This year, resolve to take better care of your home by practicing good home maintenance! Your home works hard to take good care of you, return the favor by starting with these simple steps.
Know Your Home
An easy way to start off with home maintenance is to make sure you set aside between 1% and 4% of your home’s value for home maintenance. Some call this the “Home Maintenance Rule of Thumb.” This is meant to be an easy-to-follow budgeting strategy to make sure home maintenance tasks aren’t neglected. These smaller maintenance tasks will save you money in the long run, as you avoid the more costly breakdowns that can occur without regular maintenance.
Closely Monitor Your Key Systems
Every house consists of a few key systems that are the most important to a well-functioning home (and the most costly to repair). To ensure a more costly repair or replacement isn’t necessary, prioritize consistent weekly, monthly, or seasonal tasks to mitigate mounting damage. Yearly maintenance should be conducted by a professional prior to each system’s respective season, and homeowners should change filters every 90 days. This simple, 5-minute task is essential to prolonging the lifespan of these systems.
Repair and Maintain Your Appliances
Your appliances have a limited lifespan, but your proactivity can extend that timeframe considerably. Clean your refrigerators, ovens, and dryers every three months, and your dishwashers and washers every month. Monitor ice buildup in your freezer units and always check your pipes for leaks. To get ahead of safety concerns, regularly check your smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors using their “test” buttons, and change batteries as needed. In addition, clogged dryer vents can become fire hazards. Reduce excess debris accumulation as much as possible and be sure to arrange for a professional cleaning once a year.
Every homeowner has a problem room. Whether it is their garage, their attic space, or their basement, the increasing pace of life has demanded we develop a go-to area for things that don’t have a designated space at the moment. This phenomenon has come to be known as the dreaded “junk room.” Here’s how you can get your space organized without getting (too) overwhelmed by the task.
Lay Out Your Plan
See past the mess and envision the potential of the space in front of you. Do you want to revert the space into something similar to its original intention, or do you want to reinvent it? Logistically, estimate the amount of time you will need to set aside for the job. Is it reasonable to set aside an hour or two to tackle the space, or is it something that might take up a full weekend? Whatever the case, set up your schedule with room for growth to be safe.
Establish the Staging Ground
With a solid plan in place, you are ready to tackle even the biggest messes. A vital area during this process is the staging ground. Your staging ground should be an orderly area where you can organize your supplies and potentially start some sorting down the road. Designate a table or counter within the room ideally where you can organize and orient yourself. If this sort of space isn’t reasonably available then find a location in an adjacent room until you can relocate.
Remove Everything
That’s right, everything. You may need a lot of space, but work to take everything out of the space that you are trying to clean up in preparation for sorting. Larger jobs will necessitate breaking down the job into smaller parts to make the task more manageable. Still, start with the biggest issue to develop a positive forward momentum.
Organize Your Items and Refill Your Space
With an empty and clean room, you can focus on organizing everything that you removed. First, sort your items between the broad categories of what you plan on donating or selling, what you need to throw away, and what you plan on keeping. During this step, err towards culling your items so that you have more storage.
Finally comes the most satisfying step: refilling the room. Feel free to get creative and reimagine your space, while keeping practicality in mind. Place frequently used items in areas that are easily accessible and develop a system that works well for the space.