Your New Home Maintenance Dance
Welcome Back, Homeowner Extraordinaire
In our last chat, we talked about getting your head straight about home maintenance. Now we're getting into the good stuff—the actual tasks that keep your home humming along nicely without turning into a part-time job.
Think of home maintenance like brushing your teeth. You do it regularly, it takes a few minutes, and it prevents really expensive, painful problems down the road. Except home maintenance is less frequent and doesn't require minty freshness.
The Golden Rule of This Schedule
If it takes a ladder, you're not doing it. I'm putting this in bold because some of you didn't hear it the first time. We're focusing on what you can safely do. Everything else goes on the "ask for help" list we'll build in Article 3.
Monthly Tasks: The 30-Minute Home Check-In
Think of this as your home's monthly doctor appointment. Once a month, pick a day—first Saturday, third Wednesday, whatever works—and do these five things. Total time: about 30 minutes, probably less once you get the hang of it.
1. The Filter Swap (5 minutes) Your heating and cooling system has a filter that catches dust and junk. When it's clogged, your system works harder and costs more to run. Plus, you're breathing whatever's in that filter. Lovely thought, isn't it?
Here's what you do: Find where your furnace or air handler is (usually basement, closet, or attic). Open the panel. Slide out the filter. If it looks like a felted dryer lint sculpture, replace it. If it's only been a month and looks fine, slide it back in.
Pro tip: Buy filters in bulk online and keep them near your system. Write the size on your phone notes app because you WILL forget it at the store.
2. The Smoke Detector Test (3 minutes) Push the test button on every smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector in your house. If it doesn't beep loud enough to wake the dead, replace the battery. If replacing the battery doesn't help, replace the whole unit.
Yes, this involves chairs or step stools sometimes. Ask someone to help if you're wobbly. Better to feel slightly embarrassed than to fall and break something important (like your hip).
Fun fact: Smoke detectors themselves expire after 10 years. Check the back for a manufacture date. If it's from when the Spice Girls were relevant, it needs replacing.
3. The Under-Sink Peek (5 minutes) Open every cabinet that has pipes under it—kitchen sink, bathroom sinks, laundry area. Look with a flashlight. Feel around. You're checking for:
Moisture or puddles
A musty smell
Water stains on the cabinet bottom
Drips when you run the water
Caught early, a leaky pipe connection costs $15 and 10 minutes to fix. Caught late, it costs thousands and you're picking out new flooring.
4. The Ghost Drain Flush (3 minutes) If you have bathrooms or sinks you rarely use, run water in them for a minute. This keeps the P-trap (that curved pipe under the drain) filled with water. When it dries out, sewer gases can come up through the drain. And trust me, you don't want your guest bathroom smelling like a porta-potty.
5. The Draft Detective (10 minutes) Walk around your house and feel around doors and windows. Use the back of your hand—it's more sensitive to temperature changes. Feeling a breeze? That's money escaping. Weatherstripping costs a few bucks and saves a fortune on heating and cooling.
Look for:
Daylight showing around door frames
Curtains that move when there's no fan on
Cold spots in winter, hot spots in summer
Doors that don't seal properly
Mark problem spots with painter's tape so you remember where they are. Then either fix them yourself (Article 3 will help) or add them to your handyman list.