Longer days and warmer temperatures can only mean one thing: spring is on the way.

Sure, in the Mojave Desert surviving winter isn’t an impressive feat of endurance, but it is still fun to welcome a new season, especially one that is so hard-wired into our primordial brain as is spring.

Spring is the time of rejuvenation. It is a time of renewal and a time when everything seems fresh. So what better time is there to liven up your home a little and make it feel fresh, too?

The first part of the process involves the annual day or two of penance that has historically been called spring cleaning. It is the time when we pay for our sins of sloth during the winter months by cleaning up clutter that has made its way into any available space throughout the house. Getting rid of all the clutter that has accumulated during the past couple of months will make your home look more open and spacious, it will feel more inviting, and as a result, you will feel more comfortable inside. If you can only do one thing to your living space this year, a solid spring cleaning is probably the best thing you could do.

For those looking to go a little further, a new coat of paint can really make things feel fresh and new. Whether you choose to go with the same color or change things up with a new color, this project will have some strong psychological benefits without breaking the bank. One gallon of paint costs about $20 and should cover about 300 square feet (paint makers say 400 square feet, but best to be on the safe side). If you are using good paint and aren’t making dramatic changes, you should be able to get away with a single coat. However, if you are going from a dark color to a light color, a second or third coat might be required.

You’ve already got the drop cloths and the paintbrushes out, so why not enjoy some of the nicer weather by painting your front door, too? This takes a little bit more work than simply painting a wall, but the results are worth it.

With the furniture moved around to accommodate your painting project, now is also the perfect time to see if you can rearrange how a room is laid out. Turn your sofa to face a large window and make sure you don’t have anything that is blocking out the light. You won’t even recognize the room with the bright light, the new colors and the new furniture arrangement, and that will give it a feeling of being fresh and new. It doesn’t matter if it is a living room, bedroom or kitchen, these changes will have the same effect.

You can also do some things to brings the experiences of the budding outdoors inside. Plants are excellent accessories in any room. A small tree in the corner, some flowers on the kitchen table and shelf plants will improve the air quality and the appearance of a room. Choose darker plants for the darker areas of a room because they usually require less light. And if your track record with live plants isn’t stellar—maybe you’ve got a couple empty clay pots sitting around as reminders of the dearly departed—get some good quality artificial plants. They won’t have the same effect of improving air quality and humidity inside—similarly, dead plants don’t either—but you still get the aesthetic benefits.

Speaking of aesthetics, spring is also a good time to look for some new artwork to adorn your walls. The pictures and paintings you’ve been looking at all winter have probably gotten tiresome by now. See if you can do something about that by either rearranging where a particular piece hangs, or getting something new altogether. If you have a digital camera, why not show off some of your best shots by hanging them in nice frames around the house. If you don’t have any great pictures, go out and take some. After all, the weather is improving and it’s a great time to be outside.

Lastly, is there a better way to enjoy the changing of the seasons than to sit outside on the porch and enjoy a refreshing beverage (maybe one with alcohol, maybe just some fresh lemonade)? Can you enjoy your porch sitting on the cheap plastic patio “furniture” you’ve been lugging around since college? You probably can if you have enough alcoholic beverages in you, but that won’t always be the case (hopefully), so maybe now is a good time to go out and buy something decent.

Of course, you’ll be limited to what you can buy by the size of your porch. If you live in an apartment, two nice chairs and a small table are great for enjoying the rising sun while having coffee and reading the newspaper (perhaps that should be changed to reading online news sites these days). If you’ve got a larger patio, a love seat is a nice upgrade, or, if you can swing it, a hammock. You’ll never feel more lazy and relaxed then when you are swinging in the cool spring breeze on a hammock.

And if you’ve got a whole backyard, well it’s time to buy a gazebo. You can pick these up starting at around $200. Gazebos are great for protecting you from the sun while you enjoy a picnic outdoors, and they look pretty good, too.

The options are really limitless, and there is no wrong way to make your home more comfortable to you and your loved ones.

By Luther Tibbings