Does your home have a Little Things List? Mine certainly does. When we moved into our current home, there were 101 things wrong with it. We’ve fixed perhaps 50 of those, and the last 51 are smaller and less noticeable, but they’re certainly there: the leaky tap, the broken light fixture, the closet door handle that spontaneously falls off.
I have a little things list, and this summer I am trying to cross them off faster than they accumulate, because these little things do accumulate. And when they accumulate, they make life a little more difficult in all of those little, irritating ways. When the tasks have been completed, whether by me or by someone else, there is a great feeling of satisfaction.
Over the last few months, I’ve installed a rain barrel and downspout diverter. I’ve added a new compost bin to my yard. I’ve worked on my daughter’s playhouse and have almost finished it, except for the green roof. I’ve reattached the towel hook in the bathroom that would spontaneously spring open, and I just got someone to fix my broken light fixture with the bare bulb and install a properly working programmable thermostat. And it feels good. It’s the bits that you don’t do when you move in that keep bothering you. For some reason, I find it easy to get used to the big things like a kitchen that is in desperate need of repair, but the little things irritate me.
We’re still waiting to fix the gaping hole in the kitchen wall (a decorative feature that has been with us for five years, pipes and all). We’re going to readjust the toilet paper rack because as anyone who has a preschooler knows, it is very important that they be able to reach such a rack to prevent decorating the floor with white paper. And so on, and so on.
I hereby declare this the summer of the Little Things. Fix a little thing this summer, even one, and feel accomplished.