A somewhat humorous and maybe all too familiar look at homeowner weekend project activities.

Midge has her seemingly endless list of projects that she wants to knock out. What that really means is that her list of projects are projects that somehow involve me. It is amusing that my own to-do projects list does not involve her.

Those never-ending streams of home improvement shows do not help at all! The hosts all seem to manage to knock out their major projects and renovations in 30 minutes or less. Tile a bathroom, replace a kitchen sink, paint a room, — yep, just 30 minutes from beginning to end, including those commercials!

What she doesn’t see is that behind-the-scenes crew of construction professionals, support crews, and video editing workstations, — doing all the work.

Weekend “Honey-Do” Lists

We don’t see all of the video editing that take that film and create a 30-minute episode, with room left for the commercials.

So Midge complains when something takes longer than she thinks it should!

There should be home-improvement shows depicting real homeowners doing their own weekend projects. A new reality show concept! Is anyone taking notes?

We could then witness all of those trips to the home-improvement emporiums. My personal record is nine trips to three different stores over a two-day weekend. It seems like that one of them was out of that certain “something” that I needed at the time. What a weekend that was …

We would also see all of those trips from the project site to the garage to fetch yet another tool from the toolbox. (Or maybe that was to get a cold refreshing beverage.)

Weekend “Honey-Do” Lists – The Time-Savers

I finally learned to buy everything I think I might need on the first trip to the home-improvement emporium. I can always stand in line and return what I didn’t use later.

I also started loading up a five-gallon bucket with all of the tools I think that I might need. Screwdrivers of all sizes, hammers, a utility knife, measuring tape, a pen, a pencil, paper, and so on, whatever I think I might need. One trip, maybe two?

Five-gallon buckets are handy to have around the house. I have started bringing a second bucket for all of the product packaging, project trash, and the empty bottles from those cold refreshing beverages.

Yep, big-time savers!

I still can’t get everything done in a 30-minute time slot, but the frustration level and the use of four-letter words have gone down a bit.

What has been your experience?