Home Upkeep Tips for Couples
Home is where the heart is, so it’s important that the home you live in be well-kept in terms of safety. If you’re married or living with a partner, then you can practice some teamwork strategies to make sure your safe space stays protected. Not only does this end up being beneficial to your home itself, but it can also be a great way to bond with your partner and enforce trust in the relationship.
The Foundation of a Safe and Happy Home
Safety first isn’t a cliche phrase, it’s something you should be prepared to live by. When you’re talking about home ownership, this means figuring out what the potential hazards in your home are and addressing them as soon as they start to pop up. You don’t want any part of your house to fall into disarray, but there are some elements you need to have regularly inspected – like your roof.
Roofs are the part of the house most exposed to the elements, which means they wear down over time. Sun exposure, storms, and seasonal changes all have their own distinct impact. Residential roof inspection should be done at least once or twice a year. On this schedule, professionals can spot issues like cracked shingles, clogged gutters, and hidden leaks before they start to impact the interior of your house.
As a couple, you can share this responsibility by making sure you communicate when you’re scheduling inspections, and go over the results together. You can even make it part of a list of other things that need to be done twice yearly, like testing smoke detectors and carbon monoxide alarms, or cleaning your dryer vents.
Comfort and Function Combined
Once you’ve joined up to collaborate on a list of the safety tasks you can’t let slide, you can also start to think about how to make sure your home stays comfortable. You want to focus on the aspects of your home that keep you as a person at your optimum comfort level. Think of things like your HVAC system keeping you cool in the summer and warm in the winter, or making sure your window seals are effective at keeping drafts out.
Decluttering is also a great way to keep your comfort bar maxed out. Instead of making weekend plans to double date with friends or catch a movie, devote one weekend to organizing closets, sorting out the garage, or deep cleaning the kitchen. If you’re a couple that enjoys a competitive edge, make it a game by each taking a room and seeing who can get done first or who can declutter the most. (Just make sure you aren’t only decluttering their stuff!)
Share the Responsibility
Home upkeep should always be a joint project. The key to making this happen smoothly is to communicate and figure out the healthiest way to divide responsibility. This doesn’t look the same for any couple, because no two people are identical. Look at each person’s strengths and weaknesses and then consider what tasks are most suited to them.
If one person is great at handling a calendar, they might be in charge of scheduling meetings and keeping up with how long it’s been since the last maintenance checks. If another one prefers working with their hands, they might take on more of the housework or small repairs. You can streamline this by using an app that syncs calendars, checklists, and to-do lists between people. (If you’re more old school, you can also just use a whiteboard that hangs in a central location.)
Final Thoughts
The environment you’re in can impact your emotional well-being and your relationship. By making a home for yourself and your partner that’s safe and cozy, you make sure the foundation you’re building on is something that can work for you, not against you. Do this by keeping on top of home repairs, keeping things tidy and taken care of, and communicating in a healthy way with your partner.
