Dusting, apparently
Change your air filters regularly
Death to America
and don’t forget those extra air handler things like if you have a HRV. i swear the previous owners of mine never cleaned it and the OEM filters basically disintegrated when i did it the first time after moving in. luckily all i had to do to replace them was cutting down to size those cheap-o washable filters from the hardware store, good enough to keep the large chunks out.
Even if they don’t carry the proper size at the hardware store, you can usually ask them to order one or find the correct size online for order. Often, they’re even cheaper online!
Checking on your neighbors.
I think that’s a really good point. Of course it’s easier said than done, and any particular neighborhood environment could make it difficult to accomplish. I live in suburban Southern California. Our neighborhood is near the beach, about 150 years old. We have condo boxes, old post-WWII flats, ranch style houses, apartments, AirBnBs. I’m retired, loquacious, and I keep an eye out. I’ve met most of my neighbors, know them by name, and I try to stay out of their hair. I even say hello to the AirBnB peeps. We have an older lady next door, kind of a shut in. Never saw her outside. One day I left a note in her mailbox, introducing myself and my wife. Told her we were always around, and if she needed a hand once in a while (as we all do), we’d be able to help. She got back to me and was very grateful and happy I dropped the note. You never know, you might make someone’s day or even save their life.
Clean the touchable surfaces on your devices and device keyboards.
Popping off all the keys on my keyboard, cleaning the base and washing the keys is so cathartic.
Clean the shower drain. You can also get little nets for catching hair under the grate, at least for the ones usually found in my country. It’s surprising how much hair ends up there.
It’s also a good idea to pour a bit of something like green goblin down the drains once a month or so. I find it helps to prevent the otherwise inevitable buildup from soap scum and whatever fats n junk that make it down there.
Also, always wipe greasy kitchen stuff with a napkin or paper towel and toss it in the trash. Soap pans n things to make sure fatty water isn’t going down. Cleaning out the kitchen pipes after year’s of neglect sucks!
Clean the microwave and oven. People have some filthy microwaves(mine included).
There’s an easy(ish) way to clean one. Put about 1-1.5 cups of water into a microwave safe bowl or glass (I use Pyrex measuring cup) and microwave it for about 10+ minutes. Let the water boil really good and the hot steam will soften all the crap on the inside of the microwave. Get the cup out carefully, wipe the inside with a wet cloth, maybe spray some cleaner if oily and you’re done.
You really want to let that water sit still for a bit before you take it out. It could have superheated (meaning a portion under the surface tension has converted to gas) and explode when disturbed.
Oh that’s smart. I’m gonna try this on my microwave
Be very careful doing this. The water can become superheated and explode when the surface tension is broken. Honestly, it’s probably better to find an alternative way to clean your microwave.
Couldn’t you put a little salt or something in it to make sure it has a nucleation point to start boiling
I’m not sure. That sounds like it might work, but I don’t have any source to know if it will.
There’s nothing special about a microwave that will superheat water. You can superheat water on a stovetop, but nobody ever says not to boil water on a stove.
Huh? How would stovetop boiled water ever be still without bubbling? That’s required for superheating it.
my knob goes to 11
Exactly the same as water being superheated in a microwave, no nucleation sites.
Not exactly the same way, because it can easily happen in a microwave, while on the stove top you’d probably need a brand-new never-used pan and purified water.
Ok now I want to do it more
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Eh, just do what most microwaves recommend for heating liquid: put a tea spoon in there. And if you are thinking “OMFG that will explode”, read about microwave and metal myths ;)
Metal forks are the problem. Sparking occurs between the sharp tips. Supposedly spoons are safe, but I don’t have any first-hand experience with this.
Yeah, or aluminum, or knifes with the edge exposed. Essentially metal pieces close together, or sharp edges, both create sparks. Unless you have murder spoons, you are fine, I always put them in when I heat liquid, and the manual even says to do so.
Sharpen your knives. Replace your furnace filter. Clean your gutters.
Not technically a chore, but a chore preventer: Close the lid before flushing the toilet.
I run an Airbnb hosting in a room on my house for like 3 years and I’m still amazed by how little people actually did it. Even after we sat a signal asking for it just above the flush button. Having feces particles all around your brushes, toothbrushes, towels, etc is an image nobody has but myself it seems.
Read a paper on this at some point, and this has become standard practise at home. Notice that visitting friends don’t do this, so I thought about looking framing the paper and/or some figures showing those plumes after flushing (can’t remember what paper it was but I guess searching pubmed for “toilet flushing” will easily give some appropriate results).
edit: OK “toilet flushing plume” did the trick and showed this marvel (see figure 2) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9732293/
I read it, and the big take away is that if you are out of the room in three seconds, no poop plume gets on you, personally.
J/K that’s true but I’ve always closed the lid anyway, 'cause it’s just polite.
Yeah I saw in the discussion that it is also not clear how it behaves with actual geval particles in the water. However I think multiple other studies have looked into spread of bacteria and viruses and showed this is found near a flushed toilet, but one recent review said the signs where there but it’s not certain it’s super significant for health. (If I remember correctly, i scanned them pretty fast in a coffee fueled random-interest vortex while I actually really wanted to get on with other things).
