Keeping Your Home Perfect
Opening up your windows, cutting clutter and decorating meaningfully are all key ways to make your home feel more relaxing and, well, perfect. However, your home won’t stay perfect if you don’t make a conscious effort to keep it that way.
Unfortunately, time, human habitation and unforeseen disasters wreak havoc on even the most perfect of homes, so you need a solid plan for maintenance and repair as long as you live in your current space. Fortunately, I can help you with that.
Know What to Check, When
You can’t expect yourself to be perpetually vigilant for every little problem around your home — you lack the time, the energy and the observational prowess to succeed at such an interminable endeavor. Instead, you should create a schedule for checking and maintaining different parts of your home, so you can be certain that everything is in good working order when you need it to be.
In truth, you should try to create your own, unique schedule based on the features of your home and region. For example, homeowners test their sump pumps once per year to ensure their basements don’t flood — but if you live in the Southwest, you probably don’t have a basement and thus can ignore this typical must-do. Still, you can and should take inspiration from maintenance checklists online, which often include chores you might otherwise overlook. It’s also useful to know when to perform certain tasks, so you don’t have to endure an entire season with a less-than-perfect home.
Here’s a basic checklist of home maintenance duties, divided by season, so you can better manage your time and enjoy a well-functioning home:
Spring
- Service your AC or swamp cooler
- Look for damage around windows and doors
- Inspect the roof
- Clean the gutters
- Check the landscape drainage
- Clear away dead plants
Summer
- Repair the grout in the bathrooms and kitchen
- Spray for pests like bugs or rodents
- Clean the exhaust vents for the dryer and range hood
- Organize the garage
Fall
- Service your furnace or other heating system
- Flush outdoor faucets
- Repair any cracks in hardscaping
- Drain and clean water heater
Winter
- De-ice any surfaces that regularly grow ice dams or icicles
- Test your outlets and light fixtures
- Repair or replace any hardware in your home, like handles, knobs, hinges and hooks
- Declutter and organize your rooms
There are a few tasks that can be completed any time of year, which you should fit into your maintenance schedule when you have time. These include:
- Changing filters. Filters in your HVAC, range hood, dryer vent and other spaces should be cleaned or replaced with a frequency that depends on your unique home.
- Testing smoke/CO detectors. Even if your alarms are hard-wired into your electrical system, you should press the “test” button every three months to ensure they sound.
- Testing the water heater. Twice per year you should test the pressure relief valve on your water heater, so this appliance won’t explode.
- Deep cleaning appliances. You should be scrubbing your refrigerator, oven(s), washer/dryer and other large appliances at least twice per year to remove debris, grime and other issues that might hinder performance.
Know People Who Can Help
Another element of keeping your home perfect is knowing that you can’t do everything perfectly for your home. You aren’t an expert in home maintenance; while there are plenty of small jobs you can perform to keep your home in working order, you certainly don’t have a deep well of knowledge concerning every complex system on your property. Thus, you need to be able to rely on others who can help you maintain your home.
Usually, this means professionals. It’s a good idea to build relationships with a few different service providers in your area and maintain their contact information in a convenient location in your home, like a binder where you keep your home maintenance schedule and checklist. I searched the web for “home repair near me” and vetted the handymen I could find, but you might acquire referrals from family and friends to grow your cadre of services providers.
Your family, friends and neighbors can help you maintain your home in other ways, too. For instance, if you know an electrical engineer, it’s likely they can help you install a light fixture or test your electrical system. Taking advantage of skills and knowledge of loved ones is a good way to cut maintenance costs. If nothing else, your friends and neighbors might have tools you can use to maintain your home.
Perfection is hard to find, and maintaining perfection over a long period takes commitment. However, as long as you stay organized with your home maintenance, you can enjoy a perfect home as long as you live there.
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