideal environment to nest and find their way into your home, says Brittany Campbell, an entomologist and technical services manager at Control Services in Omaha. As mulch decomposes, it generates heat while providing cover for brooding pests. It can even help mice tunnel into your home.

So keep mulch at least 12 inches away from the foundation — or use inorganic mulch, such as rock or gravel.

But don’t go in the opposite direction and forgo mulching altogether, leaving the ground essentially bare. Yellow jackets make their nests by tunneling into bare dirt.

#3 Get Rid of Standing Water

You probably know this one already. But did you know your gutters and downspouts may harbor multiple mosquito maternity wards?

Clean out gutters and downspouts regularly to prevent clogs that can trap water and give those nasty stingers a place to breed.

Also make sure to keep kiddie pools, buckets, and watering cans empty when not in use.

Even your beloved birdbath can be an issue. “Make sure you get one with running water, so you don’t inadvertently create a mosquito breeding ground,” says Kevin Espiritu, home landscaping expert and author.

#4 Keep Your Yard Trimmed, Mowed, and Tidy

Pull out that lawnmower regularly and keep your garden shears sharpened.

“Ticks like to hide in tall grass and wait for a passing human or animal, while bushes or tree limbs touching the home can provide easy access for pests to get indoors,” says Campbell.

Plus having a tidy yard makes for good curb appeal.

#5 Add Landscaping Plants That Bugs Hate

Bugs hate strong scents of mint or citrus. Mix plants with those scents into your landscaping, especially near the porch, patio, or deck for added beauty and functionality.

Here are some pest-repelling plants and the bugs that hate them:

• Basil: flies, mosquitoes
• Catnip: mosquitoes, ticks, flies, cockroaches
• Chrysanthemums: roaches, ants, ticks, fleas, bedbugs
• Lavender: moths, fleas, flies, mosquitoes
• Citronella: mosquitoes
• Geranium, lemon scented: mosquitoes
• Lemon thyme: mosquitoes
• Marigold: mosquitoes
• Rosemary: mosquitoes

#6 Paint Your Home Lighter Colors

Studies show that bugs see dark and bright colors more easily, which is why people are often advised to wear light-colored clothing to repel them. The same principle may work for your home.

Choose lighter shades of paint color for your home’s siding, doors, trim, and other features such as fencing, patio, and decking to make them less attractive to mosquitoes.

And if pesky birds are a problem, avoid paint that’s the same color as their favorite foods.

Just be sure the paint job fits into the neighborhood and enhances your home’s beauty. Bugs are a pain, but hurting your home’s value is more painful.

#7 Build a Bat House

If you live in an area where bats are local, lucky you. Really. Harness their appetite for insects to control pests in your yard. You can invite them to be your permanent guests by building a bat house. According to Bat Conservation International, one small bat can consume up to 1,000 mosquitoes per hour!

#3 Make It Easy to Use All Your Devices

Our devices and electronics have conspired to keep us on lock down inside.

#4 Crank Up the Mood Lighting

Outdoor lighting dresses up your home’s marketability and appeal (exterior lighting is buyers’ second most wanted outdoor feature, according to the NAHB study), makes it safer, and lets you spend more time outside.