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 week pick is, BrightNest, a nice-looking and easy-to-use app full of home maintenance tips and tricks that are so smart and useful, it’s becoming an invaluable resource for those of us who don’t have an army of staff to take care of our home.
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.
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