You're the Landlord Now: Let an AI Agent Keep Track of Home Maintenance

The problem

When you rent, the furnace filter, the smoke alarms and the dryer vent are the landlord's job. When you buy a house, you take on that role yourself. You're the "landlord" now, and you're the one responsible for keeping everything running. Nobody sends you a work order, and nothing reminds you until something breaks.

The list is long, and most of it doesn't come around often enough to become a habit. The furnace filter is monthly, the dryer vent every six months, the water heater flush once a year, and the smoke alarms get replaced after ten years. Keeping the whole thing in your head is a quiet load that never goes away.

The jobs I hand to a pro have their own catch. Call for a furnace tune-up on the first cold night and so does everyone else, so the first opening may be weeks away. The trick is calling a month or two early, and that's one more thing to remember.

I've tried a few ways to keep track over the years:

• A monthly checklist to review. It works, but it's one more thing to keep track of.
• My phone calendar or Google Calendar. Good reminders, but dozens of repeating events clutter the daily view, and it's hard to see them all in one place or change them.
• Standalone maintenance apps. Okay, but too much setup and upkeep of their own.
• A Claude agent that checks every day. This is the one that stuck. The instructions are one prompt in plain words, so it's quick to set up and I can change it anytime. Then I can forget about it, because Claude is on the job.

So I built a Home Maintenance Schedule tool on this site that writes that prompt for you.

What you need

• The free Home Maintenance Schedule. You tick the jobs your home has, and it works out the due dates and writes the instructions for the agent.
• An AI assistant that can run a task on a schedule. A scheduled task is an instruction the assistant runs on its own, every day or every week, without you asking.
• A few dates, if you have them: when you last did each job, and the date made printed on the back of your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. The tool assumes today for anything you don't know.

How it works

1. You pick the jobs. The tool lists 33 of them, from furnace filters to garage door tests. Each one shows two timings side by side: Common timing, the typical guidance from makers and safety groups, and My rule, what I do in my own home. My rule is never less often than the common timing, and sometimes more.
2. The tool does the date math. Every reminder lands on the 1st of the month, so the monthly checks happen together, and it writes out the next 12 months of due dates.
3. Claude sets up the reminder. The tool turns your picks into one prompt. You paste it into a chat, Claude proposes a scheduled task, and you confirm it.
4. Claude tells you what's due. On the 1st it lists that day's jobs. On Mondays it lists what's coming up that week, plus anything on this month's list in case it's still waiting. On other days it stays quiet. (You can pick one summary a week instead.)

A message on the 1st of the month looks something like this:

Due today

• Replace the furnace filter
• Test the smoke alarms
• Test the GFCI outlets
• Check for router updates

Why Claude instead of the calendar. The tool can also make a calendar file with a repeating event for every job, and that's there if you'd rather not use AI. I prefer the Claude task: it keeps my calendar for appointments, and it sends one message that covers everything due.

It's also easier to build on. When I want the reminder to do something new, I ask Claude in plain words instead of editing events one at a time. For example, a heads-up for the jobs that need a pro:

Update my "Home maintenance reminder" scheduled task. Two weeks before each job that means booking a pro (the furnace tune-up, AC tune-up, chimney inspection and water heater flush), list it under "Call to book" so I can get on their schedule before the rush. Keep everything else the same.

You can add jobs the tool doesn't cover the same way:

Update my "Home maintenance reminder" scheduled task. Add "Replace the car's cabin air filter" every 12 months, starting March 1. Keep everything else the same.

Setting it up

1. Open the Home Maintenance Schedule and tick the jobs your home has.
2. Choose the timing. The switch at the top starts every job on Common timing or My rule, and you can change any single job after that.
3. Adjust the dates you know. "Last done" starts as today, so a job every 6 months first comes up 6 months from now. Change it if you know better. Replacement jobs, like smoke alarms, washer hoses and battery backup batteries, need a real date, since 10 years from today means nothing for an alarm that's already 9 years old.
4. Pick Daily or Weekly for how often Claude checks.
5. Copy the prompt and paste it into a new chat in Claude. Claude shows you the task's name, schedule (8 a.m. your time unless you ask for another) and instructions. Read them over and confirm.
6. Open the Scheduled page in Claude to make sure there's one task called "Home maintenance reminder."

Upkeep

• Once a year the dates run out. The reminder tells you when. Come back to the tool in the same browser (your picks are saved there), copy a new prompt and paste it into Claude, and it replaces the old instructions.
• Did a job early or late? The reminders run by date, so they won't move on their own. Update "Last done" and make a new prompt if you want the schedule to follow. For the monthly jobs I don't bother.
• When something changes, like a new furnace that takes a different filter, update your picks or tell Claude what changed.

What it doesn't fix

• It doesn't know what you've done. Claude reminds you by date. It can't see whether the filter actually got changed.
• AI reminders can be late, wrong or skipped. For smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, the test button and the low-battery chirp are still your real safety net. If you want a reminder that doesn't depend on AI, add the calendar file too.
• It doesn't replace the manual or a pro. Your equipment's instructions come first. Anything with gas, wiring or a ladder you're not comfortable on belongs to a qualified technician.
• It needs a paid plan for scheduled tasks. The tool and the calendar file are free.

The only date I have to remember now is the 1st of the month, and Claude remembers that one too. This describes what I do; see the disclaimer for more.

Products named here are ones I bought and use myself. No sponsorships, no affiliate links.
I'm not a licensed electrician or other professional. Follow the product instructions and local codes, and call a qualified pro if you're unsure. Full disclaimer.