A man’s home is his castle, it is said, but too many men have a home that looks more like a hostel or rebellious teenager’s room than anything fit for 007. Whether you share it with roommates, a spouse, kids, or live the bachelor life, there’s a good chance your home needs some work.

The way you live says a lot about what kind of man you are.

Especially for the younger men who expect to have women over or want to entertain, there are telltale signs that you’re a man, not an overgrown teenager or a transient who won’t be around for the long run.

You don’t need a big house or a luxurious condo to make the most of your living arrangements. Here are surefire ways to show that you’re truly living, not just existing, in your abode.

“Real” furniture. The old futon or plastic chairs don’t cut it anymore. You should have a couch or chairs, a coffee table, and any other odds and ends needed to put the place together like lamps or end tables. You don’t need to be an expert interior designer, but purchasing furniture forces you to think beyond just functional design towards what colors, textures, and styles work well together.

Books. On a bookcase or shelves. That you’ve actually read.

Framed artwork. The style doesn’t really matter, but if it’s stuck on with removable adhesive or looks like it could have come out of a teenager’s room, it needs to go. Find pieces that are meaningful to you in some way, put it in a frame, and nail it to the wall.

To go with the artwork are framed pictures of you, your family, and friends. You’re a real man with relationships and activities outside Facebook. Real pictures add a touch of permanence, class, and style that digital pictures on a smartphone screen never will.

Plants. Not just flowers in a vase on special occasions, but real, living plants. That you haven’t killed yet. These add to the feel and atmosphere of your place. They look good, they clean the air, and they demonstrate responsibility.

A big caveat here: if you’re the kind of guy who travels for weeks or months on end, a house full of dead plants won't do you any favors. Hire somebody to take care of them while you’re gone or forego the plants entirely.

Window dressing other than cheap vinyl blinds. This could be high quality wood blinds, drapes, curtains, or a combination of elements. Like the others, this shows an eye for form over just function — the mark of a man who has made it.

Your refrigerator needs to have food in it. Real food, not just beer, condiments, and three-week-old take-out.

Whether you're a college student or a busy professional, a real man knows how to feed himself and his family without resorting to take out or eating out every meal. That means being equipped with the tools and knowledge to cook great meals at home.

Quality knives. Ditch the cheap serrated knife set or crappy old hand-me-down knives. Real knives don’t have to set you back many hundreds of dollars, and you shouldn't waste money on sets with 15 knives that you’ll never use. Focus on the necessities:

• Get a good 8–10" chef’s knife and a 4–6” petty or utility knife. These two knives are all you "need."
  • Add a bread knife for breads or hard crust foods like brisket, and a slicing knife if you need them (you probably don't).
• Kitchen shears (the kind that come apart in two pieces) are useful and recommended.
• Store them on a wood block or a magnetic strip (not thrown together in a drawer where their edges will get damaged).
• Use them with wood or plastic cutting boards; never on metal, glass, ceramic, etc. which are horrible for blades.
• Use a honing steel. Sharpen as necessary.

Good knives are an investment that will make cooking easier and more enjoyable for decades or more.

KNIFE NOTE: The examples linked above are Steelport knives. Buy the best, maintain them forever, pass them down to your kids. For a budget option, check out Victorinox Fibrox; used and trusted by professional chefs in commercial kitchens everywhere.

Pots and Pans. The cheap, plastic handled pots and pans with the non-stick surface that’s scratched and falling off? Get rid of them. Like the knives, you should stay away from sets. Get the essentials:

• 10-12" Cast iron and/or carbon steel skillet
• Stainless steel fry pan or sauté pan
• Big stock pot (8-12 qt) and/or dutch oven
• Large sauce pan
• Small sauce pan
• Pyrex bakeware

You want everything to do as much double-duty as possible so make sure you get pots and pans with metal handles that are oven safe.

Good knives and good cookware will last for decades or longer with proper care. Buy the best you can afford, learn to use them well, and you'll be set forever.

Good tools make a difference, so work towards ditching the cheap plastic stuff and getting quality tools. Spoons, spatulas, turners, tongs, mixing bowls, peeler, microplane, a thermometer, and heat-resistant gloves will take care of your everyday cooking needs.

Small appliances like an Instant Pot, electric kettle, convection toaster oven, immersion blender, standing blender, and scale range from nice-to-haves to absolute necessities depending on what and how often you cook certain things, make tea or coffee, etc.

Special meals may call for special tools like a roasting pan or carving set, but these probably aren't required for 99% of the cooking you'll do (and you can almost certainly make do with what you already have).

A note for those with limited space or no kitchen access:
Even if you live in a dorm room, a trailer, a boat, or a CHU in a combat zone, you can probably do better than you think. You might not have space for the full list, but you can do wonders with just a chef's knife and a cast iron skillet coupled with an induction cooktop. Adding a stock pot or Instant Pot and possibly a toaster oven will have you eating like a king, no matter where you are. Don't let a perceived lack of space or kitchen access get in the way of being able to enjoy healthy, delicious meals.

