And where's the list? Like if I could just find a list of like, "Congratulations on being a homeowner, do all this shit because if you don't the repairs will eat you alive" it would be handy.
Just follow Martha Stewart's website, you'll find there are several thousand hours worth of chores you should be doing weekly!
It took us years to compile the list and it’s paid for itself many times over.
But to jump start the list in a future place, especially a traditional house, I’ve considered hiring a housing inspector or general contractor to give us a walkthrough of key maintenance timelines. Many things could be decades away but easy to forget until it’s a much bigger job. Notes from that interaction would essentially be the bones of “the list.”
My house has bones!? I'm definitely out of my depth...
That's a rough one. I know a good place to start is anything large you buy, make sure you read the maintenance portion of the manual and make a couple notes.
Then I start asking myself about important things like "how do I make sure the plumbing doesn't get fucked? " or "how do I make sure the furnace doesn't die?" and I start googling.
Not a great answer but it helps. I recently realized I didn't give much of a thought to well pump maintenance and I've been down a massive rabbit hole on that one. I feel like you just pick one thing at a time and work on it and you learn as you go.
When you learn minimalists weren't actually about the looks but about keeping stupid adult responsibilities on the low.
Case in point: I replaced my coffee machine with a chemex. So much easier to maintain.
I just eat the beans. Nothing to maintain
I eat the dirt the coffee grows in and suntan my butthole. No relation to the topic at hand, just thought you should know.
For anyone else who doesn't know what a chemex is and can't be arsed to google it:
Clean your dishwasher filter.
Wipe the gasket on your laundry machines
This one got us the other day. My wife was panicking that the washer was leaking. Turns out never wiping the dog hair off the gasket cloggs the weeps holes and it starts to drip onto the floor
If equipped, clean out your detergent/softener dispensors. Most pop out, but some may need a screw or two removed.
Also, some washers have a sump filter that needs cleaning. (little panel at the bottom-left of the front on Samsungs)
You're not my mom, you can't tell me what to do.
Well I am a mom, so I've learned it's a lot less disgusting if you do it every month, but you don't have to listen to me.
Editing to add: if any of the rest of you are also women, it's a good idea to pick a day for the recurring calendar reminder that doesn't align with the part of your monthly cycle when you're already miserable and grossed out by the whole world, you'll be crying into the kitchen sink. If it happens, because cycles are irregular, reschedule for one week ahead, when it won't bother you at all. I guess the same goes for guys except the wild swings of your emotional cycles are less predictable.
Holy shit, if anyone ever does figure out how to predict my emotional cycles I want to hear about it.
More importantly, clean your dishwasher vent.
If you didn’t know it had a vent, enjoy cleaning out that mold.
Being a functional adult is essentially self parenting. It’s cheaper to clean and maintain than to constantly buy new or neglect issues until they snowball. Easier said than done, it’s definitely not always easy but worth the time.
Yeah, the only problem is, only now I'm starting to realize some things. I'm 53 - but hey, it's never too late...
You'll love thinking back to the coffee machine as a problem when you have to handle your parents estate. I won't sugar coat it: Adulting is hard.
When building his house, my father took many shortcuts and often picked the cheaper option, even if it would be more costly in the long term. And even when a cheap piece of crap breaks becuse it's a cheap piece of crap, he goes and buys another cheap piece of crap to replace it.
For example, he refuses to connect to the city water supply, instead he built a well. This can be a good way to save on water costs, as long as your regularly replace filters and test the water to make sure it's safe, and descale it if too hard.
However, he rarely replaces the filters and refuses to install a water softening system. We got sick a few times because of the water (now we just buy bottled when visiting), and all appliances, faucets, water heater are clogged with limescale that cause low water pressure. Fixing or replacing all of them is going to be super expensive.
Similarly, he bought the cheapest doors, and we got stuck because the door handle broke. The house is full of improvised electric stuff. The fridge is so bad it regularly breaks, and even when it's working sometimes food spoils after just 1-2 days because it doesn't cool evenly. He is also a bit of a hoarder, and has a terrible taste in furniture and decorations.
I am the most likely to inherit the estate, and I'm honestly not looking forward to having to deal with all that crap.
Thank God my water supply is reasonably soft. Never had to descale my kettle.
Thank your lucky stars you've never had to descale a toilet...
Well to be fair, you shouldn't have climbed up that toilet in the first place...
I need to descale my coffee machine. How do I do that?
Read the manual. It might have a descale mode that pushes some descaling chemical through the pipes without heating it.
Source: I did it like a month ago. The water that came out was quite pulpy.
I cannot describe the expression I made at the word "pulpy" but "horrified" is probably as close as I'll ever get.
I usually just run vinegar through it every once in a while and then run a few pots of just water to get rid of any residual vinegar. Beware, it'll make the house smell like vinegar for the rest of the day.
Might want to try citric or lactic acid instead at a proper dilution.
White vinegar works, or you can pick up "sour salt" in the Kosher section, which is citric acid and since you don't need much the rest is handy as a substitute for lemon juice. Dilute with plenty of water, run the machine, it removes calcium deposits.
I can live with all the petty little details of day to day life. Even the medical ones as you age.
Pro Tip: when you hit 50, you really need to start looking for that doctor you intend to die on. That doctor will have all those little details documented saving you a whole bunch of time.
The one thing I absolutely hate as someone who has been faking the whole adult thing for decades now, is having to figure out what's for supper every damn day.......
The saddest I’ve seen is a 70 yr old “from a different era” who had to now learn how to make macaroni with cheese for the first time in his life because his partner passed away.
That’s where I think shit has gone really wrong for way too long when trying to adult. Like prepare that you may have to live alone for at least a portion of your life and be the type of person you can stand to be around alone.
This is where lasting relationships and divorce enter the building. Can you, will you deal with the coffee pot? Or do you pray, with every task, that they take care of it first? Is your other half taking care of it while you feel relief, far too often? Are you sick of taking care of it while your other half is checks other room watching YouTube and scrolling Lemmy?
Is it balanced? Or is it a question of how long until imbalance breaks things?
Adulting is tiring. Adulting is also a key to relationship maintenance.
We take the opposite approach: never assume your spouse is going to deal with it; see a problem, deal with it yourself.
Our marriage is still a mess, but it's a mess that's not breaking up any time soon. Mostly we both need to stop drinking.
French press, yo.
About a month ago…
The 20 dollar coffee machine that holds 12 cups doesn't need descaling
Why am I in this picture and why does it hurt so much. ALso it's bEen 1 monTh and 12 DAys siNCe I DEscaLEd mY coFFee maChiNE.
Wait til you hit 40-50.
You get a new responsibility: taking care of your fossilizing body.
Moisturizing after your shower to prevent dry itchy skin
Gel in your mouth to prevent it from drying out during your sleep.
Must go to bed at regular times or else you sleep like shit
This adult doesn't do coffee. Caffeine capsules washed down with grape flavored carbonated water. My adult issues are the expectations others seem to have of me, like visiting or calling/texting. I usually don't unless I have business to work out.
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