Summer is a great time to entertain your family and friends outdoors. My family spends a lot of time outdoors, and I’m all for taking the family fun outside to reduce our energy use and beautifying the backyard and patio. Upgrading to energy-efficient outdoor lighting products can make your home look great and help you save energy all year long.

I’m a DIYer to the core. I always seem to have my hand in some sort of home improvement project. To be honest, sometimes it feels like the list never ends. You check one project off your list, and you add two more. The good news is that these projects are fun and can make your house look great.

This year I had a few extra “to-do’s” on my list. As we were sprucing up the landscaping I decided this was the year the outdoor lighting needed an upgrade. Let me just say it was well past-due!

Off we went to the local home improvement store. You can get lost in those lighting aisles. As we browsed the aisles we found all sorts of things, from energy-efficient solar pathway and landscape lighting to ENERGY STAR® qualified fixtures, LED light bulbs and even exterior lights with motion sensors.

Based on what we had at our home, I opted for new LED lighting. Did you know that energy-efficient ENERGY STAR® LED bulbs use up to 75 percent less energy and last up to 20 times longer than traditional incandescent bulbs. (That’s a pretty big deal.)

But I wasn’t finished just yet. While some of the lights have motion detectors, I also wanted to put them on a timer. It seems we’re always flipping the light on for company and leaving it on … all night long. Those days (and nights) were about to end. We installed the perfect outdoor timer for us. We were able to adjust the dusk/dawn time settings. Easy! We’ll just have to remember to adjust in the fall when it gets a darker a bit earlier.

And who doesn’t want to have a beautiful patio? The next thing on my list was to break out these super cute Mason jar solar light accents.

They recharge daily with the sun and can be customized by adding a little extra decoration to the outside of the jar or by filling them. I filled mine with sea shells, but sand and a little flower or gemstones would also look great!

Are you thinking of upgrading your outdoor or patio lighting or have you finished any new projects? We’d love to hear what you’ve done in the comments below