If you work in a commercial or industrial setting, there might be regular maintenance schedules and tasks that are easy to adhere to. But what if you work for yourself, or are trying to keep your home in tip-top shape, how do you keep track of things?
A lot of people I know don’t adhere to a hard schedule, they do things on a as-needed basis. But inevitably, something gets forgotten or perpetually postponed.
Advertisement
Hilton asked:
Maybe you could pose a question to the readers as to which if at all, home maintenance software they use?
I’m looking at something that will allow me to input tasks to do such as painting, cleaning gutters, rotating tyres, replacing pool filters and etc, that all have different schedules and time constraints.
Ideally the software would have the ability to reschedule if you can’t perform the maintenance this weekend but not just postpone, actually move other tasks around.
It could also include family related tasks like checking up on motor vehicle insurance, annual dentist check-ups and prostrate exams (bummer).
Do you perhaps know of such software? I’m not a huge mobile app fan so if there’s a web based option to maintain this software it would be fantastic.
Advertisement
I have been thinking about this too.
We have a “date completed” chart, shared between my wife and I on Google Drivce, for things like filter changes. That helps with “when did I…” but it could be better.
There should be ways to utilize Google’s Calendar app, or other similar calendar apps, to send notifications when something needs to be done.
I think I have a solution that could work, at least for my family.
Tied into “bullet journaling,” there’s something that some notebook-keepers do, and it’s called a “habit tracker.” Here’s a google image search.
Shown above is a quick “Task Tracker” I put together in Google Sheets. I added square grid lines to schedule a couple of items, and added conditional formatting so that typing an X or x highlights that box green.
Some items might be flexible, others less so, like garbage, leaf, or recycling collection days.
What I’m thinking is that I can create two templates, either printable or on a whiteboard. There might be a monthly chart, split up into days or weeks, and a yearly chart, split up into months.
When something is done, you fill in a grid. For something you want to schedule, you can darken the grid lines in advance.
Post something like this to the wall or refrigerator, and maybe that will work. Or there could be a whiteboard that’s hand-written. Maybe different colored borders can denote who has to do a task or chore.
I’m all for technology and apps, but sometimes things are easier to do the old fashioned way.
What do you guys use to help keep track of home or equipment maintenance needs?
Control
Sciral Consistency is a dedicated tool for scheduling recurring tasks like maintenance stuff. http://sciral.com/consistency/
z2w
> I’m all for technology and apps, but sometimes things are easier to do the old fashioned way.
+1.
It’s satisfying to work out a tool and gradually refine it over time. Without the gradual refinement, the routine starts to feel like it’s your boss instead of the other way around.
Big Adam
Really doesn’t hit many (any?) of your requirements, but my wife and I would be lost without Google Calendar for tracking kid’s activities, holiday plans, visitors, visits, holidays, my business travel, refuse collection etc.
Each member of the family is set up with their own colour-coded diary to give an instant overview.
I use it to provide reminders of, generally, annual tasks (insurance renewals, car servicing etc) but it’s also useful for blanking our weekends for when I really need to blitz the garden or sand and repaint the shutters. Don’t think that works for your needs though.
pete
Thats what we use at work. Every “department” has a different color. It’s not available to the entire company but it is for the supervisors who use that to direct those that they manage.
Johann
This is a service that I first saw on a “This Old House” however, I have not yet signed up. It looks like it can log all of the different maintenance things in your house, but not sure if it can create tasks.
https://www.mycentriq.com/
Theoretically, this service can catalog just about everything in the house. In fact you can upload photos/wiring diagrams etc when you remodel. The point being that this information stays with the house. So when you sell the house, this information is available to the next owner.
It sounds really great, but I’ve been a little uncomfortable with the amount of data they keep. I’d really be interested to see if anyone here has used this service.
Cody Zinker
Centriq looks interesting. I signed up and will try it. Hope it’s free.
Olivia
I use Centriq. I actually wrote in to their customer service and they explained that they might use my data to tell my refrigerator manufacturer that there are x many people in my zip code with the same fridge. Other than that there’s no cause for concern. I didn’t even provide my fulll address, actually. Just my zip code.
I’ve found it to be extremely useful. I added a lot of power tools and our appliances, but the first time I actually used the app was when we needed to figure out how to change the wire in our weeder. It was really convenient! After that, ordering a new water filter for the fridge… I let it beep at me for months before finally ordering a new one, but the app made that very simple.
fred
How to properly schedule maintenance and inspection tasks is the subject of quite a bit of ongoing study. Time based maintenance is most typical of what we do – and can be based on things like manufacturer’s recommendations or our own experience and heuristics. Condition based maintenance – if it can be done properly (may need telemetry on critical components) can have advantages in that it might catch components that are on the verge of failure and/or leave some items alone if change out is not needed. Of course at the other extreme is the “run to failure” scheme that replaces non-mission-critical items only when they fail. While one would think that an over-maintained piece of machinery is better than an under-maintained one – should the act of maintenance mess something up – then there may be more harm than good.
