Sometimes I feel like as a millennial I’m unprepared for a lot of what the “real world” is like. I know how to do the basic chores like grocery shopping, minor cooking, and cleaning, but I lack the knowledge of how to upkeep certain things in my space.
For example, I didn’t realize how vents work in my new apartment and I stupidly called the superintendent in my building asking why there was water dripping from my ceiling.
I honestly shake my head at myself quite frequently because I just don’t have the common sense knowledge or skills passed down to me from my parents. My dad commonly took care of all of the house related upkeep and my partner was the same way, so sometimes it’s a wonder how wea both lived so long without having the common sense.
I mean, the other thing is we both rented places and some upkeep wasn’t necessary, such as I never rented a place that had laundry, so how am I supposed to learn that you need to clean vents frequently to make sure that the dryer is… well… properly ventilated!
Luckily, my superintendent is extremely nice and gave me tips on how to clean our extremely dirty vents. It honestly looked like there was years of dust clumped up in the grates.
The dust wasn’t just on the vents, but it reached fairly far down the tubing, which somewhat terrifies me. Did the lady who lived here before us ever clean it? Was she similar to us, or was she just not interested in cleaning her vents?
The other odd thing is that the vents were actually painted over and I had to chip the paint to get into the vents. The thing is, we know that this lady never painted the apartment. She said that she never had the money to repaint, and we also know that she was here for years… so… yeah… this was actually years of filth.
Honestly, I didn’t know where to start. I took a knife and jay cloth to it since vacuuming it didn’t seem to work. It took me about 45-minutes to clean, which isn’t so bad, but I know that there should have been an easier way. So, I thought, might as well start learning the tips and tricks on how to properly maintain a household and share my experiences on whether or not they work, or even come up with new ways that could work better dependant on the situation.
That’s what this blog is going to be about. The things I pick up in life and things I want to learn… meaning it’s not all going to be house things, but also skills like cooking or music or whatever I start getting interested in. I thought it was clever to call it Basically Average because that’s what I’m going to be. A basically average millennial who’s just trying to learn everything he can in life. It’s my quarter life crisis and welcome to the journey.
The first step to moving into a new place…
Make sure you clean the vents. You don’t know how many years of dust has collected in them and you don’t want it to mess up your ceilings. Next job, let’s fix this electricity tomorrow.
Once you get the years of gunk out, use a Swiffer duster or a flannel rag to keep them clean. Flannel makes a great duster, it really picks up and holds dirt. This isn’t just gross and ugly; lint is a serious fire hazard. It’s a good thing you caught it before it could cause a fire.
Very, very glad we caught it. Didn’t even think about the fire hazard aspect to it. I’ll also keep in mind about the flannel! We’ve been using some rough dishcloths we use for jobs that need extra scrubbing at it seems to be doing the trick so far.