BrightNest app: Our cool free app of the week
The first word that pops into my head after I hear "spring" is "cleaning," probably because three kids plus one dog equals a lot of cleaning at any time of the year. And with today being the first day of spring (yay!), my free app of the…
Related: The 15 minute trick: A smart, easy way to spring clean your desk or home office.
Available for both iOS and Android, BrightNest delivers short articles based on a your own home's needs. You'll find quick yes and no questions like, Do you compost? or Do you have a blender?
These help the app find articles that apply to your life, so you Southern Californians won't need to read about the pros and cons of owning a snowblower. At least yet.
What I love beyond the sheer variety of the many articles is the ability to save and even schedule some of them to be sent to me via email as a reminder at the right time. So far, I've set a date for rotating my bed's mattress and cleaning my oven (ugh). And the free printables they offer, like a spring cleaning calendar for March, are nicely designed and truly useful.
Keep in mind that BrightNest was acquired by Angie's List a few years ago -- which probably accounts for the amount of content -- but it has not become gunked up with ads. You will find some articles that are positioned as "special offers" that are designed to help you find a professional in the Angie's List database for whatever you need, but that's not even a negative.
My favorite: The ad for A No-Sweat, No-Effort Deep Clean that directs you to a list of local house cleaners. Hey, sometimes we don't want to DIY absolutely everything.
The free BrightNest home maintenance app is available to download for iOS and Android. Android users: Based on reviews on Google Play, this app does seem to crash more than normal on some devices, but hopefully this will be addressed with an update shortly.
