by Sharon Jones
Running a home is no easy thing to do. Whether you do it full time as a stay at home spouse or parent or if you continue to run things while heading out to work each day, it is never easy to keep track of everything. There is always something that needs doing. While summer is here, there is no surprise that we can all get a little ahead of ourselves with our homes. In the light of day, you will start to see that certain things need doing, certain jobs need maintaining, and you may all of a sudden get a sudden urge to declutter and spring clean. All completely normal reactions, but can hinder your chance to enjoy the summer when all you do is spend it maintaining your home. I thought I would share with you some of the things and the jobs we can all easily forget throughout the year. However, keeping on top of the jobs can mean that you have much more of grip on the day to day running of your home.
Those annual chores
We all have chores in our home that we need to do at least once a year, let’s call them the annual jobs. These are things like clearing out the gutters of your home, cutting down the bushes and generally taking care of the home. However, because they only need doing sporadically, we can all be guilty of leaving them till the last minute or forgetting about them entirely. If you can, use a planner to forward book in the time to do these jobs and spread them over the year. This means you are less likely to forget about them when the time comes to get them sorted.
Getting the home ready for the holidays
Getting ready for the holidays can be a joyous occasion. But when it comes to making your home look ready for the occasion that can be another story entirely. It’s not easy to add those twinkly outside lights to your home ready for the festive season or get your home ready for the different seasons ahead. This is when it may be worth looking into home care services and see if they can help you out. We all want to feel as prepared as possible, but there are only so many hours in the day in order to do it. Again this is when forward planning could help.
Keeping up with the curb appeal
Not all of us are bothered about “keeping up with the Jones,” but we do owe it to our neighbors to ensure that our home's curb appeal matches everyone else's. It’s in everyone’s best interest to use a service similar to the one provided by companies like Clean Pro Gutter Cleaning Pittsburgh to ensure that the gutters aren’t overflowing with leaves and muck. It’s far more affordable to clean the gutters than to pay for repairs, and the neighbors would probably be thankful they don’t have to see overflowing gutters every day too. This helps with property value, as well as anyone planning on selling their home in the future. This also means good lawn maintenance and cutting back the shrubs around the front of your garden. But it doesn't end there, you could also consider hiring a Window Cleaning Boulder company, or one a little more local to you, to perform regular window cleaning to keep your windows sparkling and clear. Even simple tasks such as making sure your drive is brushed regularly will keep the exterior of your property looking good.
New windows are an option that can improve curb appeal. If your current windows are energy inefficient, Renewal by Andersen Windows are a great replacement option.
Checking your household bills regularly
When was the last time you checked your household bills? I wouldn't be surprised if you said not for a long time. That is because so many people just let those direct debits leave their account each month and remain loyal to the companies that supply them the goods. But, too often loyalty does not pay off, and you end up paying more than you need to. This is why it’s worth sitting down with your bank statements and seeing where you can make some changes to your outgoings. This exercise can normally save you a fair bit on your direct debits and helps increase your disposable income.
Ensuring you keep track of meter readings
There is nothing worse than getting a large bill from your energy supplier based on estimated readings. This can then cause you to pay out more than you need. Thankfully, most companies will let you update your meter readings as often as you want to and you can even do this online. This is a great way to ensure you only pay for what you use. Also, another useful tip is to have an electrician, such as an electrician st kilda way, take a look at your electrics and ensure everything is working correctly. If even one appliance is faulty in terms of the electrics, this can waste a lot of money.
Being on top of the cleaning
Ever clean the whole house and then a few days later wonder why it’s looking disheveled again? This is because many people choose not to keep on top of their cleaning on a daily basis. That doesn’t mean cleaning the whole house, it means having certain jobs done on different days, which will help you keep your home looking in good shape on a daily basis. A cleaning schedule is a great way to organize yourself to do this. This can also help you manage your home more efficiently and stops the cleaning being an overwhelming chore to handle.
Ensuring you tackle the maintenance side
There will always be maintenance that needs to be done on your home. That might be the garden, it might mean cleaning the exterior windows, or even more specific jobs like repairing plastering and redecorating. However, sometimes if these jobs aren't handled sooner than they can be become real issues that require much more time and effort, and may even end up costing you to get fixed. However, anything pipework and heating/electric related might mean getting someone professional to sort the issue for you. It’s too easy to overlook, but doing that could cause issues.
Keeping track of insurance renewals
Finally, we can all forget when to renew our insurance policies, until it’s too late and the company has automatically renewed your policy. You could be missing a trick when it comes to cost savings and even using cashback sites when switching to new companies. If you make a note ahead of time in your planner, this means you could get quotes in time to change if you get a better deal elsewhere. Sometimes having a quote from a different company means your current supplier will match it. This works for contents, your home and even things like your car and mobile phone.
I hope this prompts you to remember a few things when it comes to running your home.