My household maintenance is a combination of things. I run light bulbs to failure, I look at the A/C and heating system filters regularly to see if they need changing, I have an automatic drain on my air compressor , we have backyard-service on garbage collection at my primary residence so I don’t schedule that – etc. BTW – my most recently bought smoke/CO detectors have 10 year life batteries – so the “daylight saving time; reminders no longer apply. What I do seem to schedule the most these days (being an old retired person) are vacations interspersed among doctor’s appointments.
Alick
I Use a very simple list of the 12 months and drop tasks into the relevant one to remind me to do things like check or recharge batteries in less used tools like test meters, get the safety test done on the car, give notice on the broadband contract so I don’t get stung with the automatic price rise, etc.
fred
My wife got a ticket once – because I had not taken her car for inspection. So I started putting the 3 cars on my calendar. Just about that time, my state started sending me early email reminders about the need to have the annual inspections done and notices when the 2-year registrations were due to expire. I thought “how nice” until I realized that I had paid 3-months earlier than needed for my registration.
DeeEyeWhyyyy
I use the “Reminders” app on my iPhone. You can set a custom repeat for every month, 3 months, 6 months, every other year, etc.. I have reminders set to put fuel stabilizer in my snowblower in the Spring and in my lawn mower in Fall, change the furnace filter, buy water softener salt, check our Radon system, take the trash out, etc. etc. It works great, it shows up on the lock screen of my phone whenever I need to do something, and I can easily reschedule it.
I don’t think a software solution would work very well for me because I’d easily forget to check it without having a reminder in my face constantly like I get on my phone with the “Reminders” app.
DeeEyeWhyyyy
Oh I also want to add with iPhones you can setup a “Family” which automatically creates a shared calendar and a shared Reminders list on your spouses phone and yours.. so I can add Reminders to my Family list and both of us see when things need to get taken care of!
charles
hahahahahahahaha right
plan home maintenance tasks?
every day when I get home it’s planned for me. I think we call that the “honeydo” method.
Nathan
for my car I use an app on my mobile called ACAR – it’s now part of Fuely. or something like that.
For the house I try not to have regular MX requirements but still some things can’t be avoided.
For the AC units I have ecobee thermostats and they send me a reminder to trade the air filter at 3 months – and it resets when I do the task because I use the mobile app right then while in the attic to reset it.
I don’t have any other recurring home MX task that I can think of. gutters have covers. I put spigot covers on when temps cross 35F. I leave the hoses outside though.
jec6613
I just use Outlook’s calendar features – tons of recurrence options, you can reschedule and put both time blocks as well as locations, who needs to do it, other notes, etc. It’s way overkill for this, but absolutely does the job.
Eric
I may be missing something, but we already use Google Calendar for this. You can make shared calendars and set up tasks (which can be recurring) and have notifications sent to all editors.
We do this for air filters, water treatment systems, etc, that are essentially just set and forget forever. I also will do it piecemeal with things like fertilizer programs and so on as I figure out dates I want to do things. The calendar is especially helpful because it is also possible to see other conflicts.
fred
Visualization can be very useful. If you can see how tasks fit into a larger framework – what might conflict, in what order tasks should be accomplished etc. then you will be better off. I had a scheduler – who would work up a CPM schedule or set of Gantt charts for our larger jobs. At its most simplistic level – work scheduling will tell you that you need to buy or have on-hand some air filters before you can change them. On a more complex job – it will lay out the critical path for work that needs to be accomplished, how long tasks should take, what resources are required when, what float time is available etc.
Koko The Talking Ape
Google Calendar works for this purpose, as you say. It lets you set recurring events in a fairly sophisticated way (third Sunday of each month, for example.)
I like the look of the Google Drive spreadsheet, but as happens so often, that is not using a spreadsheet as a spreadsheet. It is using a spreadsheet to make a list or simple chart. That can work, but it also doesn’t give you the functionality that the proper tool would.
I think the proper tool is a database, and each task would be a single record. That is actually what a calendar is, but with the “report” sorted by one particular field (the date field.) I wish somebody would release database software that was more flexible than calendars, task lists or calendars, but more hand-holding than Access, say.
RKA
I think shared calendars are great for scheduling family events, tasks, Jobs, etc. but for the home and car maintenance I guess I’m the outlier here. I rely on the gray matter. Cars get an oil change every 5K, easy to remember. Every year I’ll check the records to see what is coming up for the year. Fluids, plugs, filters, etc. the old car has a laundry list of needs which constantly gets shuffled based on imminent needs.
