And where's the list? Like if I could just find a list of like, "Congratulations on being a homeowner, do all this shit because if you don't the repairs will eat you alive" it would be handy.
Just follow Martha Stewart's website, you'll find there are several thousand hours worth of chores you should be doing weekly!
It took us years to compile the list and it’s paid for itself many times over.
But to jump start the list in a future place, especially a traditional house, I’ve considered hiring a housing inspector or general contractor to give us a walkthrough of key maintenance timelines. Many things could be decades away but easy to forget until it’s a much bigger job. Notes from that interaction would essentially be the bones of “the list.”
My house has bones!? I'm definitely out of my depth...
You don’t refill the bone marrow? You’re fucked pal
That's a rough one. I know a good place to start is anything large you buy, make sure you read the maintenance portion of the manual and make a couple notes.
Then I start asking myself about important things like "how do I make sure the plumbing doesn't get fucked? " or "how do I make sure the furnace doesn't die?" and I start googling.
Not a great answer but it helps. I recently realized I didn't give much of a thought to well pump maintenance and I've been down a massive rabbit hole on that one. I feel like you just pick one thing at a time and work on it and you learn as you go.
When you learn minimalists weren't actually about the looks but about keeping stupid adult responsibilities on the low.
Yep, I mentioned to my mum a few times that I'm 'baking' in my microwave, which I know is terrible for this task. So, she'll tell me I should be getting an oven, I should be getting an air fryer etc. etc.. I always tell her, I don't have the space for it, but really, I don't want to be cleaning yet another appliance.
I have an oven that's also a microwave and can also cook with a special pan. It's also smaller than a normal oven, so it's closer to an air fryer and heats up really quickly
Yes!
Wife was saying big, far away houses are getting cheaper and we should buy and retire there. Nope, the more space the bigger the mess she'll do. Can't literally take 2 steps further to drop whatever it's in her hand. I have a dozen reading glasses spread through the house, usually accumulating at a few preferred places.
Case in point: I replaced my coffee machine with a chemex. So much easier to maintain.
For anyone else who doesn't know what a chemex is and can't be arsed to google it:
I just eat the beans. Nothing to maintain
I eat the dirt the coffee grows in and suntan my butthole. No relation to the topic at hand, just thought you should know.
This is where lasting relationships and divorce enter the building. Can you, will you deal with the coffee pot? Or do you pray, with every task, that they take care of it first? Is your other half taking care of it while you feel relief, far too often? Are you sick of taking care of it while your other half is checks other room watching YouTube and scrolling Lemmy?
Is it balanced? Or is it a question of how long until imbalance breaks things?
Adulting is tiring. Adulting is also a key to relationship maintenance.
We take the opposite approach: never assume your spouse is going to deal with it; see a problem, deal with it yourself.
Our marriage is still a mess, but it's a mess that's not breaking up any time soon. Mostly we both need to stop drinking.
That tactic tends to breed resentment (from both sides) when one person starts to get better at noticing problems. You might get lucky and stay balanced, but you'll probably have to actually talk about that some day.
That's fair, and I was oversimplifying a bit; there are definitely things that are specific to her or me, that we've either talked about, or settled into a natural division of labour.
Dishes? Yeah that's both of us. Often she ends up loading the dishwasher, I end up emptying it, but not always. Litter box? That's a me problem, she can't handle the smell. Weeding the garden? That's a her problem, I couldn't give a fuck
I am still struggling with laundry, fr
Pro-tip - newer HE detergents are very concentrated. Use less than you think you need. A half cap is for highly stained items, we're talking grass stains, blood, turmeric, etc. You only need a little for most loads. Maybe a quarter cap or less, or a quarter cup if using real measurements.
Also, if you're using a newer HE washer, also be sure to enable the "extra rinse" on the cycle. They really, really suck at rinsing off detergent by default (especially if you use too much) and will bleach/fade your clothes in the dryer if not fully rinsed.
Clean your dishwasher filter.
You're not my mom, you can't tell me what to do.
Well I am a mom, so I've learned it's a lot less disgusting if you do it every month, but you don't have to listen to me.
Editing to add: if any of the rest of you are also women, it's a good idea to pick a day for the recurring calendar reminder that doesn't align with the part of your monthly cycle when you're already miserable and grossed out by the whole world, you'll be crying into the kitchen sink. If it happens, because cycles are irregular, reschedule for one week ahead, when it won't bother you at all. I guess the same goes for guys except the wild swings of your emotional cycles are less predictable.
