Fall Home Maintenance Tips 

Use some of these fall home maintenance tips to keep your home up and running during the colder parts of the year. The more that you can do now to prepare, the easier the transition will be to fix anything that might come up.

Now that fall is here, it’s time to start thinking about everything that needs to be done to your home. From the inside to the outside, there is always a long list of fall home maintenance tips that you need to be aware of. Luckily, we’ve done a lot of the hard work for you and are providing you some of the top things to look for to get your home prepped for the cooler season.

It’s always amazing the care that goes into maintaining a home. And when it comes to the change of seasons, there’s a good chance that you’ll need to do a wide variety of items to get your home ready to sustain all the trials and tribulations of Mother Nature. The transition to cooler weather doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to bundle up your home in such a way that it’s prepared to survive a blizzard, but it does mean that you need to do a few things to make sure that it’s sealed tight to be as efficient as possible.

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

What is a maintenance checklist? 

Maintenance checklists are just like they sound. It’s a long (or short) list of things that every homeowner needs to be prepared to do quarterly or annually. The checklist can include easy maintenance items like cleaning the gutters to more advanced such as replaced the seals around the windows. 

And more than likely, it’s a good idea to have a couple of different maintenance checklists so that you can tackle the easier stuff and the hard stuff both, without getting them all intertwined.

One simple tip to keep in mind for creating your own home maintenance checklist is that you’ll want to keep it doable and reasonable in the tasks at hand. If you make it full of items that you don’t feel comfortable or knowledgeable about doing, then you’re running the risk of procrastinating and just might end up not doing any of them at all. 

How much does home maintenance cost each month?

There is no blanket answer to this question, but a good rule of thumb is to set aside anywhere from 1-3% of your home’s purchase price. That way, if during your fall home maintenance list you need to repair the gutters, you can easily do see without providing a financial burden on yourself and your family. 

And if you don’t use any home repair money during the months, just keep accumulating it during the year and saving it just in case there happens to be a more significant maintenance repair that comes up. 

What are examples of preventative Home maintenance?

Preventative maintenance is essential to homeowners because it means that they’re taking steps to stop issues from happening. What this also means is that they’re actually doing what they can to save money by replacing things or updating items before they break. Some simple examples of preventative maintenance include: 

• Changing out the air filters in your AC unit
• Cleaning your A/C Unit
• Power-washing the deck boards on your porch
• Resealing any types of cracks in the foundation or around windows
• Flush your water heater
• Changing batteries in your smoke detector
• Clean out your dryer lint vents

Preventative maintenance is often simple maintenance that doesn’t take a lot of time but can have a big impact down the road.

Fall Home Maintenance Tips 

Now that you know a little bit about what it takes to maintain a home, let’s talk about some simple home tips that anyone can do to prepare for fall.

Start by taking stock of how the outside of your home looks. Pay specific attention to your windows during this time since one of the biggest factors that houses tend to show as wear and tear is that the windows start letting in a lot of cooler air. Not only does this show signs of a leak, but it also creates drafts and causes utilities costs to rise.

Check the window screens and repair any that have holes and see if you notice any drafts coming in through the windows. If so, you might need to contact a professional to come and seal the windows or see what options you can purchase to help.

Clear out your gutters

Safely check your gutters to clear them of the leaves. You’ll be amazed that once you get eye level with your gutters at just how many leaves and other forms of debris are hiding in there! 

Read up on home maintenance books

If you come across something that you’re unfamiliar with, it’s a good idea to do your research before attempting. There are a lot of great books that are available at the library that can provide a ton of knowledge. 

Use some of these fall maintenance tips as a well to keep your home up and running during the colder parts of the year. The more that you can do now to prepare, the easier the transition will be to fix anything that might come up.

Did you know that HomeMembership offers a Home Maintenance Plan?

Let us send someone to your home to take care of some of your fall home maintenance. It could help your appliances be more efficient and last longer. Here are some of the things that our home maintenance plan covers.