Skip to main content

Household Repairs Anyone can do

Whether you are an urban homesteader or a rural homesteader, in the home there is always some aspect of the property that needs a little fixing up. Unaddressed, small problems and tasks become large and expensive eyesores, requiring professional attention, precluded by a sizable withdrawal from your bank account. Granted, not everyone has the skill set to remodel a house, or for that matter, even change a light switch. But everyone does have the ability to complete simple household repairs, and thereby save money and preserve their homestead.

A list of household repairs anyone can do should be approached from a perspective of maintenance, you’re just attempting to fix what you can properly to preserve a pleasant environment. Don’t bite off more than you can chew, ambition is a good thing in small doses. One certain way to spend a ton of money is to dive into a large project without the knowledge of how to escape. Once the realization hits that you can’t “wing it” it’s too late, and you’ll be kicking yourself as you make out the contractor’s check.

Household repairs to start with

Here’s a really simple list to start with for those mechanically challenged or those with little confidence.

  • household repairs: tighten screwsTake a regular head and a phillips head screwdriver and go around your house tightening screws. Sounds crazy, but you’ll be amazed how many are loose or cause squeaking.
  • Next, grab an adjustable wrench and do the same with all of the bolt heads in you house. Not so tough, eh?
  • Now grab a bucket, some soap, and the furnace filter, take it out in the yard and clean it. Let it dry thoroughly and replace the filter.

You’re on a roll now, confidence swelling nicely?

Additional household repairs to start with:

  • household repairs- using WD40Next, get a small oil can or spray can of WD-40 and lubricate every hinge in the home, Outside doors, inside doors, and cabinet doors, if it has a potential to squeak, give it a shot.
  • Go around the house and check every light bulb to make sure it’s tight, and change the ones that are burnt out.
  • Have stained furniture? It’s really inexpensive to rent an upholstery cleaning machine and some chemicals to make your furniture look new again.

Now, onward to the garage:

Grab the lawnmower, disconnect the spark plug cable from the plug, unscrew the old plug and replace it with a new one. Before connecting the spark plug cable, turn the mower over and clean the bottom, tighten the blade bolt, and sharpen the blade with a file or sharpening tool. Reconnect the spark plug blade and you’re finished. On the way out of the garage, oil the garage door hinges.

Sure none of these sound difficult, or even seem that important, but each little household repair makes your home a little nicer, and helps preserve your homestead.

 

Now do you feel ready to tackle these 5 simple home repairs?

 

If you have never sharpened a lawn mower blade, don’t fret, here is an infographic to help you out:

how to sharpen lawn mower blades

Share this Image On Your Site

The post Household Repairs Anyone can do appeared first on Downtown Homestead.



from Downtown Homestead http://downtownhomestead.com/household-repairs-anyone-can

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

How to Create an Evening Oasis of Bloom and Fragrance

I think it is equally important to turn your outside space into a place to feed your family, but not overlook the chance to escape into it. We have a suburban house, that has a backyard backed up to 5 other yards, so we wanted to create a perfect little oasis for ourselves to escape into. So, we are creating a moonlight garden, to give us a perfect little escape for those late-night bonfires.   Many plants bloom in the evening, particularly in warm climates, and their delicious fragrance can be smelled on the breeze perfuming the whole area. The flowers are usually white or light yellow.   One vine that I especially like is an annual called, appropriately enough, moonflower. It’s in the same family as morning glories and the large white flowers can be up to 6 inches across and very fragrant.   The great thing about this plant is the way it opens its flowers. The large buds look like furled white beach umbrellas. But look again. Did you see the bud move? As the twili...

What Changes Can I Make to My Garden to Be More Natural?

Gardening has changed a bit in recent years as people’s philosophy of gardening is starting to change to go back to more natural and organic methods. For those who have been gardening for a number of years, these new practices might be a bit hard to understand at first since the traditional ways of doing things is adding chemicals to the soil or plants to take care of problems and grow larger plants. Organic methods work a bit differently. Traditional methods use chemical fertilizers to add nutrients to the soil. Organic methods use compost . This is organic matter and carbon matter mixed together. This would be things like fruit peels, vegetables, grass, hay, leaves, and other types of waste mixed together. Over time it breaks down into rich soil that doesn’t need any fertilizer at all. A good compost is natural and doesn’t require extra chemicals. Pest control is a bit more difficult since you don’t want to use chemicals on your plants that end up killing everything. There are a fe...

Biochar – Promising Way to Reduce Greenhouse Gases

Imagine this: You have a garden or yard full of trees. Each year you prune and cut dying branches to make room for new growth. Each autumn you rake in several pounds of dead leaves, fallen fruits and other garden “leftovers.” What are you going to do? Ordinarily, you would just leave them alone scattered on your yard, where they would just decay or be buried in winter frost. You probably would clear out a fallen branch or two as well.   How to make Biochar Clear your garden of all living, organic material. Dig a trench approx 12 inches deep. Use a fork to loosen and turn the soil at the bottom. Pile brush in the bottom of the trench, approx 8 inches deep. Light the brush on fire, and allow it to smolder until the smoke thins and turns bluish-gray. Cover lightly with an inch of dirt and let it continue to smolder until it turns to charcoal chunks. Put out with water. Turn and mix the charcoal with the soil turned underneath and then fill in the trench. Continue the proce...