Monday, November 12, 2007

Maintenance Monday

I'm tentatively starting a new thing called "Maintenence Monday". With it, I'm hoping to create an incentive to remember to do all the odd maintenance jobs that go by the wayside in normal day to day stuff. Each week I'm going to try to do a job and post it on Mondays. Here's my first one:

The exhaust fan in my bathroom was covered with dust. Easy start for my new MM post! I'll just grab a broom, sweep it off, and I'm already covered for my first week!
It went from this:

To this:

Not so good. Wouldn't you think that cover would just pop off so you could wash it? No such luck. This IS a "manufactured home", after all. It's not going to be easy. The job ended up requiring this:

And this:

So, after at least 10 or 15 minutes of scraping dust bunnies out of the ceiling, then another 10 minutes or so sweeping them off of everything in the bathroom and out of my hair, the job was done and I was rewarded with a nice clean vent that actually is able to draw the toxic air out of the bathroom instead of wasting electricity laboring to suck dust bunnies up.

You are welcome to join me in my little quest to do the forgotten jobs. Possibly, I'm the only homemaker on the planet that DOESN'T remember to clean her bathroom vent for 2 years. In any case, I haven't time to make up a cute logo or figure out Mr. Linky, so until I do have time, if you want to play this game with me please post a reply with a link to your maintenance post so I can go see what you do. I seriously need help even knowing what needs to be done, so you could help give me ideas for what I need to do for future Maintenance Mondays.

9 comments:

Hannah's Mom said...

Gina,

Great idea... Maitenance Monday! I love November, it is one of my, do the pesky job months. :) Because we are living in constant chaos, with construction and all, but I love being able to take control of something in the house.

This weekend we cleaned out the pantries, 3 in total. The last one, game/craft pantry, is taking sometime, so I will make that my Monday Maintenance (plus cleaning off the ceiling fan. :)

What a great idea girl!! Thanks for sharing!

Bev said...

A great idea! And a most satisfying job cleaning around that air vent to leave it perfectly clean! Don't be worried about cleanliness issues, I don't think anyone has ever caught anything nasty from an air vent, and it was brave of you for sharing it with us.(I'm sure the rest of your house is very clean) I once found a sprouting potato about a foot high behind my cooker, so don't worry....

Bev said...

Hey, Gina I've just done one, as I like these challenges. It's on time as it's still Monday here, though quite late in the evening, don't know what time it is at your end!

Charity Grace said...

Uh, no, you are not the only one. My downfall is ceiling fans. It is so hard to remember to dust the fans when I can hardly keep my dishes done, ya know?

I didn't know about your challenge, but I did clean out the utility room today. Ahhhh...It is so much nicer!

Bobbie said...

Great idea, Gina! How about the furnace closet? Mine gets really groady in no time and so easy to forget. But now, on the 1st of the month I change the filter and while I'm at it I clean! I keep my reminders in my hotmail calendar and they come up automatically.

Arizona Mama said...

Hannah's Mom: Three pantries in one weekend! Even for a long weekend, that's impressive!

Bev: I think the potato could be considered an agricultural experiment. I loved your Maintenance Monday post!

Charity Grace: The utility room! Good for you! What is the deal with ceiling fans? Mine ran all summer. How did all that dust collect on the blades? It's a mystery.

Bobbie: The furnace closet?! Wow, it's not even on my radar! I bang out the filter a few times a year, but that's it. Thanks for the idea! I COULD set up an electronic reminder, but what's the fun in that when I can expose my ignorance to all my bloggy friends and make a post about it! *grins*

Debi said...

I missed the first Maintenance Monday, but I'm sure I can find something for next Monday. (That's a joke, y'all.) I think I should take a cue from Charity Grace and clean the ceiling fans. I have the same question -- how does dust collect there while they are turning round and round? It's a mystery, indeed.

By the way -- it's probably time to flip the fans' direction as well (to push heat down).

lebanesa said...

you only waited 2 years. You sure are one house-proud lady. Ours got burnt out and when I finally managed to prise it off the wall I realised it had been struggling for years to suck anything through a kind of fluff and grease blanket. We had to replace it, the poor thing had died. Bear in mind we bought this house four years ago, never occurred to me to even look in that vent. It was probably already clogged when we moved in! You are my hero. I'm not brave enough to look for something to maintain - when I do, I will let you know, well if I manage to maintain it I will!

Leah said...

I missed maintenance Monday this week but will start next week...GREAT idea!

Does this mean that I have to clean mini blinds one of these days? Blech! I am certain that mini blinds were invented by a man who never cleans his own house.