Handling your life as a single parent is tough. You run an entire house, manage children, and balance your work life. Amongst all these tasks, managing home maintenance is another challenge that can easily be neglected when you are already overstretched.
Several tasks in your home need your attention. Without care and timely maintenance, your home loses its appearance and shine. Some things might even stop working if not handled properly.
With a few essential tips, you can maintain your home without compromising comfort.
Here are five top tips for every single parent to be aware of.
Make a Checklist
If you tend to forget chores, start making a list for them. Everyone’s life improves when they create a checklist to manage all their home tasks. With a busy routine, it’s easy to forget a few minor home tasks. However, these minor problems might transform into something massive.
For example, your appliance’s service dates are a must to remember. Still balancing your work and home life might cause you to miss out on a few appliance service dates. Therefore, create a checklist in advance. Write down the machines in need of servicing and their due dates. That way, your appliances never wear out.
According to experts at Fixd repair, a popular appliance repair Dallas Texas, “If you make sure your appliances are functioning properly, your home runs smoothly.” Therefore, service each item in your home in time. In such tasks, checklists come in handy because they help you remember your responsibilities.
Once you create a checklist, paste it somewhere visible. You could put the list on your fridge, windows, or doors. The list will contain dozens of everyday tasks, including sofa cleaning, washing, and much more.
Check Plumbing And Gutters
Being a working woman and a mother might take up all of your energy, but you can’t skip one thing in your home, checking gutters and plumbing. Your home’s plumbing needs regular inspection, or it might become problematic.
With time pipes get damaged or start decomposing. If you spot these pipes in your home, have them replaced instantly. Keeping damaged pipes could cause significant harm to your entire home. In addition to replacement, remember to clean these pipes.
The same case implies to house gutters. Gutters can get blocked with leaves or other foreign objects. It leads to improper drainage or temporary clogs. So, check your gutter’s condition and see if the water flows through them smoothly.
Invest in a Home Warranty
Sparing money for repairs along with managing home expenses is tough, especially during a cost of living crisis. Thus, the best solution is to opt for a home warranty. It protects homeowners from unwanted expenses.
With a home warranty, most of your appliances get repaired at any hour. The best part, heating and air conditioning systems are also repaired with the help of a home warranty. You could get any system fixed without additional charges.
Being a single working mum, you must carefully plan your expenses because you are solely responsible for everything in your home. This way, your home remains maintained, and you won’t need to cut down on personal expenses.
Monitor Utilities
Utilities like water, gas, and electricity are basic requirements of every individual. Recent price escalations mean that they are taking up a bigger part of our income than ever. More of us are starting to closely monitor exactly which appliances and systems use the most power. Most of the big power companies will now offer free Smart Meters and this will enable you to see exactly how much power is being used every day.
Observe your bills and Smart Meter and see if there are any unexpected spikes. These spikes could be due to leakages or connection problems. No matter what reason there might be, track these spikes instead of paying thousands of dollars.
One such problem often comes up with water bills. Often homes have leakages or drainage issues, resulting in extra water wastage and higher bills. Your leaking taps or toilets could waste gallons of water daily. With some tight monitoring, you could prevent the issue from happening.
Avoid Clutters
Organizing your home is also a great maintenance tip. A home without clutter looks cleaner and is better for living with kids of every age. Messy homes are tough to manage, and you will face difficulty in detecting potential faults in your home. These areas remain unattended due to all the mess and become permanent issues. So, focus on adequate storage plans.
Instead of keeping things out in the open, keep them safe in storage. You could use decorative pieces or bookcases to keep things safe. Don’t let anything old or unused take up valuable space.
As a single parent, you have double the responsibilities and half the time. So being organised is even more important. Keep on top of those home maintenance tasks and avoid potential crises that you could definitely do without. Of course, as a working single parent you are already an amazing organiser, this handy list will just help you to aviod any potential blind spots.