Home Maintenance List
The never-ending quest to work as much as possible now to avoid work later for me also includes spending money now to avoid spending more money later.
This is manifest in my buying philosophy - “buy once cry once”, “we’re not rich enough to buy cheap tools”, etc.
This time, it’s manifest in the form of a pretty definitive home maintenance checklist. Home maintenance is a pain in the ass and I don’t wanna do it. But you know what else is a pain in the ass that I don’t wanna do? Paying $1,500 to replace a water heater while my family and I take cold showers for a month.
Nah. Not interested.
So I went looking for home maintenance lists online and jesus. What a cesspool that is. Apparently people are under the impression that most of maintenance is just cleaning? If I wanted a cleaning checklist I would’ve searched for it. Either that or they leave you with vague notions an aspirations: “perform maintenance on your electrical systems” excuse me what? You do it. So - like most group projects all through my limited academic career, I got frustrated and decided to do it by myself - and now I give it to you.
Here’s how you use it. Before you start, go through each tab (each tab is a month) and replace the lines that say “Location 1” with the location of the things in your house. Example: For January’s “Inspect Fire Extinguishers” add a line indicating where all of your fire extinguishers are so you don’t forget any and you don’t have to remember. Let the list do the work for you, why are we here? Here’s mine for reference:
If some of the items on the list don’t apply to you, just delete the row. If you wanna add more stuff, knock yourself out.
Next, put a reminder on whatever calendar you use once a month to check in on the list and do the items there. Some items have things you gotta buy, some have tutorials you gotta reference, just do it. Over the years, you’ll get used to it and hopefully just keep those things on hand and won’t need the tutorials. But if you do need them, they’re there. When you finish each item, put a completed date on the sheet. Look at you with a service record. Very professional. Very adult. Proud of you.
When you get this the first time, start with whatever month we’re in and go from there - don’t try to catch up for the year. Look, you haven’t been doing the maintenance so far, let’s hope one more cycle of not doing it won’t cause any problems.
There’ve already been a few iterations of this, if I find out about or hear of anything that’s missing from the list, I’ll post a revised one. A big caveat is I live in a relatively warm climate so there are probably some cold weather things you’ll wanna add if they’re applicable to you. Enjoy this useful thing.