UNITED STATES—Someone once told me that taking care of a house is a never-ending project. After you have cleaned or while you’re in the process of cleaning you find something that needs to be repaired, fixed or tweaked. You know the major problem with house repairs: it costs money to fix the problem. While doing an in-depth cleaning, I noticed two major problems that needed to be fixed.

I have a toilet where the water is not properly filling up, and the garbage disposal is broken. Now, the garbage disposal I don’t use much, but it impacts the dishwasher because both are connected. I’ve never been a fan of garbage disposals. Why? Well, you’re tossing food down a device that is supposed to grind things up for easier processing through the pipes. What’s the problem here? Pipes are made for the transfer of water, not ground up food items.

Not only was it a mortal mess trying to clean-up the crap underneath the sink, it made me realize how much clutter is under the sink. Two hours later, I have an organized cabinet, now it’s just a waiting game to find a plumber to fix the problem with the garbage disposal. The one caveat is the disposal does not appear to be broken; it just needs to be reattached. Somewhere along the way, it got disconnected and as a result it caused water on that side of the sink to spill all underneath the floor.

Now, it’s time to address the problem that concerns me the most, the toilet, where the water pump is damaged yet again. Is this frustrating? Yes, because less than a year ago, the same water pump was replaced, which forces me to wonder if a new toilet needs to be installed or not. A visit to the local Home Depot or Lowes to pick up a few supplies was a must, and as much as I love a home improvement store, they can be daunting. Why? Everything you need to build or fix repairs in a house can be found there.

I’ve always known this as a result of my father working in the construction industry. The cost of supplies to fix a problem is never the issue; it’s the labor that comes to repair the problem that costs money. Like utilizing a snake to clean the drain, that’s easily $100 for a 10-minute job. Tightening a few screws on a sink or faucet is $75-$100; it becomes a reality that having the skills to fix some simple repairs can go a very long way and saves a ton of money along the way.

The best advice I ever heard from someone who owns a house is that it is a never-ending project. Things might appear and look perfect, but you always have something that will be in need of a repair, a tune-up or a fix. In other words, always have money stashed away for this purpose America; it can be costly to fix a repair if you have no idea how bad the problem is to begin, but its imperative to tackle the problem sooner rather than later. The longer you wait to repair a project the bigger the issue can become later.