Fall Home Maintenance Tips

Besides the yearly housecleaning, we have a thing called yearly home maintenance and cleaning that seems to be overlooked or at least, put-on-hold and then it is overlooked!

We have many goals to reach in life and one of them is keeping our home in the best shape possible. We don't realize how much money is wasted by having repairs done every year on things that break or malfunction because of neglect.

By not taking care of things and keeping them clean, it can ruin appliances, cause rot, mildew, and much more. Causing us to spend even more money having to repair the original problem and then having to repair the result of overlooking our responsibilities.

Here are only a few of the Fall Cleaning items that we should keep high on our list of things to do.

1. Replace furnace filters
2. Vacuum out the air ducts and heating vents
3. Vacuum the furnace area for dust and lint
4. Vacuum and clean the dryer and vents
5. Clean and vacuum areas around the telephone in-service
6. Remove animal hair from carpets and furniture
7. Remove lint and dust from your hairdryer and electric shaver
8. Clean and vacuum the coils of your refrigerator and freezers
9. Check all of your smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors
10. Check for cracks outside of the home where mice, red
squirrels and rodents can get in and make sure these areas
are secure. Especially, around the chimney, eaves and at the
base of your foundation.
11. Dust the garage ceilings and walls and get out all spider
webs, items that mice might use for nesting etc. Secure all
windows and doors so they cannot get through a crawl space.
12. If you bring in plants from the outside make sure that, you
dump the old dirt and clean the plant thoroughly so you dorn not bring in unwanted pests.
13. Check the chimney and fireplace for cracks, breaks and
separations
14. Change the oil in the lawn mower and close up for winter; asrn well as the weed eater, lawn edger etc.
15. Get the snow blower ready; add fresh gas, a new spark plug
and wax the shoot etc.
16. Clean the window screens and outside windows, look for leaks
17. Clean out the gutters and check for cracks or leaks, these
can usually be repaired with silicone.
18. Clean out the pantry- get rid of old items and anything that
can cause insects, bacteria and mold to grow
19. Turn mattresses and vacuum get rid of body oils as much asrn possible and loose hair and debris
20. Clean off all cement and wood on the outside of the house atrn all of the entranceways. Using Dawn dish soap as a final wash
also helps to deter ice from forming in these areas in the
wintertime.

We tend to overlook some of the home maintenance things that in the long run will cost us money to repair because it has gone unattended.

Fall is a good time of the year to check some of these things over, it helps us to make our list of things to do when the weather is bad, for on the inside of the house and helps to save our homes from winter winds.

Make a 'winter' maintenance guide and hang it in the garage for next year so that you do not overlook anything and you will be glad that you are organized.