We all know that deflated feeling when a big project or renovation loses its momentum. How do you rekindle the excitement you once had? We’ve been dealing with this at the beach house lately, so we’re sharing five practical tips to fight project fatigue. With spring bringing lots of home maintenance, we also offer a simple method to make sure you never forget routine tasks again, plus a quick trick to power through smaller lingering items on your to-do list. We also rediscovered a fun date night idea and explain why people are calling us out for contributing to a controversial decorating trend.
You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, and Spotify — or listen to it below. Use this page to find any links, notes, or photos we referenced. Note: If you’re reading in a feed reader, you may need to click through to the post to see the player.
What’s New
- We buy air filters in bulk from Amazon (a 6-pack for about $34) and choose a basic dust filter since we don’t have allergies or heavy pet shedding. Different floors require different sizes, so pick what fits your system.
- On the podcast we mentioned FilterEasy as a convenient service, but Amazon’s “Subscribe & Save” can achieve the same auto-delivery and discount for many filters at a lower cost. Not all filters are eligible and many are sold in multi-packs, so timing can be tricky—but it’s worth checking.
- Note: the filters pictured don’t actually fit into that vent—they’re installed in our garage-mounted system, which is less photogenic.
Updates
- You can hear our full open-concept bathroom discussion in Episode #88, where there’s also a poll to weigh in.
- Episode #85 revisits the backward-book “trend,” a quirk we accidentally included in our first book, Young House Love, in 2012. Below are a couple of the pages that show it.
- The far-right image is literally the back cover featuring backwards books. When I told Sherry, she laughed for a good five minutes.
- We also discussed Consumer Reports’ paint-brand review in Episode #81 if you want more details on paint choices.
Project Fatigue
- The photo above is from our kitchen remodel, a long project that wore us down at times. You can read more about that remodel on our project page.
- Catch up on beach house progress and hiccups: wins like the built-in pantry and bunk beds, and setbacks such as nearly removing those bunk beds and a bathtub leak—projects rarely go perfectly.
- One helpful exercise for overcoming fatigue was revisiting before photos to appreciate how far we’ve come. The contrast can be dramatic and makes it easier to focus on progress instead of setbacks.
We’re Digging
- Sherry loves these shoes for feeling like socks—she nearly chose other colors but picked black for versatility. They’re machine washable and don’t create the awkward “foot-in-a-bottle” look. If you’re interested, search for coupon codes before buying.
If you want to browse items we’ve recommended in past episodes, we keep a master list of everything we’ve been digging from previous shows.
A quick thank-you to Agility Bed for sponsoring this episode. You can get $150 off any Agility Bed mattress by visiting their site and entering the code YHL150.
Thanks for listening!
*This post contains affiliate links*