Home Care Challenge Series
Who’s ready to clean and maintain their home?
As you may have noticed, I'm not the best at coming up with New Year's resolutions.
This could be because, starting around October 10, my mentality shifts toward holiday-focused activities. I find myself thinking about what my boys will dress up as for Halloween, where we'll spend Thanksgiving and Christmas, how I’ll host these gatherings, and what holiday decor needs replacing.
Now, onto the topic at hand. One resolution that has been resonating with me is improving my ability to manage the cleaning, organizing, and maintenance of my home.
I work full-time, have two very energetic boys (ages 4 and 2), and a 7-year-old lab-shepherd mix who sheds constantly. My husband often jokes that I'm a martyr who feels the need to handle everything myself.
And I don’t know about you, but I often feel like my weekends are a never-ending game of catch-up—laundry, dishes, mystery crumbs that apparently regenerate overnight. Moving into 2025, I’ve decided it’s time to get my act together (or at least pretend to) and be more intentional with my time. The goal? To ditch that constant “Why does my house hate me?” feeling.
Side note: Can we petition to make “overwhelmness” a real word? Asking for a friend.
Don’t get me wrong—there will still be those chaotic days I can’t control. Like when the whole family gets sick or our four-year-old refuses to nap on weekends, resulting in pure chaos. But this year, I’m aiming to thrive rather than survive. No more feeling like I’m drowning in household tasks; instead, I’m finding ways to keep up without losing my mind.
Last year, I came across Kyshawn (@weeklyhomecheck on Instagram) during a late-night doom scroll. He’s basically the guru of making home management or home maintenance seem easy and well…manageable. He even has a spreadsheet for household tasks, such as regularly replacing the HVAC filter.
Of course, being the over-researcher that I am, or maybe it’s just my ADD and procrastination, I also researched on Reddit and other online platforms, which provided similar breakdowns of household tasks to address monthly, quarterly, annually, or seasonally.
With what was maybe too much information, I decided to create a customized spreadsheet for my home that combines maintenance and cleaning tasks, home projects I’d like to tackle, and more.
And while it’s recommended to complete some tasks monthly—for example, shaking your fire extinguisher—doing them at least once a year is better than not doing them at all. Right?
Also, let’s set the record straight: I am the type of person who will hire professionals for certain tasks. Gutter cleaning? Nope. Water heater flushing? Hard pass. Tree trimming? Absolutely not. Some jobs are best left to professionals. We’re aiming for progress, not perfection, folks.
So, here’s the plan. To hold myself accountable (and because misery loves company), I’m sharing updates throughout the year on my home care journey. I’ll be posting tips, interesting nuggets from my research, and some of my favorite products in what I’m calling the Home Care Challenge..
You can find the spreadsheet I'm using here for free, if you need some inspiration.
Next up? Decluttering! But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. One thing at a time, okay? That reminder is as much for me as it is for you.