Homeowner Expenses: Miscellaneous Edition
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My husband and I are not the type to obsess spend much time thinking about what needs to be cleaned or inspected around the house. What usually happens is that something breaks or it hits one of us that the carpet has a couple of stains or the windows are dirty.
We know regular maintenance is the secret to keeping a home in tip top shape; we just aren’t naturally good at it. A solution to that dilemma was creating a list of the irregular maintenance chores with a timeline.
Having a town (which is technically a condo) has cut down the list since the HOA is incharge of the exterior like the yard and structural like the roof.
Still, we do have to make room in our budget for maintenance, irregular bills, and miscellaneous expenses.
Semi-Annual Household Chores
Carpets – We either do it ourselves or pay for professional carpet cleaners twice a year. That may be more often than some, but we have two pets that bring dirt in from outdoors. Eventually, vacuuming isn’t enough.
Smoke Alarms – It might not be needed with the life of batteries these days, but we replace the smoke alarm batteries twice a year in coordination with daylight savings changes.
Air Filters – We change the filter in our heating and cooling system twice a year normally when we switch seasons. It’s amazing how much dust gets collected during that time period. Keep your system operating efficiently with a clean filter in place.
Sinks and Toilets– Checking sinks and toilets for drips can save water and avoid bigger problems. Be sure to check caulking around sinks, tubs and showers.
Annual Household Chores
Windows – I clean areas of the windows throughout the year, but try to get them professionally cleaned once a year. I dread the job enough to be willing to pay someone else to clean the windows, screens, and sills.
Appliances – Check the hoses and plugs of large appliances. Be sure to pull them out and clean out any dust or dirt that may accumulate.
Hot Water Heater – A standard recommendation is to drain the water heater once a year to reduce sediment buildup, but I’ve never done it. Instead we clean the water heater area and check for any problems with lines.
Chimney – Before starting the first fire of the year my husband inspects the chimney, firebox, and flue for any cracks, blockage, or other problems. The chimney is professionally cleaned every couple of years.
Maintaining your home proactively results in simpler problems to fix at reduced costs. What other irregular maintenance chores do you do at home?
In addition to what you mention, I change the furnace filters about four times a year. My wife cleans under the refrigerator where the coils are once or twice a year.
I am lucky to get the garage cleaned once a year.
We are really bad about these once a year task…but we rock on the everyday ones. We clean out our refrigerator once a week!
True enough, too much something is bad and this includes excessive cleaning. Knowing the right time and the cleaning agent to make use of can help you save time, money and energy. If you clean your carpet, chimney or air filter more often than what is necessary, this may cause damages as well. Identifying the areas or things that should be cleaned regularly from those which can be cleaned annually or semi-annually is indeed helpful.