12 Things You Should Be Able To Do Around the House

Posted on June 12, 2009 by LJ

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Photo by bb_mattA recent conversation with an acquaintance revealed that as a landlord, my friend often gets called to do things that her tenants should be able to handle themselves. It led me to think of the simple household things I think every person should be able to do:

  • Change a light bulb. Don’t laugh. Some people can’t change a light bulb at all. Broken light bulbs require special handling. Make sure that you put in an appropriate wattage bulb.
  • Change furnace air filters. Furnaces and air conditioning push air through filters to clean it. These filters need to be changed regularly.
  • Clean refrigerator coils. Refrigerators collect dust, and if left uncleaned long enough, can start a fire. Clean the coils regularly.
  • Install a programmable thermostat. This is probably the most difficult of the list, but pays off big in energy savings. Installing a programmable thermostat is a straight-forward way to save energy.
  • Clean a window. Clean windows let in light and air. Cleaning windows is easy.
  • Dust your computer. If you are reading this, you are on a computer. Regularly dusting out your computer prevents excessive heat buildup. Cleaning computers just requires a little care, but is very easy.
  • Descale a coffee maker. Water going through a coffee maker leaves minerals behind. In order to prolong the life of your coffee maker, you need to descale regularly.
  • Maintain a mattress. Mattresses are expensive, and extending the life of a mattress is easy. Learn how to maintain your mattress.
  • Plunge a toilet. S**t happens. So do blocked toilets. Learning how to correctly plunge a toilet can mean the difference between a nasty mess and a working toilet.
  • Hang a picture. I was always surprised how my roommates in college couldn’t hang pictures and consequently left walls bare. Liven up your space by hanging pictures.
  • Painting a wall. Painting done poorly shows. Painting correctly looks fabulous.
  • Reverse the direction of a ceiling fan. Running ceiling fans all year can cut down on your heating and cooling bills. You must reverse the direction of the fans for the two seasons, though. Summer should blow down, winter should blow upward. Reversing the direction is just a matter of flipping a switch.

What skills do you think people should be able to do around the house?

Photo by bb_matt

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Comments (1)

 

  1. The home remodeling says:
    July 21, 2009 at 12:13 pm

    It is amazing that doing some of these small task can make such a great difference. We installed a programmable thermostat two year ago and since then we have lowered our bill by around 20%. Thanks for sharing.