Overwhelmed? The Most Powerful Way to Triage a Home Project List

Inside: This home project planner (free printable!) uses insights from psychology to help you prioritize.

THUNK. THUNK. THUNK. THUNK.

The noises interrupted my creamy, cloudy, marshmallow-y daydream. I was in the middle of a few minutes of delicious “me time” on the computer. My quest: the perfect off-white paint colour.

Meanwhile, my one-year-old daughter had seized the opportunity. She cleared off every single low shelf in the living room…onto the floor. Standing there, she looked somewhat proud of her shelf cleaning efforts.

My eyes skimmed the room. Piles of stuff on the floor. Boxes “to sort” lurking in the corner. Those dents in the drywall needed filling. I felt that sinking feeling in my stomach.

Who was I kidding? Picking paint colours was the least of my worries.

I had so many home projects on my to-do list. Decluttering. Organizing. Rearranging. Deep cleaning. Repairing. Decorating. Renovating.

Spending time on Pinterest wasn’t going to help me with that list.

Are you procrastinating on home projects?

Living from day to day, you don’t always notice the tasks piling up. Or, you’re in a season of life where you’re stretched. You put taking care of people first.

Suddenly you have a home project list as long as your arm. You realize taking care of your home is part of taking care of yourself and your family.

You’re determined to take action.

Gah! Where do I even start?

I’ve been there…not knowing where to even start. Every project takes planning, time, energy, and—usually—money.

The tricky part is prioritizing. Do you install an organizer in the family coat closet? Replace the kitchen faucet with the fiddly handle? Buy new throw pillows to cheer up the living room?

Maybe you’ve read the advice about what projects to work on first:

• focus on resale value
• do free and low-cost projects first
• fix whatever is bugging you most
• go for visual impact
• address functionality issues
• work on the basic infrastructure first (plumbing, electrical, etc.)

None of these are wrong. But there’s a more powerful way.

Psychology to the rescue!

Our homes meet our needs. It’s a simple yet profound paradigm. We need shelter. A place to nourish our bodies with food. The perfect off-white paint colour. Wait…is that a need?

Abraham Maslow would say yes!

Born in Brooklyn over a century ago, Maslow had a rough childhood. As a son of Russian Jewish immigrant parents, he was bullied and suffered from psychological issues.

His troubled beginnings shaped his life. As a psychologist, Maslow devoted his career to studying how we can realize our potential. This led him to focus on the human needs we all share.

Our Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow’s insight is that not all needs are equal. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs recognizes that we have different levels of motivation to meet different kinds of needs.

At the most basic level, we need to survive. Once we have survival taken care of, we move up to the next level. Those needs then become our main motivation.

Here are the categories of needs, from most immediate to least:

1. basic physical needs
2. safety
3. love & belonging
4. esteem
5. self-actualization

A hierarchy of needs for your home

Maslow’s insights provide a profound way of looking at your life. Even your home.

Cleaning, organizing, decluttering, fixing, or renovating can meet your needs (or those of your family). Needs help with prioritizing that long list of task and projects.

Physical needs

Our homes support the basic needs of our bodies: air, food, water, shelter, clothing, warmth, sex, sleep. Yep, Maslow put sex in there as part of basic survival. I’ll let you be the judge of what category it belongs in!

Some examples of how our homes might not meet these needs:

• the air in the home feels stale in the winter (air)
• a child wakes up ridiculously early because the curtains in her room don’t block the morning light (sleep)
• the kitchen is so badly set up it’s hard to cook meals from scratch (food)

Some examples of projects to better meet these needs:

• clean and maintain ducts and filters
• install blackout blinds
• renovate the kitchen to improve functionality

Safety needs

Once we have survival covered, we need to be safe. This is a biggie. Safety includes covers physical safety, health and wellness (including psychological and emotional), and financial security.

Our home plays in a huge role in this broad category of needs.

