There are many things that you can do to make your porch safer. I’m talking about the porches on older homes like the house in the picture on this page. Built in 1758, this house had many of the old world ways of avoiding problems built right into it.
            For example, paint the ceiling of your porch a light blue. Flies won’t light and thus you’ll avoid fly specks on the ceiling of your porch. Also, there will be fewer flies to bother you. Another idea that has been lost over the years is the idea of throwing a little sand on the steps of your porch while the paint is still wet. When dry, the sand adds traction and helps to prevent slips in the icy winter months. Plant your bushes and flowers at a distance from the porch, so that when they grow bigger, they won’t touch the porch. Thus when it rains, and the bushes get wet, their wet branches won’t hold the moisture on the wood and cause the edges of the porch to rot.
            Here’s a great idea borrowed from the Old South. Many houses have shutters on the outside of the home and they have no function other then to create a look for the house. That’s great, but if you put shutters inside your home, a pair of shutters for each window, you can close the shutters during the heat of the day (summer) and keep the house cooler, saving hundreds of dollars in cooling costs. By buying louvered shutters you can block the sun while allowing for air circulation. Shutters are much easier to clean then blinds. Shutters block the heat of the sun far more effectively then do curtains, although you can still hang your curtains as before “for looks”. These same shutters can stay open in the winter months and the room will be warmed by the heat of the sun.
            It is especially important to plant disingenuous trees around a home so that they can provide cooling shade for the home in the summer, but when the leaves have fallen in the winter they let the sun’s heating rays into your home.