Sustainability & Chaos

Rita McWaters • August 2024

You have to accept the storm if you want to see a rainbow.

Hey there, honey badgers!

July was a chaotic and challenging month for us, with a long string of things breaking - from the AC to the lawnmower to the garage door to the power washer to ...and then there was an incident involving bats. I’ll spare you the rest of the list, but it was enough to make me feel overwhelmed, mad, and depressed.

I started to doubt myself, questioning how I could run a home maintenance community when I seemed to have no control over my own space. Thankfully, my dad had some wisdom to share. He told me when he came into a new power plant, it often took several stormy years of constant emergency repairs before he could get things on a smooth schedule. We've been in this house for four years now, so I’m hopeful that our own “rainbows” are just around the corner.

I think that in today's world, especially with social media, there is always this feeling that you always have to be on top of everything. You have to keep up with everything already on your plate and start some new, Insta-ready, "life fulfilling" venture along with it. But that's not going to be reality. There will be days when there is simply too much there: you have to take a step back and reprioritize. It's hard to walk that line between balance and progress, but oftentimes taking one step back helps you take three steps forward.

A way to intentionally move that needle is understanding the difference between predictive and preventative maintenance.

Preventive maintenance follows a fixed schedule, regardless of whether upkeep is needed.
Predictive (aka - there goes the weekend maintenance) is completed as needed - as things break or about to break.

At first, you may find yourself spending more time in yucky predictive maintenance. But as you get things well oiled, you will find yourself spending more and more time on the easy street of preventive maintenance - which means you control the schedule and budget!

So, embrace the chaos. Expect it. And know it will not always rule your life... That is, if you are intentional about it.

– Rita

Check out the Course

August Tasks

Reoccurring Tasks

If you have a water softener, take a peek at those salt levels.
Is it time to change your HVAC filter? When you are done, mark it in your calendar and order new ones if needed.

Maintain

It's hot and August seems to always be busy. So, just one thing on the list this time. If you happen to have a lot of free time, go back over the previous months and tackle anything you missed.

Clean the refrigerator coils.
If you have time, go back and do the ones you missed this year or peek in the prep course and see if you have anything left there.

Prep

Haven't been keeping up with home maintenance? Keep it simple and just do these tasks to start. These tasks are the one and done tasks you can do that will make future maintenance and DIY task so much easier.