Owning a home and taking care of it at the same time could be stressful, and is a big duty to fill, especially with certain areas and spaces of the house often left unattended. But when equipped with the right tools to repair and prevent possible damages, maintaining the house could become easier and even be a task you could enjoy doing.
Here is a monthly checklist of home maintenance that every homeowner could do:
Check and Change HVAC filters (if needed)
Experts would often recommend having HVAC filters be cleaned or changed every month; however, it’s understandable if that would be too much work, and cleaning or changing it monthly isn’t exactly necessary either. For families with a few members living in the house, and with no pets and no allergies to dust and dirt, changing or cleaning the filters would be fine for at least 2-3 months. However, if the filters are dirtier than you expected, change them out and then get ready to check it again in the next month.
Garage Maintenance for Safety
Garages are often taken for granted — perhaps one of the most neglected parts of the house since for most people, it’s also the place least frequented and the space least used. However, despite the space being used by cars more than people, it’s still just as important to keep the garage maintained — both for upgrade purposes and for safety. Garages are often left unlit and uncleaned which may cause dirt to pile up and trigger allergies. Also, check if the doors are working and have the garage door undergo repair if it’s broken to prevent possible damages to your car and even prevent accidents.
Check Fire Extinguishers and Smoke Alarms
Most homeowners are often conscious and diligent enough to protect the house with tools to ensure safety like fire extinguishers, smoke alarms, and even burglar alarms. However, most homeowners often make the mistake of not checking these tools every once in a while. Most homeowners tend to forget that fire extinguishers expire, and that it needs to be replaced every once in a while as well as the upgrades and maintenance needed for the security systems of your home.
Check the Coils of the Fridge and Clean it
Homeowners do not only tend to neglect things that are rarely used but sometimes, even those that are often used. Confident enough that the appliances keep working the way they do with no visible issues with it, as the time passes by the problems would start to build and would go unnoticed by still having that mindset.
The refrigerator is often one of those appliances that are neglected, the coils underneath and behind often get cobwebs, dust, and sometimes hair that clog the area and affect its overall function. Clean the dust off of the coils to avoid having to pay unnecessary bills for repair.
Clean Garbage Disposal
Over time, your garbage disposal is bound to stink, and cleaning it would be imperative. You can use ice cubes to put on the chamber and add baking soda, possibly with bleach to really clean the space. Finish the maintenance by sliding down at least 6 more ice cubes, and then turn it on again without water until the grinding sound eventually stops.
Maintaining a house could be a lot of work, but sometimes all you need is extra patience and a sense of time and responsibility.