Oh and I think it can also help with humidy and mold in toilets? Seem to recall my sister did a BSc project on this and actually gathered data in our home. No clue how significant this was tho.
But yeah it’s also just polite, good habit to have i.m.o.
Damn Myth Busters!!!
the cat made me start closing the lid, mythbusters kept me going
This was disproved on mysthbusters
The mythbusters I saw proved it true. Odd.
They did a month of measuring a toothbrush for bacteria and found no real change after 30 days of using and flushing
Probably not applicable for US people and their boxspring beds, but for anyone with mattresses (probably also for foam, but definitely for springs), flip them over every 6 months, this improves longevity.
Mine has a cushioned pad attached to one side.
There are also those with different hardness level per site. So true, in some cases you can’t do it. But when you can, you should ;)
Ours is a futon. We take it outside and sun it every few weeks. Makes a massive difference.
Don’t know for other people but I should definitely clean my windows more often. I think I’ll do that today.
Check the air pressure in your tires. Seems like nobody does this these days.
My car has an alarm if they drop 0.1 psi
Don’t most cars do that for you now? Mine does.
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You should still check, as the tpms may only warn you when it gets too low but generally driving even just a couple psi off can have a big effect on fuel economy and tire life.
Wanted to make a joke about fancy young cars, but apparently automatic tire pressure systems have been around since the 80’s, and apparently it’s mandatory in the EU since 2014?
Never saw it in a car myself, but the youngest car I ever drove is I think my dad’s from 2010 or something.
If it’s now standard that’s a good thing. My broke ass still has to check periodically.
Yeah, but this is the system based on the rotations per meters. Which sucks as it’s not that accurate and only warns you when it’s already very low on air pressure.
The accurate one’s are veeeery expensive.
You mean it guesses how much pressure is lost based on actual rotations of the tire? So a leaky valve or something will not be found?
Yeah, you “set” it when you filled it. Then it knows the rotations to look for. And if it is off by a lot, it warns you.
I’ve no idea what you’re talking about. I don’t set anything, when I add air to the tire the dash monitor reflects it immediately.
Edit: spelling
You guys, I have a hunch that perhaps there are different designs. 🤔
Uh, no. My 2014 Ford Focus (standard trim) senses the tire pressure. I know because one of my wheels had a slow puncture and would always set off the alarm.
Depends on the implementation. Some indeed have it like you described, using some of the sensors used by ABS. others use tiny pressure sensors mounted to the inside bit of the valve of the tyre and those are much more accurate. They aren’t that expensive either. Each sensor is about €20 and lasts about 7 years on its battery before it has to be replaced. (On ours, battery is integrated, so not replaceable). If we had bought our car new, it would’ve cost us €15k-20k. Not the most expensive car. :)
My 2017 Ute (truck?) doesn’t.
My 08 sienna had it kinda. It didn’t have sensors in each wheel, instead it guessed based on relative rotation of the tires at speed. This was problematic; lots of false positives but it was easy to reset. It caused undue concern but it did actually work too (true positives).
Sensors are their own headache. They must be taught to the car computer which requires specialized equipment. I swap my summer and winter wheels myself so had to buy the $200 thingy and go through the headache of learning to use its terrible interface. They are also another failure point; one of my sensors died prematurely so I have to take that wheel in to fix it.
Flush your water heater once a year.
I know that I’m guilty of not doing this regularly, my dad, a former pipeftter and practically a living parody of the responsible homeowner dad who drove us all crazy with preventative maintenance routines doesn’t even do it regularly.
But it’s really not hard, I’m not going to write a guide here because if you just punch “how to flush a water heater” into your search engine of choice you’ll get plenty of good results.
It’ll improve the lifespan and efficiency of your water heater and decrease how much sediment and such you have in your hot water.
Also when you get a new water heater, replace the shitty plastic valve they all seem to ship with these days with a proper brass valve, it’s like a $10 part from home Depot and takes about a minute to swap them out. They probably use them because they know no one actually flushes their water heater anyway, but if you’re one of the few of us who do, you know how sketchy the plastic ones are, if you touch them more than about 2 or 3 times you feel like you’re going to break them.
How truly necessary it is will depend a lot on the quality of your water, if you have good, clean, soft water, it may not make a noticeable difference, if you have harder, dirtier water it might buy you a couple extra years with your water heater, and if your water quality is especially bad you may want to do it a couple of times a year. It takes a little bit for the tank to drain, fill back up and get to temperature, but it’s less than 10 minutes of actual hands-on work, and you can go do whatever the hell you want in the meantime as long as it doesn’t involve hot water.
You should also check and may need to replace the anode rod every few years, that can also increase the lifespan of your water heater. You’re probably going to need a beefy impact wrench though, they often really don’t like to come free.
I bought a house that was used as an office before getting remodeled and sold to to me. When I drained the hot water tank brown slime came out, it looked like a ribbon of brown mushroom. Gotta assume this was bacteria byproduct built up while the tank ran at low heat and saw little water use. I added bleach to sanitize while refilling it and drained.
