In Praise of Maintenance

I’ve been hearing a lot lately about the importance of maintenance from podcasts, books and blogs. We all know maintenance is important, but why is it so hard to make it a priority?

Digging into my memory banks, the first time I heard the term “deferred maintenance” was when I was a student at Providence College 20 years ago. Every non-profit organization I’ve been involved with since then has had some lament regarding accumulated deferred maintenance. Colleges, camps, schools, cities, and churches all have a backlog of maintenance.

Sometimes it’s just a long list of small to medium items that feel like death by a thousand cuts. Other organizations might have some large items that feel like a snowball rolling downhill. Every year it grows. The thinking goes that as long as it hasn’t crushed you, it’s okay.

I’ve been getting into the Strong Towns mindset lately. To summarize how I understand their principle: growth is best done incrementally without ignoring the upkeep of what you already have. This seems like important wisdom to me.

Today I’ll examine personal areas in the context of maintenance. I want to examine four areas where maintenance is important: church, home, business and body.

The first example is my church. For the last two years I’ve been working with our council and various committees to come up with an acceptable building project. Most of us would like to expand our facilities. Our building is old in a cool way (it was built by Norwegian settlers 150 years ago). As such, there are issues like accessibility that we must solve.

After two years, we haven’t landed on a project that everyone can agree on. I’ve come to see that many improvements that should be made could actually be considered maintenance. At a recent committee meeting, I mentioned that we should take advantage of the aspects of a project to rectify some of the deferred maintenance. That seemed unthinkable to some of the others. Considering our project budget, they feel it would be wasteful to spend any on maintenance instead of getting the most new space that we can.

I don’t think that’s a positive mindset to have with regard to maintenance.

A second example is my house. It’s also around 100 years old, but in good shape. It’s in a nice, old neighborhood near our little downtown. The previous owners arranged nice gardens that attracted us to the property. Gardens require maintenance and upkeep. We didn’t do much gardening for most of the year, and it shows in many areas. We’re starting to tackle the weeds and the difference is wonderful! That kind of maintenance doesn’t cost money, just time and effort. I look at the areas we’ve cleaned up with a sense of pride now instead of embarrassment.

A third area is in our business. We own a laundromat and car wash. I enjoy owning them. Keeping them clean is easy, basic maintenance that we do well. I give us an A- for the laundromat (we’re not perfect) and a B or B- for the car wash. After keeping the facilities clean, keeping the equipment in good working order is the next most important maintenance. Neither my wife nor I are especially mechanical. There are some simple things that we can do to keep the equipment running smoothly, and we’re learning new things all the time. We’ve been able to make some contacts who can do more specialized maintenance and repair.

Keeping things clean and well-stocked and in good working order directly affect the bottom line. Other areas must also be noticed and attended to. Simple things like weeds, leaves, dirt and trash that accumulates in the parking area would turn people off before they get inside. If they did come in when the business was looking run down, the first impression might be that it’s not a place they need to treat nicely.

The building has steel siding with places that have begun to rust along the bottom edge. Holes along the ground might allow bugs and animals in that will cause a nuisance or damage. We need to address these spots. Replacing light bulbs and keeping a well-lit space at night can make a big difference too.

My final example is my physical health. I’m not sure why, but the expression “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” got in my head this week. That ounce of prevention is another term for maintenance. This week some of my clothes were uncomfortably tight. That’s a signal that I’m not maintaining the weight and size reductions that I worked hard to achieve. I got a notification from my Headspace app that it had been awhile since I meditated. It’s a signal that I’m not maintaining my good mental state either. I did go to the dentist recently for the first time since 1997. No cavities, but it took the poor hygienist probably twice as long to clean my teeth as it should have.

A lack of time or money are excuses we use to delay maintaining our things. Maintenance is often boring or difficult. There’s always something more enjoyable to do with our time and our money.

But when we put off doing maintenance, big or small, we delay the inevitable. Most of the time, when we are forced to confront the issue, it’s because something breaks. Once broken, the time and money required to get it back to working order are greater than what would have been needed to maintain it.

I’m going to start being more aware of maintenance requirements in my life. I’m going to give them a higher priority for my time and money. I won’t solve everything. Some things will still break or expire. But even if I start small, I will make a difference. Instead of the snowballing costs and dangers, savings and benefits will accumulate.

What one thing will you do to address a maintenance item in your life this week?

Image by Andreas Lischka from Pixabay

This Post Has One Comment

  1. Nicolas Henthorn

    Not getting behind is one of the best ways to feel like you’re getting ahead.

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