There are a lot of tasks that go into keeping your household running and your home ship-shape.
I keep a weekly maintenance list of these recurring chores and use the Todoist app to stay on top of them. I’ve made my Todoist home maintenance template available as a free download here.
Last year, I added two new weekly tasks to that list: blowing out my garage and cleaning out the interior of our family car. Both take just a few minutes. But they’ve turned out to offer a high ROI when it comes to improving my everyday quality of life.
Blow Out Your Garage
My garage doubles as my gym. Every afternoon around 2 p.m., you’ll find me down there hoisting the iron.
For a long time, though, the garage itself was a bit of a dreary place to train. Every time the door went up, leaves blew in. Dust settled over everything. Cobwebs collected in the corners. It wasn’t terrible, but it didn’t make the space as inviting as it could be.
So I started blowing out the garage every Saturday. I open the door, start at the back, and blow all the leaves, dirt, and dust onto the driveway with my Ryobi electric leaf blower. I can get some of the cobwebs out with the blower, but others are more stubborn or collect in nooks I don’t notice. I take care of those by sucking them out with a shop vac twice a year.
The job only takes 5–10 minutes. The key is doing it weekly. When I only cleaned out the garage a couple times a year, the mess had months to build up, which made the clean-up jobs big and time-consuming. A quick weekly blowout means things never accumulate much in the first place. Now the garage stays respectable year-round.
A clean garage has made my workouts a lot more pleasant. It’s easier to get into a session when I’m not stepping over leaf litter on the way to the barbell rack.
Even if you’re not using your garage for workouts, a grimy garage subtly weighs on the mind. Your garage is typically the threshold you pass through to get into your house several times a day, and keeping it clean sets the right tone for your return home.
Clean Out Your Car
Left to its own devices, our family car turns into a rolling garbage can. I’m sure yours does, too. Soda cans and protein bar wrappers pile up in the cupholders and door pockets. My kids treat the backseat like an annex of their bedrooms, leaving behind shoes, brushes, books, backpacks, headphones, and random articles of clothing.
So once a week, the car gets a cleanout. First, I throw away all the trash. Then I gather up all the kids’ crap, dump it in a pile by their bedrooms, and tell them, “Sort this crap out and put it away in your rooms.” Finally, I vacuum out the interior with my shop vac.
It takes about 5–10 minutes. I spend the week driving around in a clean car. Less chaos. Driving is more enjoyable. And I’m never embarrassed when I unexpectedly need to give someone a ride. I can say “hop in” without sheepishly sweeping off beef jerky crumbs from the passenger seat while saying, “Sorry for the mess. Kids, am I right?”
Neither of these chores is going to change your life dramatically. But for less than twenty minutes of effort a week, two spaces I use every day stay cleaner and more pleasant. That’s some nice ROI.
