10 Simple Home Maintenance Steps That Will Make Your Life Easier in the Future
Every home needs care and maintenance . Sometimes it may seem like you’ve solved one problem and then are faced with another. This can lead to tunnel vision, where you focus on the present because you feel like you don’t have time to worry about the future.
But the future is coming, and if you don’t want to worry your future self too much, there are a few small steps you can take to make Future You a little happier.
Record your paint
Painting is an easy way to update your home. Choosing the right color and sheen can be a project in itself, but once you get there, you’ll have a space you feel comfortable in.
Once you start your paint project, take photos of the mixing formula in the can on the label, then place those photos in your home projects folder. This label contains everything you need to know to reproduce the paint later, which will save you a lot of grief in the future. Alternatively, you can peel off the label (or ask for a second one when purchasing paint) and tape it to your notebook.
Keep spare materials
Re-tile your shower? Move into a house? Are you installing vinyl flooring? Whenever you finish a project, always try to have leftover materials and save them. If you have to scrap some of your work years later, having spare parts for repairs will make the job much easier. Tile and flooring are continually discontinued in production, and even if that particular style is still produced in the future, there are often color and texture discrepancies between batches, so a box of tiles purchased five years after the original design may not match perfectly.
Ask the contractors
We hire qualified professionals to perform home maintenance and repair tasks that we cannot handle ourselves. But that doesn’t mean you should run to the pub while the work is done. If you pay attention and ask a few questions, your future will become a lot less stressful:
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Materials used. Get a breakdown of the specific materials used. Knowing exactly what paint, tile, or flooring was used will make it easier to replace or repair it in the future—and, as noted above, ask to save any leftover material. After all, you paid for it.
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Installation. You’re not a contractor and aren’t looking to do complex plumbing or electrical work, but knowing how everything was installed will be incredibly helpful to you in the future. Contractors are deep sources of information and can tell you the tricks, techniques and best practices that will help you keep your systems and finishes looking good and working properly.
Recording dates
Keeping your home tidy can be a whirlwind of constant effort, so it’s easy to forget exactly when something was done. But knowing how long ago something was installed, repaired or replaced will greatly serve you well in the future. Everything in your home has a lifespan and a recommended maintenance schedule, so knowing when your boiler or HVAC system was installed, how old your roof is, or the last time your basement flooded will be valuable information.
While you’re at it, make sure to date the batteries in your smoke detectors, thermostats, alarm systems, and anything else that matters to your comfort and safety. Then do the same when you change the filters in your HVAC system, furnace, or plumbing (and don’t forget to check the fire extinguisher ).
Label mounts
For most of today’s generation of homeowners, homeowners have been faced with a growing inventory of loose screws, bolts, and hex keys . To avoid having to go through the wrong screws and wrenches one day, mark them today. Every time you assemble furniture or install shelving, put the remaining fasteners in some kind of storage and clearly label it. When it’s time to take it apart or repair it, you’ll have everything you need.
Save Product Manuals
Almost everything you buy for your home comes with some kind of instruction manual (and you can download most of them pretty easily these days). You might be tempted to think that you don’t need an instruction manual for simple appliances (you know how to use a toaster, for example), but you should keep instruction manuals, either physically or digitally. These manuals will give you the basic information you need to repair, replace, or troubleshoot your equipment, including specific sizes of fasteners, wall anchors, and other parts you may someday need to replace. In addition, the manuals contain a lot of other useful information, such as weight limits or other tolerances. If you want to turn an assembled bookshelf into dumbbell storage, for example, it would be great to be able to simply view the unit’s capacity.
Keep visual notes
Take photos of things like air filters or unique light bulbs and keep them on your phone. Do this for any unique item that needs replacing from time to time. Now the next time you need a fresh supply, you’ll be able to find exactly what you need.
Make a circuit diagram
You won’t feel frustrated until you need to turn off the power to some part of your home (like your air conditioner) and you can’t figure out which circuit it’s on. You flip switches until you find the one, and then you have a full 20 minutes of resetting the clock and settings ahead of you.
Instead, spend half an hour drawing up a diagram of your breaker panel , carefully labeling each one. The next time you have a reason to turn off the power to an appliance or room, you can do it without drama or stress.
Purchase additional keys
As someone who has had to break into her own home one too many times, I can say that in the future, if you stash a few extra keys in secure locations throughout your neighborhood (or with a few trusted people with security codes, if you have smart locks), you will greatly appreciate it in the future.
Identify contractors in advance
The worst time to find a plumber, electrician, exterminator or roofer is during an emergency. Start asking friends and neighbors for recommendations now, and create a master file with contact information and who recommended them (including the specific work they did, if you can). When you discover a newly formed lake in your basement one morning, you can make a phone call instead of trying to cram three months of research into three minutes.