Eight Obscure Home Upgrades You Didn't Know You Needed
When it comes to home upgrades there are always a lot of obvious targets—whether you’re looking for affordable changes with a big impact, DIY renos that don’t require a lifetime of construction experience, or energy-smart changes that will save you money (and, possibly, the world). But there are some home upgrades that aren’t commonly thought of, that can nonethless have a huge impact on your enjoyment of your property.
Flapperless toilets
Your standard toilet—no matter how fancy—most likely uses a flapper-style mechanism. If you look inside the tank, you’ll see a chain running from the handle to a rubber or plastic disc-shaped flap that covers the egress valve. When you push the handle, the chain lifts the flapper, and water rushes into the bowl, initiating the flush. The flapper is one of the most common points of failure in a toilet—they get old and crack or warp and your toilet starts to leak and run all the time.
A flapperless toilet is exactly what it sounds like: It doesn’t use a flapper. Instead, it has a container in the tank that’s filled with water. When you push the handle, the container tips and starts the flushing process, then refills. It’s quieter. uses less water, and eliminates the failure-prone flapper from your life.
Tandem showerheads
Whether you’re a couple who always finds showering together much more romantic—and comfortable—in your head than in reality or you just want the luxury of multiple showerheads without the major plumbing project, a tandem shower head attachment will instantly upgrade your shower from blah to spa. You can find these in different configurations and different styles to match your design preferences, but the end result is the sort of shower you find yourself wanting to live in.
Under-bed nightlights
Nightlights are nothing new, and these days you can get some fancy (and cheap!) motion-activated ones that make stubbed toes and that uncanny sense you’re being followed to the bathroom a thing of the past. But here’s what you’re missing: a motion-activated night light under the bed. Not only will this mark the end of barking shins as you creep into bed hours after your partner, it also means that if you wake up in the middle of the night for a bathroom break or glass of water you won’t have to fumble in the dark until you make it to your first nightlight. Also, again: monsters. Why not ensure none are under there without even having to look? It’s just common sense.
TV backlights
If you’ve never installed a backlight behind your TV or computer monitor, your life is about to change. Screen backlights reduce eyestrain and improve picture quality—and just looks cool. Plus, they’re pretty cheap and easy to install, although you can get fancy and choose a system that actually syncs up the colors with whatever’s on your screen at the moment for a truly spectacular effect. As more and more of us prefer watching movies at home instead of in loud, uncomfortable theaters surrounded by sociopaths and influencers, a subtle upgrade like this pays off big time.
Soft-close toilet seats
Sure, everyone likes soft-close cabinetry—it’s easy and cheap and eliminates noise from your life. But why stop there? There’s another room where every interaction is punctuated by a loud, startling, soul-shattering banging noise: the bathroom. At least, in my house that was the case, because my wife would slam that seat down with a vengeance every time she went in there.
That’s why a soft-close toilet seat is so great. It does exactly the same job, is just as easy to install, and looks just like any other toilet seat—it’s just quieter, providing you with a more peaceful home life.
Hidden storm door closer
If you have a storm door on your home (and you definitely should), you know the torture of the pneumatic door closer. Calibrating those things is tricky, and you’ll spend a few weeks or months getting spanked by your storm door as the closer seems to randomly decide when to transition from a slow, graceful closing to a SUDDEN AND ALARMING speed.
The worst part is how ugly they are. That’s where a hidden door closer comes in. You can buy a storm door model with one built in (like this one from Larson), or you can add one that sits above the door (and thus can be added to most existing doors) like this one. Either way, you’ve just made your life a little nicer.
Double drawer dishwasher
At first thought, having two dishwashers or a double-drawer dishwasher like this one might seem unnecessary. But the upgrade here is efficiency, because you can load one drawer as you use dishes at all times, then extract clean dishes from the other as you need them. And if you frequently have small loads because you’re living alone or just don’t use a lot of dishes, you can run just one drawer without feeling like a monster.
Hidden kitchen step stool
Step stools are often a necessity in your kitchen, because for some reason wall cabinets are often completely unreachable by normal-sized humans. If that’s you and you have room in your cabinet layout for a pull-out spice rack (like this), then you also have room for a hidden step stool like this or this. Now you can reach everything up high without having to find a place to keep a clunky step stool. plus, it’s like a magic trick when you pull it out in front of guests.