Wherever you eat, you need a real dining table and chairs. You should be able to set the table, sit down, and have a real meal with friends, family, etc. without resorting to eating on a kitchen counter, coffee table, or desk somewhere.

You should also have matching, quality dishes and silverware. You don’t need fancy china and expensive silverware. You do need a matching set of plates and bowls, silverware, and glasses for at least four people so everything looks presentable when you have guests over.

Clean, high-quality bedding. Most single men wash their sheets four times per year. Do not be that guy. Wash your sheets regularly (weekly). Having multiple sets of matching, high-quality sheets makes life easier and more comfortable. Authenticity 50 and Parachute Home are the standouts.

A good mattress and pillows. You will spend almost a third of your life on your bed, and quality sleep impacts every aspect of your life. If your mattress is old, lumpy, creaky, or otherwise uncomfortable, you owe it to yourself to get an upgrade. The current standouts are:

• Tempur-Pedic and Leesa make hybrid inner-spring/memory foam mattresses that are best for most people. Leesa is a great value, while Tempur-Pedic is widely regarded as the best mattress available at any price.
• Pillows: the Nest Easy Breather and Authenticity 50 pillows are adjustable shredded memory foam pillows that work for almost anybody. Tempur-Pedic is the best solid memory foam, and Parachute Home is the way to go for down or down alternative pillows.

A good mattress and pillows are a one-time purchase that will improve your sleep — and everything else in your life — for the next 10–20 years. Take the time now to figure out what works for you, then invest in the best you can afford.

You don’t need an expensive bedroom set, but what furniture you do have should be reasonably well matched.

No TV in the bedroom. If you want good sex or good sleep — and you do want both, right? — having a television in the bedroom interferes with both.

Those framed family photos you should have in your living room? Don’t have them in your bedroom. You don’t want your mother, father, siblings, or friends watching you get it on. Pics of you and your significant other are okay.

The window treatments mentioned before are especially important in the bedroom. If you expect to have women over and make them feel comfortable, that means not showing them off to the rest of the world. Blinds, curtains, or drapes: have something to cordon off your bedroom from the rest of the world.

For those who want the best night’s sleep, you should also look into blackout curtains to block all ambient light from entering the room.

NOTE: In line with installing blackout curtains is NOT having other light sources in the room. If you need alarm clocks, humidifiers, diffusers, CPAP machines, or other electronics that have light sources, cover up the light (electrical tape works well) and/or make sure that it is soft color light (red, orange, or yellow, rather than blue, green, or white).

Have lighting options like a lamp or two on nightstands or dressers. Whether you’re reading in bed or trying to set the mood for a romantic night, you need something other than bright, overhead light.

More than anything, your bathroom must be clean. No streaks in the toilet, shaving scum in the sink, or grime in the corners. It doesn’t take much to keep the bathroom clean, 5–10 minutes per week and 30 seconds after your morning routine to wipe up after yourself.

Have a pair of matching bath towels (his and hers, even if you don’t have a regular “her” yet), and the small face or hand towel to match.

No white towels. White gets dirty and disgusting quickly and is harder to get really clean.

Keep a small trash can in the bathroom. You might not have problems taking your trash to another room, but if you have women over, they have products that they will want to throw away in the bathroom without you seeing.

You don’t need a dedicated room for an office in your home, but you should have an area where you can focus, get work done, study, research, etc.

At the most basic, you should have an area where your computer, paper, pens, and anything else you need are easily accessible, organized, and free of clutter.

Assuming you need a real office, keep the following in mind:

• A good desk and excellent chair are seldom poor investments, especially for the man who values productivity and comfort.
• If your primary computer is a laptop or tablet, simple additions like a large external monitor and good keyboard and mouse might be better immediate investments than just buying a faster computer.
  • With that said, if you spend many hours a day working on an older computer, you owe it to yourself to look into upgrading. Using a better machine like the newest MacBook Pro or Microsoft Surface could potentially earn you hours per day in increased productivity. At the low end, if you think your time is worth $20/hour and a new computer saves you only one hour per day, that's $7,300/year. It makes spending a couple thousand dollars on a better computer an incredibly worthwhile trade-off.
• As mentioned in Lifestyle Basics, give your office the personal touch. Whether that is living plants, more color, art, or framed pictures, you want your office to be somewhere you can be comfortable and productive.
• Accessories matter: an all-in-one printer/scanner, cross-cut shredder, uninterruptible power supply, label maker, and more can all be far more useful than you'd think if you don't already have and use them.

“A place for everything, and everything in its place.”

Your home doesn’t have to be completely spotless all the time; that is an unreal expectation for anybody unless you have a full-time housekeeper. But it should be well cared for, straightened up, and reasonably clean all the time. Whether you’re married with children or living the bachelor lifestyle, having a clean home makes it more inviting to you, and anybody you want to have over to entertain. If you strive for 90% clean, all the time, you will always have a presentable home, and it will be much easier to do a deep clean whenever that is necessary.

