If you’ve got a spare weekend and want to do something to improve your home, take a few seconds to read the advice that follows. While not everyone can do it themselves, even those who are hiring a professional, will benefit from understanding a few of basics of home improvement.

Changing a tire can be problematic if you don’t happen to be a very strong person. Loosening the lug nuts, in particular, can take more strength than many of us have. Use a cheater bar! A yard long piece of pipe that is just big enough to fit over the end of your lug wrench will give you that extra leverage to get the job done.

When it comes to home improvement, small things such as replacing your central air blower’s air filters are essential. This is important both to the efficiency of the blower, as well as being a necessary maintenance procedure. If you allow dust and dirt to gather and even bypass the filter, it will gather within the moving parts of the blower and eventually cause it to fail.

When it comes to home improvement, small additions such as power strips and surge protectors can be extremely beneficial. Power strips allow for you to easily turn off groups of electronics, saving money on energy. Most surge protectors will protect your electronics from lightning strikes and power surges.

Having a small kitchen doesn’t have to be all bad. Since you have limited surfaces and space to work with, make sure to purchase a sink with a deep bowl. Then add some elegant high- end faucets to match the rest of your kitchen. You can easily create a feeling of space without having to compromise the rest of your home.

Instead of purchasing white towels for your bathroom, choose darker colors or patterns. White is a color that picks up everything and needs constant bleaching. You can choose to have your fingertip towels and washcloths to be one color and your actual bath towels to be a different color altogether. It saves a lot of trouble when washing and makes your bathroom appear a lot cleaner and put together.

Strategically placed mirrors, can add visual interest to any room and make the area feel more spacious. This is especially useful in small bathrooms. Use adhesive-backed mirrors from any home improvement center, to create a distinctive design, that adds impact and an illusion of more space. This project can be easily achieved in under an hour and with, as little as, fifty dollars.

If you live in an older home with its original fixtures, chances are you may need some major updates to keep the sinks and tubs looking fresh. Finding mint-condition vintage fixtures is time-consuming and expensive, but modern fixtures don’t quite jive with a vintage room. Instead, consider refinishing your porcelain, fiberglass, or cast-iron fixtures. The process is far more affordable and can be completed fairly quickly.

Now that you have a basic understanding of home improvement, in general and the types of projects you should be looking into, you can see how it has the potential to benefit the quality of your home, as well as, your bottom line. You’re ready to get out there and tackle the weekend.