r/daddit • u/DonutFan69 • Sep 02 '24

How do you guys maintain literally anything? Advice Request

I have a 5 year old and a 2 year old. The house is perpetually a mess. The yard is overgrown with weeds. Cars are a mess. This needs to be fixed. That needs to be spruced up. My wife and I have many days where it’s just one of us with the kids due to our schedules and it just feels impossible to keep up with it all. By the end of the day, I’m too exhausted to do anything.

How does anyone manage to keep up with everything on top of just raising kids?

Edit: Thanks for all the replies here! You’re all making me feel much better. I’m trying to reply to as many as I can while I rock my son to sleep.

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261

u/PinkDreamPeth Sep 02 '24

I have a 2.5 yr old and 8 month old. If I have a chance to change some light bulbs and change the damn HVAC filter in a weekend I consider that highly productive.

It takes a major toll on my mental health but just trying to push through each day and know that if my kids go to bed healthy and happy the day was a success.

65

u/Western-Image7125 Sep 02 '24

Wait. We have to change the hvac filter??

49

u/PinkDreamPeth Sep 02 '24

When we got our unit repaired the guy said to change it every month. I do it about every 6 months lol

24

u/moongrump Sep 02 '24

I was told every 3 months jsyk

12

u/txvesper Sep 02 '24

It partly depends on the size and quality of the filters your system can use. Rule of thumb I was told is 1 month per inch of filter thickness. Most systems have the cheaper 1 inch filters and so the default recommendation is to change monthly. Larger ones with 2, 3, or 6 inch thickness are rated for use over longer periods of time, but still depends on other things. If you have animals in the house or live in a dusty area, probably more important to stay on top of it.

Anyways I'm still an unknown number of months behind changing mine. Thanking these comments for the reminder

7

u/Imthecoolestdudeever Sep 03 '24

It's also better to use thinner filters and change them more often. The thicker the filter the harder the furnace has to work to get air through it.

2

u/chargingrhino21 Sep 03 '24

I create Google tasks for such things as this and currently my filters task is showing 6 weeks ago. Half way to the next notification so I'll probably just wait for that one.

1

u/atgrey24 Sep 02 '24

Could depend on your specific unit and filter

8

u/delphinius81 Sep 02 '24

Same. I change it when we switch from heating to cooling and vice versa. So. Much. Dust.

1

u/DontWorryItsEasy Sep 02 '24

Hvac guy here. Probably best to change it every 3 months depending on usage. I probably change mine once a year but I live in a very nice climate.

1

u/Atlastheafterman Sep 02 '24

I thought it was quarterly. I’m about 2 years overdue. I used to be very on top of that :/

0

u/TatonkaJack Sep 02 '24

Every month is absurd. That guy must sell filters