Holy shit, if anyone ever does figure out how to predict my emotional cycles I want to hear about it.
I'm a guy, I'll sign up too
Anyone selling snake oil around here? Shut up and take my money
I can live with all the petty little details of day to day life. Even the medical ones as you age.
Pro Tip: when you hit 50, you really need to start looking for that doctor you intend to die on. That doctor will have all those little details documented saving you a whole bunch of time.
The one thing I absolutely hate as someone who has been faking the whole adult thing for decades now, is having to figure out what's for supper every damn day.......
The saddest I’ve seen is a 70 yr old “from a different era” who had to now learn how to make macaroni with cheese for the first time in his life because his partner passed away.
That’s where I think shit has gone really wrong for way too long when trying to adult. Like prepare that you may have to live alone for at least a portion of your life and be the type of person you can stand to be around alone.
As a person is less than a handful of years away from being 70 myself, that person's problem wasn't in "being from a different era." But rather deciding, whether conscious or not, to be passive in life and refusing to learn new things. A a vast number of all of you out there suffer from the same problem. Like expecting someone else to make the macaroni and cheese for you rather than learning how to do it yourself. Many people expect someone else to solve all their problems for them. And then are shocked and surprised when that doesn't happen as they get older. I learned from my elders on how to solve my own problems. Sometimes by teaching, sometimes by letting me fail and then learning from fixing the problem I had created for myself.
They taught me everything from how to forage the forest, hunt, fish, raise livestock and butcher it, grow a garden, make soap from scratch, repair large and complex machines and many other skills that few can do these days. Most important of all, they taught me that learning never ends. And the day it does, you are dead.
Being alone with myself is dangerous for me because I prefer being alone these days. After a lifetime of being the cavalry coming over the hill to save the day, I'm burnt out and tired of it. I just want to spend my remaining time alone to heal from all the stupid I had to try and fix.
You'll love thinking back to the coffee machine as a problem when you have to handle your parents estate. I won't sugar coat it: Adulting is hard.
Being a functional adult is essentially self parenting. It’s cheaper to clean and maintain than to constantly buy new or neglect issues until they snowball. Easier said than done, it’s definitely not always easy but worth the time.
While I completely agree, maintaining your items will make them last much longer, I feel the degradation of quality over the years works so much against us. Many items are made these days to not be able to be fixed. Sometimes a digital display or button breaking can brick a well taken care of item. No matter how well you take care of clothes and furniture like your grandparents did, that particle board will fail and that fast fashion shirt will pill. Even high end brands have gone down in quality significantly, so investing more in something you think you trust can still be frustrating. It's so much energy to figure out what you should invest in vs buy cheaper.
The 20 dollar coffee machine that holds 12 cups doesn't need descaling
By Darwin, so much this. If somebody could actually convey the insane amount of work and responsibility that is heaped upon your shoulders when you start having children and running a home, you’d never grow up.
Whatever load you think you’re carrying as a teen - it’s not as much as you think.
Thank God my water supply is reasonably soft. Never had to descale my kettle.
Wait til you hit 40-50.
You get a new responsibility: taking care of your fossilizing body.
Moisturizing after your shower to prevent dry itchy skin
Gel in your mouth to prevent it from drying out during your sleep.
Must go to bed at regular times or else you sleep like shit
That sweet spot when your kids start getting independent and your parents start getting dependent.
I think the gel thing is a portion of humanity (especially those who need a cpap) and if you don’t have one and you are getting dry mouth you should really look into a sleep test to make sure you’re not on the brink of death every hour as you sleep
Either that or get your nose checked as maybe there’s an issue there that is causing mouth breathing.
My choice to go with instant coffee is paying dividends!
Instant coffee with a fancy creamer is underrated
See all the maintenance and tracking of physical portions of my adult life are fine. I have plenty of space to remember what devices need what servicing or care, to pay attention to changes in performance or observe wear.
But the cultural and societal stuff is like voodoo magic to me. Surplus cash in escrow, down deposits, and HELOCs, heck even cultural gossip as a standard of conversation. Nah doesn't do anything for me.
Ask me to manage my physical existence and I can do so indefinitely without complaints. It's the imaginary adult stuff that is beyond me.
Unfortunately, my fucking coffee machine tells me, very insistently that it’s time to descale. I usually hold out against its demands for a good couple months though.
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