Tag Archives: maintenance

Sharing Spaces…and Chores

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Having a lot of roommates seems like it could come in handy when it comes time to clean up and do chores around the house, but don’t be too quick to lessen your own workload because of that. Everyone is different and has different habits, so working towards taking care of the same thing (your home) can get tricky. You all need to be mindful of the fact that you’re living with other people, and be responsible with doing your share of the household chores.

We’ve all seen friends and we all know that Monica and Rachel are the classic example of roommates who are very different, but they always made it work. Just because you and your roommates go about doing things differently doesn’t mean that there need to be any issues! Take a night of the week where you can all sit down and figure out which chores you all need to partake in and figure out how to divide them. Make some sort of a “master list” with all of the chores that need to be done every single week (or day) and divide it up. Make sure you have things like dusting, mopping, sweeping, wiping fans, emptying the dishwasher etc. You can all try and compromise to pick chores you prefer, and then divide up the rest of the work. This way everything is split up equally and one person isn’t stuck taking care of your home. Maybe you can set “standards” of some sort as to how things are done so that everyone can be happy. For example, you can all agree on loading all the big dishes on the bottom of the dishwasher, or making sure not to use pure chlorine when cleaning sinks. There all kinds of little things like this that people do differently, so setting a standard way to do this keeps everyone happy. If you aren’t happy with something, speak up! It’s silly to keep these things to yourself because you’re going to have to deal with them alllllll the time.

It may seem a bit excessive, but you and your roommates should consider putting things on a sort of list that you keep up for all of you to see. This can help when you start forgetting who was responsible for what chore, and whether your own was done. Having it as a constant reminder will make you more inclined to do it so that you can check off that you’ve done it. A chore list can also serve as a way to get a routine going; who knows, you may end up not needing it after a while!

TLDR; do your chores.

chores

5 in 5: Top 5 Maintenance Fixes in 5 Minutes

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As someone who’s renting their home, you’re not responsible for the property maintenance that a homeowner is. Though it depends on your specific lease agreement, your landlord typically handles most of the maintenance issues. This, however, doesn’t relieve you of all maintenance duties, it makes you responsible for the day-to-day issues that may come about. Based on what we at tenant.rentals have determined as simple things that have a big impact on the function and appearance of a home, we’ve created a list of the top 5 small (and regular) problems and their fixes, that take 5 minutes or less to do!

  1. Wall and baseboard scuffs – It’s really easy to let your walls and baseboards get scuffed from the regular wear and tear, but it’s also really easy to keep them looking new. Make it a point to wipe scuffs off (Magic Erasers are awesome for this) as soon as you see them so that you can avoid your walls turning grey and looking old.
  2. Weeds – Normally, in a home that requires regular landscaping, it’ll be the landlords responsibility to maintain it. As much as it’d be convenient for you, your landlord can’t be coming by everyday to pluck weeds. If you see a couple of weeds here and there, get rid of them. Weeds never enhance the appearance of any home.
  3. Carpet stains. – Pretty much following the same idea of landscaping, if you have carpeting your landlord will normally get it cleaned for you at a point or another. But if you see any small spots come up, or have any spills, put some stain remover on for a few minutes and wipe it off, and they should be all gone.
  4. Appliances. – Wipe down your appliances regularly! Cleaning your large appliances on a normal basis is great for a couple of reasons: you clean vents and other parts that can be affected by residue, and you keep your appliances from aging as quickly.
  5. Check your air filter. –  This is soooo easy. If you think it’s time to change it, take a look and call your landlord to replace it for you. Definitely very doable.

maintenance