BrightNest – Home Maintenance Done Right

You’ve found the perfect house, secured a great rate on a mortgage, and hired movers to schlep your belongings. Now the real work begins. Owning a home means changing furnace filters, mowing lawns, and washing floors from time to time. When all those tasks seem overwhelming, BrightNest is there to help.

BrightNest is a tool you can use to manage the maintenance and cleaning of your home. Rather than jotting down to-do lists, emergency service contact numbers, and annual maintenance schedules in a three-ring binder, you can use BrightNest to keep your home healthy and safe. Just create an account – making sure to answer some basic questions about your home’s size and features – and BrightNest will provide you with a customized list of “Must Do” projects. From the dashboard page, you’ll also find links to areas of the site where you can store owner’s manuals and paint color information, add your own projects, and assign DIY tasks to your spouse or partner. BrightNest automatically adds all the tasks you need to do to your to-do list, and it tracks everything you’ve done under the “Home History” section.

In addition to providing you with a list of “Must Do” and “Good to Do” tasks, BrightNest also offers a library of tips and advice for maintaining virtually every area of your home. When you come across a particular piece of advice that you’d like to try out, you can add it to your “To Do” list, read related items, or share the information with friends on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.

Practical Uses:

• Find out when it’s time to change the furnace filter
• Store all of your appliance manuals online
• Create a to-do list for your husband
• Get reminded when it’s time to pressure wash your house

Insider Tips:

• Realtors can use BrightNest’s pro tools for marketing purposes
• The more information you add about your home, the more useful BrightNest becomes
• Homeowners can store their paint colors and appliance details in the “Homefolio” section
• BrightNest sends an email digest to users on a regular basis

What we liked:

• BrightNest will find online sources for most appliance manuals, so users don’t have to look up the information on their own
• First-time homeowners can find out how often they should be doing basic maintenance tasks
• People can add as much or as little information about their homes as they want
• BrightNest offers lots of cleaning and organizational tips in its library section

What we didn’t like:

• Users can’t set up recurring to-do list items

Alternatives:

• None

Company Info:

• Launched: October 2011
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Denver, Colorado
• Founded by: Allen Shulman and Justin Anthony
• Web site: https://brightnest.com/

Costs:

• Free