While undertaking home maintenance projects might feel like a hassle, leaving things to fall into disrepair is a recipe for a much bigger and more expensive job. Aside from costing more in the long run and potentially meaning you need to call in an expert rather than being able to complete the work yourself, putting essential maintenance on the back burner can be downright dangerous, creating fire hazards or unsanitary conditions that could make your family ill.
Getting into the habit of checking and quickly completing some basic DIY home maintenance tasks is, therefore, well worth it. Once you’re in a routine, you’ll barely notice the inconvenience and may even come to enjoy pampering your home a little! Here, we take a look at a few tips and tricks to make the process quicker, more comfortable, and more enjoyable.
Avoid Rusting And Squeaky Hinges
If you live in a humid climate or near the sea, rust becomes a standard part of life. Even if you don’t, it’s well worth it to go around the house and garden with a spray-on 3-in-1 oil lubricant and give hinges, locks, padlocks, and any moving metal parts a light coating from time to time. Aside from reducing the likelihood that you’ll need to replace them, it makes your home a quieter space and takes just minutes.
Clean Out Gutters And Check Fascia Boards Regularly
Gutter maintenance is essential if you have a basement, as one of the leading causes of water buildup here is clogged-up gutters, which can’t adequately divert water. Your gutters also help prevent water damage to your foundation and sidings, so give them the attention they deserve. At least once a year (or more frequently if you live in a very leafy area), remove leaf and debris buildup physically, and then rinse clean with a hosepipe. While you’re at it, check that gutters are fixed firmly to your fascia boards, secure any areas that are coming loose, and replace sections that appear to be worse for wear or are rotting.
Make Old Walls Look Like New The Easy Way
If you like to change things up and redecorate now and then, you’ve probably accumulated plenty of holes where pictures and mirrors used to hang. Pick up some spackle from the local hardware store and patch these up. Let them dry and sand them down before repainting.
Repainting an entire room is a big job, but buying a little extra paint each time so you have some leftovers for retouching can make your life a lot easier. If you don’t have leftover paint, take a sample to the hardware store for a tint match. Remember that the color probably still won’t match precisely, but if you do a light coat over the entire wall, you won’t notice the difference and won’t have to redo the whole room.
Audit Your Appliances
Most people have an ever-growing collection of unused appliances, whether they’re broken or just lying around because they got replaced with a newer model. Commit to getting them all in one place, testing whether they work, and making a plan to sell, donate, or recycle them. If you’ve got some potentially valuable items, get in touch with a good appliance repair company and give them a new lease on life. It can be a financially rewarding exercise and a great way to declutter your home.
Find And Fix Toilet Leaks
If you suspect your toilet is leaking, you can quickly find the cause by adding a little food coloring to the tank or cistern! If the issue is water dripping from the reservoir into the toilet bowl, you’ll need to replace the flapper. Turn the water off at the wall valve, remove the flush chain from the lever, and slide the old flapper off the overflow tube. Once the new one is in place, the leaking will be gone.
Sometimes, a running toilet can be caused merely by a kinked toilet chain. A quick and ingenious fix for this issue is to slide a little plastic straw over the chain (try to cover about two-thirds of the length) and reattach it to the arm—problem solved!
If the leak occurs elsewhere and you’re not confident about fixing it yourself, call a plumber and get it fixed promptly and professionally before dealing with extensive water damage or other repairs.
Invest In A Small Drain Snake
While making sure you don’t pour fats and oils down the kitchen sink, and that you have hair filters in the bathroom drains to prevent clogs there are great ways to avoid blocked drains, clogs do happen from time to time. When this happens, many of us reach for harsh chemical drain cleaners – but these can cause real damage to your plumbing over time. Invest in a small drain snake to clean out blockages manually and keep your pipe in good shape for years to come.
