Three Things You Can Do to Help Prevent Wear and Tear in Your Home

No matter how much of a handyman you might be, nobody’s happy when something in the house breaks. Even if you’ve master the art of DIY repairs, know where to find the best tools and parts, and at the best prices, when something in the house breaks down, you know it’s going to eat up your time, and become a hassle. They’re a great way to ruin anyone’s weekend.

So, to keep yourself out of this scenario, as often as possible, you’ve got to learn some basic methods to prevent, or at least slow, the rate at which things break or wear down. Everything has a shelf life, and will need to be fixed or swapped out sooner or later, but I’d much rather give up one weekend every now and then to address issues, instead of once a month, and I’m sure you would too.

With that, here’s three ways you can do to help increase the life of your home, and prevent damage as you go along.

Do Regular Maintenance on Your Appliances

At certain intervals, you need to be checking up on every appliance in your home, from the heater to the fridge. If you’re smart, you’ve saved all of the owner’s manuals that tell you how to check for developing maintenance issues; if you haven’t, you need to get on the manufacturer’s website, and download a copy.

Using your manual, go through and look for the tell tale signs that your appliance is on its way to a breakdown. Common things include water in your sink is draining slower than usual, a dead giveaway for a developing clog, or checking the wiring on your plugins for frays, which will help you detect cracks or snaps in the wiring, and prevent a loss of power to your appliances.

Use Buffers to Protect Your Furniture

Good quality furniture can be looked either as an expense, or an investment – good homeowners know that investing in furniture that was made with the highest standards of quality in mind will not only make you comfortable, but prevent you from having to buy a new couch or chair every other year. But no matter how well put together furniture is, sooner or later, it will start to wear down.

This doesn’t mean you have to take it sitting down, though. You can increase the longevity of your furniture by adding buffers, or padding, to help slow down the natural wear on your material. Get a good blanket or throw that you can drape over the back of your couch, or on your cushions. Get an area rug that’s both strong and durable to help prevent scuffing, cracks, and stains on your carpet or hardwood floor. 

Regulate the Temperature, as Much as You Can

I’m sure you’ve had a day where you might have woken up, and the air outside was freezing, but by the end of the day, you were sweating like a pig. You probably felt terrible, like there was something off, all day long. Our bodies don’t react well when they have to deal with large, quick changes in temperature – it takes our biological processes some time to adjust, and even then, if the there’s a big change, they can still have a hard time keeping up.

Your home works the same way. Extreme cold or heat, and especially sudden changes between the two, can lead to fraying, deterioration, cracking, and breaks at an accelerated rate. I’m not suggesting that you don’t put the comfort of your family first – that’s always top of the list, but I am saying, where and when you can, keep the temperature at a level that’s comfortable, but not extreme. If you do know that you’re going to be swapping the thermostat soon, start a day or two early, and gradually bring the temperature to where you want it to be.