Everyday Home Maintenance
Take control of your living space with essential repair and upkeep skills. Learn to safely handle basic plumbing, electrical fixtures, climate systems, and structural fixes with confidence.
Like Duolingo, but for Everyday Home Maintenance. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
25 levels across 4 sections, about 50 minutes end to end, roughly 10 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Stopping Disasters and Essential Handling; Water and Electrical Systems; Walls, Openings, and Air Quality; and Appliances and Preventive Care. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in Everyday Home Maintenance
- Locating and closing the main water shutoff confirms water stops everywhere before a pipe can burst or break
- Testing that the water actually stops running at a faucet confirms the main valve seals completely
- Attempting repairs without verifying the shutoff risks unmanageable home flooding if a brittle fitting snaps
- Toilets and sinks have individual shutoff valves (stops) directly beneath them on the supply lines
- Using local fixture valves keeps running water available throughout the rest of the home during a repair
- Whole-house shutoff is reserved for lines that lack individual valves or repairs before the local stop
- The main breaker switch sits at the top or bottom of the breaker panel and controls the incoming utility power
- Flipping a light switch or unplugging an appliance creates a tiny electrical spark that can ignite accumulated gas
- A single GFCI outlet protects and controls regular outlets wired downstream on the same branch circuit
- When a GFCI trips, it cuts power to every downstream outlet connected to it
- Pressing the 'Reset' button on the tripped GFCI outlet restores power to all connected dead outlets without touching the breaker panel
- A screwdriver tip must seat fully and snugly into the fastener head without wobbling
- Using an undersized or mismatched bit (like a Phillips #1 in a #2 screw) causes cam-out and grinds away the drive pattern
- Firm forward pressure combined with exact tip alignment keeps the tool engaged
- Pulling toward the movable jaw forces the fastener deep into the wrench throat against the sturdy fixed jaw
- Pulling against the fixed jaw (pushing away from the movable jaw) forces the adjustable jaw outward, slipping off and rounding the fastener edges
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives Everyday Home Maintenance the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
After turning off your main water valve, how do you verify it actually worked?
Get it right to open this lesson and 24 more in the app.
Where Everyday Home Maintenance takes you
- 1
Stopping Disasters and Essential Handling
- Emergency Shutoffs and First Responses
- The Core Handyman Toolkit
- 2
Water and Electrical Systems
- Fixing Leaks, Drains, and Running Toilets
- Safe Household Electrical Basics
- 3
Walls, Openings, and Air Quality
- Drywall Repairs and Door Alignment
- Airflow, Filters, and Climate Systems
- 4
Appliances and Preventive Care
- Everyday Appliance Triage and Upkeep
- Leak Detection and Seasonal Maintenance
4 sections · 8 units · 25 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
Everyday Home Maintenance is taught in the The Professor style: clear, structured, thorough. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start Everyday Home Maintenance today.
Download Tomo, search Everyday Home Maintenance, and play your first lesson in under a minute.