IF YOU are looking to increase the value of your home significantly, your best option is to build an extension. Halifax says that a substantial extension can add more to a home’s value than any other home improvement. Creating an extra room should be the objective, although extending a room such as the kitchen may change the use of other rooms, thus having the same effect.

However, Halifax ranks a loft conversion as offering the best value for money because it has the most potential to recoup your outlay through the value it adds. A new kitchen is the second-best for value for money; redecorating is third because of the minimal cost of materials. Building a substantial extension is ranked fourth because it requires the largest financial outlay, despite its potential for the highest return.

Halifax distinguishes between conversions and conservatories on one hand and extensions on the other. A loft conversion is good, particularly if it is a bedroom. A garage conversion, if connected to the house and properly heated and insulated, can offer similar financial benefits to a loft conversion. Conservatories are tricky to get right. They are comparatively cheap to construct and therefore their perceived value is low. However, if the conservatory becomes a primary room of the house, such as a dining room, it can add more. Ideally it should connect two rooms (for example, the back sitting room and an existing kitchen extension).

Financial gains aside, there are other benefits to more space. Creativity, clarity of mind and quality of sleep are all enhanced by organised, well-balanced spaces.

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Decluttering is an easy task that you can do yourself in a series of small projects, and it’s fairly cheap. As with all DIY projects, try to finish one before beginning the next. A total of 36 per cent of people interviewed by Halifax consider the sitting room to be a house’s most important room, so it might be a good place to start. Fix sets of individual shelves on to the wall because this looks neater than shelving units in corners; existing wall indentations make the best locations. Measure awkward alcoves and purchase a chest of drawers to fit; small drawers are best for categorising lots of different things.

For bigger things use a series of boxes to go beneath or on top of shelves and use a decorative tray or dish for all the daily bits and bobs always lying on the kitchen counter and the coffee table. Be realistic about where things happen. If coats and shoes don’t always make it past the stairwell, put coat hooks and shoe cupboards there, by the door.

If dust-gathering extension wires are blighting your skirting boards, ask an electrician to install sockets in all the places you need them. Replace bathroom shelves with mounted cabinets or a freestanding cupboard if you have a large bathroom and hide products with ugly packaging in the cupboards, as well as any cleaning products.

Purge your home of things you don’t use or love; keep only things you would want to pass on to your children – well-made clothes, antiques or books. Sell the rest, or even better, recycle it at www.freecycle.org.uk . www.homeimprovementadvice.co.uk

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