Whether you’re a lapsed DIYer or an avid one, keeping on top of your ongoing projects can be a real pain. It’s not uncommon to forget to finish something, or just forget to do it all together. A family home always needs a few jobs doing, so even keeping track of new DIY jobs can be difficult. So how can you be reminded of jobs left to do when your memory fails you? Here are a few ideas.
Get Your Partner To Remind You
If you’ve got a bit of a weak memory, speak to your partner. They’ll probably be more than happy to remind you to start fixing up the place. That said, just make sure their memory is better than yours. Though, if both of you forget at least it’ll make for a funny anecdote.
Leave Notes
Make notes of jobs as soon as you know they have to be done. To make it very obvious what needs doing, why not stick the notes on the affected parts? If a door is jamming, stick the note onto it. Just leave the notes somewhere you can find them. No shorthand either. You’ll end up being confused by your own abbreviations if you leave it too long.
Software
Home management software isn’t exclusively for home improvement projects, but it does have a function to keep track of them. It works a lot like a regular database. Just log the problem into the system and it’ll collect the data. You can even set additional information such as when the problem was found and when you have to fix it by. It’s a good system for organization and should help even the most scatterbrained DIYer.
Repetition
A good way to remind yourself of things is through repetition. There are two types of repetition that should help you with this.
The first should be repeating to yourself over and over that you have a job to do. If you say it enough times, you should have ingrained it in your mind for the next few days. So long as nothing sudden comes up that makes you forget, you should at least remember to do it for the next week.
The other form of repetition is finding out again that the job needs doing. It can be easy to forget a DIY job needs to happen. Likewise, it can be easy to forget the reason for doing the job too. For example, if a door squeaks when you open it you’ll be reminded that you need to oil it every time you use it.
Fix It Immediately
If none of these methods work for reminding you that there’s a job to be done, you should just fix things when you find they need it. No need to remember then. It’s probably not the best way to do things if you have limited time on your hands though. If that’s the case then maybe just relegate it to the smaller and quicker jobs.
Hopefully, that’s given you a few options for not forgetting about DIY jobs around the house. The longer they’re left forgotten, the worse they’re going to get.
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