Home maintenance is important both for your safety and comfort but also to protect the investment you’ve made. Skimping on these costs may lead to the depreciation of your home’s value. Proactive maintenance is essential—without it, your home could lose its value, or worse, cause you to miss some costly repairs that could have been prevented. Check out these maintenance and safety tips to kick the year off.
Plan home projects for the year. Use this winter’s indoor time and review home maintenance projects you’d like to accomplish this year. Be sure to write them down and prioritize them. Studies show if you write your goals down you're more likely to achieve them.
Wipe down kitchen cabinets and hardware. Holiday cooking and entertaining can leave the kitchen with splatters of grease and other remnants that made their way to your kitchen cabinets and hardware. Take some time and give your kitchen cabinets and hardware a good wipe down.
Update your home inventory list. Home accidents and disasters can and do unfortunately happen. Be prepared with a current home inventory list in the event you need to file a home insurance claim. Some people prefer to document their belongings through a video vs. writing them down. Whatever method you choose, make sure you do it. It’s such a stressful time and the last thing you want to do is spend a lot of time and energy trying to remember all the items you lost in your home when filing a home insurance claim.
Change water and ice maker filters. Water filters should be replaced once or twice a year (or as recommended by the manufacturer). The size of your household and usage affects this as well. Be sure to change any other water filters you have, too. Thinking about adding more water filter systems to your home? Consumer Reports is a great place to look to find out which water filters are the best.
Consider upgrades to your outdoor landscaping. Landscape design can boost the resale value of your home. Take some time and think about ways to improve your landscape design this Spring and Summer. Consider lighting, garden pathways, decks, areas around trees and water features when improving your landscape design.
Clean and organize closets. While it’s cold outside take advantage of your indoor time and clean and organize your closets. Purge those items you haven’t touched or worn for years and consider donating them to someone who may really need them. Be ready before Spring arrives with clean and organized closets.
Check for ice dams. Check for ice dams and take measures to remove them. Ice dams are formed when interior heat escapes and warms the roof. The melting snow then runs to the colder eave, where it refreezes. This process can cause severe damage to your roof, and potentially expose your interior to water damage. Be proactive and remove ice dams to prevent damage and exorbitant water damage repair costs to your home.
Protect pipes from freezing. Frozen pipes (and bursting) can cause much damage to your home. The pipes most at risk are those in unheated interior spaces such as basements, attics and garages. But even pipes running through cabinets or exterior walls can freeze. Take preventative measures and protect your pipes from freezing.
Wash blankets and comforters. Your family room blankets have probably had a lot of use during the holidays and cold fall/ winter months. Take time and wash all of them. Not only will you be washing away collected germs and dirt, you’ll love the softness and scent of freshly laundered blankets while you’re on the couch watching your favorite series!
Complete deep dusting. Make sure you deep dust. With the furnace on and a lot of activities indoors, dust from the summer and fall get stuck in small areas and nooks.. Wipe down your light switches, dust your lamps and give your baseboards a solid dusting.
Source: Real Estate Spice