In the house a lot of things are seasonal. HVAC filters before the heating and cooling seasons start. Snowblower get serviced before the winter sets in. Hepa filter when I hear the fan running at a higher than normal speed. Water filter when it counts down to 0%. Gutters in the fall after the last leaf falls. Shut off the hose bibs when the overnight temps drop below 30F. Seed right after Labor Day so I have a good 6 week to let it grow in before I shut off the sprinklers. Blow out the sprinklers mid-nov after new seed takes. Renew landscaping contract and fertilizer treatments at the first sign of warm weather. Some things aren’t seasonal but I tie them to seasons out of habit. Lubricating the garage doors and springs in the spring. For whatever reason the weatherstripping sticks to the doors at the first sign of warm weather and humidity so that’s when I give the doors some attention.
Then there are other tasks that are not time sensitive. I know they are waiting to be done and I get to it when I get to it. That list is never done. But these are things that can be accomplished in a day or two.
Finally, there are “projects”, usually defined as being time or budget dependent. Those are on an Excel spreadsheet that gets continually reprioritzed as new items are added. Approx cost, timeframe and priority are maintained on that list. That is usually 10-20 items long, some being necessary some being wishlist stuff. For prioritizing and managing expenses I just need to “see” them in one view. Some of the appliances with long replacement cycles go on here like the water heater. I know I’m over 10 years now and i much prefer to plan its replacement rather than a mad scramble at the last minute.
So beyond that Excel sheet, I haven’t really found myself wanting to use technology to solve a problem. I just seem to recall out of habit. The only thing I’ve forgotten until just now is replacing the hoses for the dishwasher and washing machine. The washing machine is 8 years old now. But thanks to this thread it’s on my to do list! Thanks Stuart! Can you revive this topic around 2026? 🙂
firefly
Tying events to a seasons are a great way to remember things. I think you have a great system to get things done as long as you work by yourself or with other whom have intimate knowledge of your scheduling pattern.
Sound like you have a great life as well because if you can manage it all of it by relying solely on gray matter that mean things doesn’t get piled up enough to become a pressing matter. IMO a simple life is a happy life.
RKA
Just like most people, things are piled up (maybe more than most). See the section on not time sensitive or the projects. But nothing catastrophic is going to happen if I delay pressure washing the front stairs. There are only so many hours in a day, most of us have work, other commitments, family, etc.
firefly
Glad to see that you are a mere mortal just like the rest of us 🙂
I think the saying “All I needed is time” is resonate well with everyone. I don’t have a good enough memory or at the very least good enough habit to primary rely on my gray matter so I use a combination of paper and digital to keep track of my tasks.
Similiarly like your, I do put my tasks into two virtual basket of “now, important, do or die” basket and the others in another “whatever, whenever” basket.
Chris
I find to-do list apps like Wunderlist pretty useful. Let’s you set reminders, has a desktop (web) version and a mobile version so you can have your task list on your phone, as mentioned by someone else. It let’s you set due dates and such. Might be worth a look for anyone that is interested.
dandLyons
I just came across an article that says that Google has released a Google Tasks App. It claims to sync across devices and integrates w/ Gmail & Calendar.
https://lifehacker.com/how-to-use-googles-new-tasks-app-for-ios-and-android-1825548977
Admittedly, I have not yet tried this iteration. And I am a bit Google averse given their history of abruptly dropping projects. But given that I use Gmail & Calendar, I am hoping they finally integrated things in a useful way.
mike aka fazzman
Must not have much life too live if you cant figure out to clean gutters in the fall etc etc. Cant say I know anyone who does or would bother with such a thing. Makes no sense to me really. For simple reminders like filter changes and such Google Calendar works just fine.
Stuart
There’s no need to be rude like that.
Not everyone can remember what needs to be changed and when. Gutters? Not a big deal to remember that. But other things?
Some filters need to be changed every 30-90 days. Washers have filter drains that need to be looked at every now and then. Humidifier and dehumidifer filters need to be checked and changed periodically.
Around here, routine stuff can sometimes be neglected if I have a “I’ll do it next week” attitude. And then one day I try to remember when something was done, but without a written or logged record, that’s hard to do.
I know when I changed my wiper blades, but when did I change my wife’s?
I need to be better about my own maintenance scheduling and record keeping.
Eric
For me, I have a to do list with everything that needs to do get done in my daily life. I have a category for all of my recurring house reminders. I just have a task to perform X every Y months and it works for me. For example, I am due tomorrow to clean out my gutters.