The Real Reason Why the Projects in Your Home Never Get Done

and a few tips on how to change your approach and stay on course with your project

Raise your hand if you've ever found yourself stuck in the endless cycle of "small" home projects. One of the projects in my own home that has been hanging over me is redoing the plumbing in my bathroom. It’s only been 5 years since I built it, but unfortunately, it was installed poorly from the get-go, so we’ve had issues with it from the beginning.

Even though it’s something that needs to be done, I’ve been avoiding it because I wasn’t sure what the project would entail and it seemed like too much effort and work to start. I think this is one of the reasons that home projects get so overwhelming—they just seem to get too big, too fast with so many things to accomplish.

I’ve learned a few tricks after being in the business for so long that might help take away some of that stress for anyone stuck in the thought cycle above.

1. break the project up into small actionable steps: try not to think so far down the road. Take the first step and get more information. For me, the first step was talking to a plumber to see what he thought about the project. He said that I might need to replace the tile in order to fix the plumbing, so…

2. gather all the info: my next step was to look for the tile I used and make sure it’s still in stock. This is the part of a project that I like to think of as the gathering information stage. This is where you get all of the information that you need to make your next or final decision. In my case, I found out that the tile was still in stock (yay!!), and my next step after that was to get pricing from the plumber so that I knew how much the project would cost in total.

3. make the decision to do, or not to do: after getting all of the pricing together I’ve decided now is a good time to move forward. I’m currently in the process of making a plan for when I’m going to start the project.

A few things that I think are super important to remember in this planning phase are, to wait until you’re able to spend the time and money needed to finish the project properly and set a realistic and concrete deadline. If you don’t do both of these things, your project is going to feel 10x more stressful. If you’ve worked in the home industry, you know that any kind of project takes time and money (and often more of both than you’d like), so it’s really important to have realistic expectations and the means to complete the project.

Once you’re mid-project, things might still feel overwhelming. Maybe you find yourself questioning your design decisions—this is the time to get off social media to avoid making impulsive changes. Once you have your design plan, stick to it and try not to let social media influence you. Or, maybe timelines get pushed back—this is when you need to practice patience, good things take time.

The way that you approach a project makes all of the difference and the key to finishing any small project is to take your time, stay organized, and make sure you have the resources to get the job done right. So, whether you’re at the beginning of the cycle or stuck somewhere in the middle, I hope that these tips will help you to stay the course and finish your project.