Perception is powerful.
A little British humor from the show, “Black Books”. It’s a fun watch.
One of my favorite books to read to my kids was If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff. It starts like this:
If a hungry little mouse shows up on your doorstep, you might want to give him a cookie. And if you give him a cookie, he’ll ask for a glass of milk. He’ll want to look in a mirror to make sure he doesn’t have a milk mustache, and then he’ll ask for a pair of scissors to give himself a trim….
As a mom, I totally related to the little girl in the book, running around trying to keep up with that mouse. And as a homeowner, I’ve definitely had those days when my chore list felt just as relentless as that pesky mouse. (If you’ve seen this Malcolm in the Middle clip, you’ll understand how my summer went…)
As annoying as last summer was, I’ve learned that it takes time to get a home onto a smooth, steady schedule. Expecting a bit of chaos helps me keep my cool. Soon enough, my to-do list will shift from big repairs and larger maintenance tasks to quick check-ups and minor tweaks.
Wherever you are on your home maintenance journey, remember: success comes from taking intentional, steady steps forward.
✅September Home Maintenance Checklist
🔁 Reoccurring Tasks
- Check your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors before using your fireplace for the first time.
- Prune any trees or brushes away from the house.
- Check your outdoor plugs to make sure they are in working order (Christmas will be here before we know it!)
- If you have a water softener, take a peek at those salt levels.
- Is it time to change your HVAC filter? When you are done, mark it in your calendar and order new ones if needed.
- Maintain
🛠️ Maintain
- Inspect your windows
- Service your heating system
- Inspect and clean fireplace
🧰 Prep
Haven’t been keeping up with home maintenance? Keep it simple and just do these tasks to start. These tasks are the one and done tasks you can do that will make future maintenance and DIY task so much easier.
- Get rid of common hiccups to home maintenance carefully assessing those things that make chores bigger than they need to be (i.e. creating access to common items that need maintenance). Nobody wants to do two big chores at once! See the Prep course for more on this.
- Tidy the garage
- Label those circuits
Need help with any of those tasks? There is much more information inside our community.
The skills needed this month
Helps to know how something works before working on it. This channel has everything you need to inspect and clean your chimney, and he covers different types of chimneys.