Some examples of how our homes might not meet these needs:

• an upper story window is not secured and a toddler could fall out (physical safety)
• dark walls are contributing to gloomy feelings (emotional wellness)
• that pink gunge in the shower turns out to be a bacterium that can cause infections in humans (health)
• if that leak isn’t fixed right away, it’s going to cause costly damage (financial security)

Some examples of projects to better meet these needs:

• install window bars to prevent accidents
• paint walls a lighter colour
• open the windows, break out the bleach and go to town on those tiles
• call the plumber and get that leak fixed

Love & belonging needs

Most of our family life takes place in the home. And we welcome our closest friends there too. Our homes are the containers for our most intimate experiences of love and connection.

Some examples of how our homes might not meet these needs:

• the dining room table got taken over by a project and everyone eats in front of the TV now (family traditions)
• there’s nowhere comfortable to hang out (casual togetherness)
• the master bedroom became a dumping zone and the romance is gone (connection in marriage)

Some examples of projects to better meet these needs:

• banish projects from the dining room table and move them elsewhere
• upgrade seating and lighting to feel comfy
• do a full declutter and deep-cleaning of the bedroom

Esteem needs

Let’s face it. We want to feel good about ourselves. And we want others to accept and value us.

We want our homes to reflect our best selves. We don’t want to feel embarrassed or ashamed when we welcome people into our homes. We might even want to keep up with the Joneses.

Now the ego’s involved, and this category can be a bottomless pit. But there’s nothing wrong with meeting these needs.

Some examples of how our homes might not meet these needs:

• the front door is looking shabby (taking pride in home)
• can’t have anyone over because there’s too much clutter everywhere (entertaining guests without embarrassment)
• the living room looks like a hodge-podge with no style (feeling good about one’s style)

Some examples of projects to better meet these needs:

• sand and paint the front door
• declutter the most public areas of the home
• create a plan to redecorate the living room

Self-actualization needs

This pinnacle of the triangle is about meeting our full potential.

Self-actualization is

to become everything one is capable of becoming — Maslow

At this highest level, our homes can support us in many different ways.

When our more basic needs are taken care of, we can focus on our goals, talents, desires, happiness, and purpose. Self-actualization is very personal.

Some examples of how our homes might not meet these needs:

• no spot for a sewing hobby (enjoying one’s passions)
• creative personality of the owner not reflected in the decor (creative self-expression)
• too much noise and distraction for meditation (achieving inner peace)

Some examples of projects to better meet these needs:

• carve out a corner for a compact sewing station
• explore personal style as it relates to decor
• soundproof a room to support a meditation practice

Triage your home project list

By now, I hope I’ve convinced you how important needs are in the home. And some of those needs are more immediate than others.

Here’s how to tackle home projects:

1. Start with creating a meta-list of projects that need to be done in your home
2. Categorize each project according to which level of needs the project meets. If there is more than one level, pick the most immediate one (lowest in the hierarchy).
3. For each project, rate the cost (low, medium, high)
4. For each project, rate the time and energy required (low, medium, high)
5. Start with the projects that involve the most immediate needs. For some, this will be “Physical Needs”.
6. Plan to complete these highest priority projects as soon as possible. If not possible due to budget or time and energy constraints, write down a completion plan.
7. Focus 90% of home improvement efforts on projects in the most immediate needs category, until all projects are complete.
8. Proceed to the next most important needs category. For some, this will be “Safety Needs”.

To make this process simple, I created a home project planner with worksheets to walk you through each step. It includes an incompletion trigger list to help with thinking of projects that need to be done. It also includes a separate planner worksheet for each needs category, with simple-to-complete ratings to help with prioritizing.

Download your free Home Project Planner

Do you have a list of home projects to triage? Get the password to access exclusive content (including the planner) by filling out this form:

Finally…

I still have a lot of projects to do in my home. But I have a lot more clarity around what is most important.

Eventually, I did find the perfect off-white paint colour (if you must know, it’s Pointing by Farrow and Ball). But I’m pretty sure I should have been sealing the grout in the shower first.

What do you think?

Are needs a good way to prioritize home projects? Do you agree with Maslow’s hierarchy? Let me know in the comments.