This is probably something I should do … the hot water tank predates my water softener. Truth be told though, I’ll probably go tankless when it dies… my parents have one, it’s such a nice small thing, particularly if your usage varies and your power is reliable.
Yeah, if it makes sense for your situation absolutely go tankless if you can, for a lot of situations they’re going to be more efficient and save you money in the long run even though they’re more expensiveup front
I believe it’s still recommended that you flush a tankless unit once in a while, I don’t have any firsthand experience with them though, so of course do your research , read the manuals, etc.
I don’t know how you could flush a tankless, they’re basically constantly flushing. It’s pretty much just a pipe that runs around some kind of very hot heating element. There’s nowhere to build up any sentiment. But still, quite a ways off any replacement.
As I understand it, and again I have no firsthand hands-on experience with them myself, this is just secondhand knowledge I’ve picked up doing my research over the years for when I eventually need to replace my current heater, ideally tankless heaters should be installed with isolation valves, you’d close off those valves, hook a pump up to them, and pump some vinegar through the heater for a while to dissolve any calcium and such that’s built up. It’s probably technically more of a cleaning/descaling cycle than what we traditionally think of as flushing, but it kind of serves the same intended purpose and some people are terrified of change so old terms tend to stick around.
There’s no tank for sediment to collect in, but there is a bunch of tubing coiling around a heat exchanger and all those coils and bends are potential places for stuff to collect and build up in.
It certainly feels less necessary to me since like you said it’s pretty much constantly flushing itself every time you run hot water, and things like your water quality, water pressure, and how often/long you tend to run your hot water for probably come into play somehow. I’d bet that like with flushing a traditional water heater a lot of, maybe most people can probably get away with not doing it and never have any major issues, but if you can remember to do it occasionally it’s cheap insurance it’s cheap insurance to prolong the life of the heater and make sure it’s running as efficiently as possible.
I’m pretty sure I’ve also seen some tankless heaters installed without isolation valves, so it may be something thats not necessary for some models or in all cases, but in those cases if you do find yourself in a position where you need to flush it, that would of course make the operation somewhat more complicated.
So again in general do your research, read the manual, see what the manufacturer recommends, etc.
Gotcha, makes sense. I bet that’s mostly relevant for people without water softeners or people on very hard water (e.g. well water).
Thanks for the detailed write up though!
Cleaning out the billionaires from behind the curtains
If they are behind my curtains I should be charging them rent.
As someone with a German shepherd, vacuum the carpets. You can never get that pet hair out enough, and just when you think you’re done there’s more! I can feel it pleasing my sinuses every time I vacuum
I often think that anyone who has ever had to remove carpet would never choose carpet as a floor covering. Vacuuming just isn’t really that effective. You always end up with heaps of this really fine “dust” (pet dander? dead skin?), it’s just gross. Hard floors are the only way.
I agree! Can’t wait to be able to have hardwood floors and put down a rug or two. But all this is so expensive so I’ll take the gross off white carpet for now
Wash their sheets and pillow cases. Also vacuum. Dust mites are not healthy to have around.
My robot vacuum gets triggered any time I leave the house. Go out for dinner? Go to work? Grab coffee? Come back to a vacuumed house.
That doesn’t work for me in the iRobot ecosystem; it always finds some excuse to just stop in the middle of the job and then “forget” what is was doing. It then sends out the mop even though it never finished vacuuming.
If I didn’t work from home there’d be no way they’d ever clean everything.
I know it’s better than nothing, but the reason I haven’t bothered to get one is that the vacuum guy on Reddit made me a solid believer in German bagged vacuums like Sebo. Almost everything else is exhausting dust everywhere it goes.
Roomba is a lifesaver.
Agreed. Apparently some people have issues with it but ours has been running pretty steadily every morning for the last 1.5 year or so. At some point the charging contacts were a bit dull and it started giving errors but otherwise the maintenance is minimal.
Oh but I can heavily recommend buy extra filters and when doing a bit more thorough clean of the dustbin just vacuum out the filter with another strong vacuum, or slap it on the floor a couple times to really get the dust out. Doing this and the suckpower increases tremendously and it also seems to more efficiently pack the dust in the bin by just having stronger suction, i guess
Agree. I thought they were overrated until we got one. They are like pets that clean. Ours has a cute punny name.
What’s it’s name? I named mine “Mr. Roombastic”
Domo arigato, Mr. Roomboto
That is fantastic
Paul Roombins
(In honor of Paul Reubens)
Ditto. Ours is called Tony, after the character Suckboy Tony from American Dad.
Mine is called Compsognathus. He’s my little scavenger and fits with a bunch of my Jurassic Park memorabilia.
Mine is super unreliable, plus what takes him 2 hours, I can get done in 30 minutes.
That’s 30 minutes that I don’t have to spend vacuuming.
Robot vacuums and mops? Sure. But iRobot devices (including Roomba)? I have my doubts. The robots seem to just raise errors all the time for no specific reason.
Robot vacuums are great, but my Roomba is incredibly unreliable. I’m buying Roborock next time.
Same here. Roomba and Braava jet clean incredibly well but the software/navigation are trash.
