Sheltering In Place is a great time to Reevaluate your Home’s Lighting

As the U.S. confronts the spread of the novel coronavirus, more and more places are implementing stay-at-home orders. And while we grapple with how to pay rent, what the the future of transit will look like, and how the virus is impacting the housing market, we’re also left with a more basic question: What should we do while we’re stuck at home?

There’s only so much TV to binge-watch before restlessness kicks in, so this extended time indoors is a good opportunity to tackle those long-avoided home projects. Of course, now is also not the time to flock to the stores for nonessential items, so here is an easy project you can do while social distancing at home:  Reevaluate your home’s lighting scheme.

Lighting is one of the most important elements in design, and our homes can go from stark and unwelcoming to cozy and warm just by swapping out a few bulbs.

• Replace bulbs: Have a few extra light bulbs lying around? Go through the house and replace any that have gone out.
• Clean your lamps: Sometimes the culprit to bad lighting isn’t a dead light bulb, it’s dirt. Unplug lamps and clean the lampshades with a dry microfiber cloth or vacuum cleaner attachment. For other types of lamps, clean the bulbs and use a cloth to dust off the hardware. Note that you should always do this when the light bulbs are cool to the touch.
• Clean your curtains: Clean curtains can make a room feel much brighter. Most drapery stores advise cleaning your curtains a few times each year, but it’s a task many of us neglect. First, look at your care instructions to determine whether you can wash your curtains or whether they have to be dry cleaned. Velvet drapes can be washed with a chamois cloth dipped in hot water, while silk curtains sometimes call for hand-washing. If you can machine-wash your curtains, use the gentle cycle, cool water, and mild detergent, and hang them to dry.

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