Home Maintenance

Home Maintenance

Set the Table: Homes are full of systems which require regular maintenance. 

 

What needs maintenance?

• All household systems. 

  • Cars is well known. Alerts come up in the computer on newer models

  • Outdoor spaces like gardens, spas, and pools

    • some auto options there, like sprinkler systems, but those still need seasonal monitoring  

  • A/C and heating systems

  • water filtration

  • Appliances have water filters, lint screens, vents, and gaskets

  • physical structures like drains, walls, windows and doors

  • alarm or security systems

  • Wifi networks and hardware like printers

    • need updating and rebooting regularly

    • need more updating and monitoring when kids in the picture. Use more and as I recommend network level parental controls, need to monitor very frequently. Think weekly. 

• Preventative maintenance is generally easier than repair or home improvement (next episode) 

• The more complicated your house, the more maintenance requirements you will have

 

Get into the rhythm

• So you don’t miss anything break stuff down into categories when making your initial lists, such as appliances, utility systems, physical structures, equipment

• Use to do lists and repeats to get the maintenance task on your calendar

• Think seasonally. AC maintenance 2 months before summer starts. Chimney before winter. 

• Think regular rhythms. AC filters every 6-12 weeks, depending on your life. (A 6 humans and 4 dogs, I change filters every 6 weeks.)

• Place orders for things before you need them. See subscription episode. These are good candidates for subs because you know how many air filters you will need. If you are on a 6 week rotation, order for ever six weeks. When they arrive, install. If have the space, keep one cycle’s worth of backups. 

 

DIY

• A nice thing about home maintenance over home improvement (next episode) is a lot of it is DIY

• You can change filters, clean the oven, paint the peeling door, or tighten the leaky faucet. Tons of tutorials all over internet with instructions on this stuff and lists of basic supplies. 

• Need to schedule a few, like chimney sweeps or AC flushing. Possible to do on your own, but a professional can do it faster and likely safer because they do it all the time. 

• If you choose DIY, same goes as following a recipe: read/watch the instructions all the way through, then gather supplies, then re-read/watch instructions, then start.

 

Closing thoughts

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