Hocking Hills, OH –
For the past few weeks I have had a lot of maintenance people in my life, on my mind and scheduled on my calendar. A month ago someone came to fix my dryer. While the repairman was there, he noticed that my vent exiting the dryer had a lot of lint in it, despite the fact that we empty the lint after each load. This build up of lint might have caused the thermostat to go bad. Two weeks ago our septic service person came to check out our motors and quality of effluent. Around the same time my husband spent almost a full day caulking and sealing an exterior of our house. The caulk had pulled apart and wasps had entered the structure. Last week the heater repairman cleaned the heads on a gas-burning fireplace. This week I have started to tackle a spring landscape cleanup. This entails clipping back ground covers that are attempting to grow up and under our siding. Tomorrow I need to call Loise, a lady who owns a knife sharpening business. She drives up to your house in her utility vehicle and sharpens everything you need right on site, from knives to saw blades to reel mowers and standard mower blades. Now, this is a splendid little local business.
In my opinion, spring and fall are the best seasons for doing maintenance around your home and business. At least in temperate climates, these are typically times when people are making changes inside and out. Inside, people are changing wardrobes, doing deep cleaning and sifting through items in storage. Outside, people are found doing spring and fall cleanups. Whether cleaning inside our outside, one is up close to items and notices if something needs to be repaired or maintained. To top it off, temperatures tend to be pleasant these times of the year, making work easier.
Ben Franklin was once quoted saying, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." This saying applies to many things including one's health, pets, career path, family planning, and, of course, maintaining everything one owns. Eating healthy and living a balanced life can prevent disease and illness which can add so much quality and longevity to one's life. Making sure your pets are spayed or neutered is not only responsible and respectful to others in the community, but affords the owner and the pet a more quality life. When someone is focused and plans his or her career path, a lot of money can be saved. When families are planned, life may be easier for everyone involved. There are several benefits to maintaining everything one owns. Safety and health are put first. When things function properly, they are most likely to be safer and healthier. If the dryer repairman had not found the lint build up in our dryer, it could've caused a fire. Now, we know to add this to our biannual maintenance list. If I didn't have my septic serviceman regularly check my septic, I might be irresponsibly polluting the surrounding groundwater, soil and air. When items are maintained, they tend to function properly and can save energy. One example of this is regularly changing the filter in your heating/AC unit. Another example is changing the oil in your car. By maintaining items, money is saved in the long term because you are able to hold on to those items longer, foregoing a new purchase. This money can be spent on savings, education, retirement, vacation, organic food, charities, etc. The real bonus is that the longer something is being used, the longer it stays out of the waste stream. This is crucial to helping our environment. Your wallet should be happier too.
Well, gotta get back to making my list of other spring maintenance items .cleaning the gutters, changing the air filters in my purifiers, taking storm windows down, cleaning the refrigerator coils, cleaning stove hood vents, all natural bug spray..........
Byline Bio:
Gwen Corbett, owner Bear's Den Cottages
www.bearsdencottages.com, Green Lodging
Helping Individuals and Businesses Go Green