If a man's home is his castle, it makes sense to secure it as such. You might not need a mote, drawbridge, and portcullis, but you can and should take security measures beyond the bargain deadbolts common on most residential doors.

Run of the mill burglaries, targeted threats, or more extreme scenarios like natural disasters or economic collapse all present threats of varying intensity and longevity. Likewise, securing your home in a rural setting, in the suburbs, and in the middle of a large city can present different challenges. The good news is that there are basics that you should pay attention to no matter where you are, and that are all relatively inexpensive to implement.

Lock your doors and windows. The great majority of break-ins or burglaries happen to unlocked homes and vehicle. Whether you're home or not, leaving for 30 seconds or 30 days, lock the doors.

Protect against forced entry. Install solid doors (wood, metal, or otherwise reinforced), then reinforce the surrounding doorway by removing all the small screws from the hinges and strike plate and replacing them with 2.5"–3" wood screws. For added security, install security strike plates over a strike box on all deadbolts, and consider replacing the hinges with security hinges and/or add security hinge bolts.

You can turn your master bedroom into a de-facto "safe room" by replacing the cheap hollow-core door with a solid wood door, reinforcing the doorway with the steps above, and using a deadbolt. It's not bulletproof, but it's much less likely to be compromised or forced than standard interior doors that offer privacy but no security.

Use quality deadbolts on all exterior entrances, and use double cylinder deadbolts if the entrance is within arm’s reach of glass or windows that could be broken to allow access to the knob on the back of the lock. Single cylinder deadbolts are fine otherwise.

Also mentioned in the vehicle module, garage doors have many easily exploited vulnerabilities so treat the door between your garage and home interior as an exterior entrance; secure it with a deadbolt just like you do with any other exterior door.

Deadbolts should be ANSI Grade 1 and UL 437 rated. The Kwikset 980 and Schlage B60 are the top two choices for standard deadbolts. They're not perfect, but are far superior to what you probably have on your front door right now.

If you have the money — and other physical security measures in place — Abloy Protec, BiLock, and EVVA MCS are top-tier manufacturers of true "high security" locks. Medeco and Mul-T-Lock are good, but not as invulnerable as their price tags or name recognition suggest.

Smart locks — accessed via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or keypads — may be convenient, but they are often not as secure as even a basic Schlage B60 and bring with them new, unadvertised, and probably unknown security vulnerabilities. If you choose to use a smart lock, do so with full understanding that you are trading convenience for security.

If you have a half million-dollar home with a twelve-dollar lock on the front door, you're doing it wrong. Unfortunately, this is the norm.

Install security film on windows, especially easily accessible first floor and basement windows. This is both protection against forced entry, as well as against the elements like hail storms or flying debris from tornadoes or hurricanes.

Install motion-sensor security lighting and leave your porch light(s) on at night.

Remove/trim/landscape potential hiding places (trees, hedges, bushes, etc.).

Do not leave a key outside hidden on your property; keep a spare with a trusted relative, friend, or neighbor instead.

Exterior signs for security companies (even if you don't have a security system) are a good idea, no matter what. Other signs like "Beware of Dog," gun or target signs, no trespassing signs, etc., can be a good idea, but often come with their own drawbacks, like target or gun signs making it clear that there are guns to steal at the house if they know for sure you're not at home.

Don't keep expensive stuff outside or in plain view for the world to see. Visible and easily accessible valuables (TV's, computers, cameras, jewelry, firearms, etc.) make it more likely for a thief to break in deliberately, rather than picking an easier target of opportunity.

This is mentioned last because while it may help IF something happens, the above steps make it far less likely for anybody to even think about breaking into your home in the first place.

Good options are available from many companies around the world. In the US, SimpliSafe and LiveWatch are excellent DIY options, while ADT and Vivint are the two major players for professionally installed systems. Most use similar (or identical) hardware, so compare pricing, contract, and smart-home integration options, then buy with confidence.

A little bit of preparation goes a long way. For most homeowners, just securing the entrances will cost no more than a couple hundred dollars. Combined with some basic landscaping and not advertising affluence, you're already more secure than the great majority of the population. Going further, from installing motion sensor lighting to monitored security systems will still not cost much and gives extra security and peace of mind.

For the select few who need more security measures, from physically hardened structures, to impact resistant doors and windows, high-security locks, safe rooms, or more — you should already know who you are, and you know enough to get a consult with a physical security specialist for more options on hardening your home.

Whether you're a single guy who is styling his home to be more inviting for friends and dates, or you're a married man who is making his home more comfortable and secure for his family, it's simple things that go a long way.

From home furnishings to kitchen knives to door locks, the tools and recommendations above all work together to make your home more inviting, comfortable, productive, and secure.