Category: Life

How to catch up on a million small home repair chores that have been neglected for years! This should be the title of this article but it presupposes that I have actually caught up. I haven’t and actually I am procrastinating by writing this article.

Let’s talk about that ugly thing called home repair procrastination. It has come and hung out like a dear old family friend. We have been rather busy in the past years raising kids, working full time, or self employed (which is more than full time work), family things to do, sports, homeschooling, schooling, and the whole slew of activities that seemed fill out our plates. The one thing that slid is home repairs…those pesky little odd jobs that just need that one little part and trip to Lowes or Home Depot or Wal-Mart. The problem with those pesky little parts is that there are thousands of them that look just alike but are really different enough on a micro scale that they aren’t interchangeable. So, then I would go and purchase…and then take back the part 10 times with four kids, and I soon got tired of repurchasing parts that didn’t fit or mysteriously disappeared when I walked in the door.

Well, the big part of that story was to tell you that I/we have been trying to get caught up on about 6 + years worth of repairs that have gone by the wayside. Why, repair them now! They are starting to bug me and the house is getting too big as the kids leave the nest. We would like to move but everything will have to be fixed and it would be nice to live with everything repaired, for a little while anyway. Plain and simple; I have a bit more band width and time to deal with it now than I did then.  I/we haven’t and actually caught up but I/we are a bit more caught up on it and here is what we have done.

You must understand a couple of things about our household before you read the rest of this.

1. I have limited energy and time. I can’t stand around on my feet for very long and shopping is a major monumental thing and has been for years.
2. I try not to disrupt our house hold pattern or rhythm too much. It costs us too much if this happens. We tend to eat out and it hurts our budget. It interrupts our kids’ school time. There are other things we want to do besides home repair.
3. I am trying to get the repairs done that have the lowest cost/ least disruption to our house or budget first, big ticket items will happen later.

I printed out this nice home repair manual that lists out all the things that need to be done on a regular basis for your house, like changing the filters of the heat and air system.

Here are some links to some online checklists…

http://www.myhomeideas.com/how-to/weekend-projects/home-maintenance-checklist-10000001731328/

http://www.lowes.com/cd_Home+Maintenance+Schedule+and+Checklist_1297357358_

Simply add the chore to your calendar or online calendar so that you get reminders of what needs to be done. Include the size of your filters or any part or supply that you need to purchase in order to do the job.

I have also created two lists; one of chores to be done, and one of chores finished.

I broke the chores down into tiny bite sized pieces; buy paint for room, clean room, tape room…etc. Then I put them on my list. This way I can see what exactly I need to get done. So far, I/we have repaired or replaced outlets that needed the GFC on them, painted the back of the front door, cleaned the windows, touched up the trim paint in the living room and the list goes on. It is actually working quite well. When the chore is finished I move it to the finished list so I can see that the work is actually getting done.

I also try not to drag any supplies out that would take longer than 15 minutes to clean up. When I painted the cabinet doors from our 1/2 bath which called for oil based paint I kept everything out for a week. I put a tarp on the table and painted parts of it first thing every morning and last thing at night as the paint had at least an 8 hour dry time. In a week it was done, I  folded the tarp, cleaned the brush, put the knob back on the doors and called it completed! I also told myself that it was ok, if I took a week to get it finished. Sure enough, life intervened and it did take the whole week to complete the painting.

I have also created a Pinterest board that has home repair tips on it. I kept running across these quick tips and pro tools that would make all these home repair jobs easier so now I just pin them to make  it easier to find them.

I have gone through all of the paint that we own and made paint chip cards with a paint sample on it and the info off of the lid on one side and the area that is painted that color on the other side. I keep it all in a binder that is simply labeled home repair info. I also have receipts in it from different home repairs we have done and business cards from professional repair guys that we have used. I also pitched paint that no longer is a part of the house. I used this really cool stuff to do it with… http://www.lowes.com/pd_16598-34228-CR.WPH35.U.06_0__ I didn’t find any recycling places close to our house, which is also a great option but this particular paint had rusted on the inside of the can and was un-usable.

Here it all is in a bullet list for the organized folks….

• Pinterest board with tips and tricks
• Created home repair notebook with paint chips
• Created a to do list
• Created a completed list
• Wrote to do list of jobs in smallest possible increments
• Check supplies on hand before shopping

That’s it in a nutshell and I am off to seal the grout in the kids bath tub. I also gave myself a week to do that and it  needs the final coat and today is only day 4 so I am ahead of schedule.

Talk to you later,

Karen

How do you plan your home repairs out? What do you do to make sure all these little things get done?