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Mike’s Pre-Spring Home Hacks
8 Ways To Jumpstart Your Home Maintenance Before the Spring
Winter is an unpleasant time to do home maintenance and repairs. Weather is uncooperative, garages are chilly and days are short and wet. What I want to offer are favorite strategies for tackling home maintenance in the winter months. Motivation and daylight is limited so here are some things that can stir some homeowner satisfaction.
County Recycling Centers. In the Pacific Northwest we all feel uncomfortable tossing batteries, liquids and fluorescent light bulbs in the garbage. Did you know there is a free place open every day of the week to dispose of these household items? My go to is the Snohomish County Recycle Center on Minuteman Drive near Paine Field Airport. Just last month I took a container of radiator fluid, multiple fluorescent tubes, empty propane tanks, CFL bulbs, and a box full of dead batteries. In the past I have taken a massive load of cardboard and scrap metal which they took for free! I simply had to load, transport and unload in the clearly marked bins. Oh how satisfying to dump in an environmentally responsible way! (Links to the facility locations are provided with the final pre-spring hack!)
- Live in Snohomish County? Here’s the RECYCLE IT link to the full list of what they accept, and alternatives to things they do not accept!
- Live in King County? Here’s the RECYCLE IT link to the full list of what they accept and things they do not accept!
- Live in Skagit County? Here’s the RECYCLE IT link to the list of what they accept.
Paint hardener. Half empty and unwanted paint cans pile up quickly. Half-full cans saved for touch up dry out with time and become irrelevant as paint fades. We can buy these packets from hardware and paint stores for about $3-5 per packet and each packet hardens one gallon. Dump the contents in the can, mix with a stick, let it sit and presto, solid waste! The paint is hardened and the can be tossed in the regular garbage.
- You can find PAINT HARDENER at McDaniel’s Do It Best Center or other stores that sell paint.
Trim branches before the leaves. Trees and shrubs recently brought us soggy, leafy memories of autumn clean-up. Maybe goopy clumps are still decomposing in your yard! The quantity of leaves, woody stems, and diameter of branches will grow exponentially in just a few months. Lopping, cutting and pruning now is one-quarter of the work and waste as it will be this summer. When we make the goal to fill up the yard waste can every week, we’ll have a huge jump start before spring even begins!
Upgrade or add one tool to the collection. Identify the shabby or under-performing tool that will help us work more efficiently or safely. Check for sales, do research, check OfferUp and buy sensibly when it is not yet urgent. One of those on my radar this winter is a mower!
Save money ahead of time and put it in an envelope for that special project. Even if it is only a token amount it feels different when we spend what we already have saved. It gives us and our spouse something to watch grow and celebrate together. We cashed our Costco rebate, stuffed it in a envelope marked “house project” and have it waiting for an upcoming project! What house project? TBD!
20-minute micro project. All those in between times of undesignated moments are like loose cash and change. Instead of scrolling on the phone, advance even large projects with this hack. Three micro-projects in a week is a full hour of rewarding home maintenance!
Sharpen the blades. Cutting and yard work is made safer, faster and cleaner. Every sharp tool should be sharpened at least once a year. What is waiting for a brilliant honing around the home? Knives, scissors, mower blades, chainsaws, pruning sheers, axes, machetes, straight edge razors, utility knifes are all candidates. Dull means dangerous, messy and lengthy cuts. If I was given a nickel for every minute saved by a properly sharpened blade I would be rich!
Dump run. One dump run in the winter season is one less dump run needed in the premium summer time! Added benefit is the transfer station lines are shorter, our house looks less cluttered and cleaner immediately, and we give pests less place to shelter under dump piles and in the garage.
