How homeowners can stay on top of home maintenance
Homeownership is a wonderful blessing, but like most things, it takes a lot of work! Even if you’re not planning to sell your house in the near future, keeping it in good condition not only is an investment that will literally pay off down the road when you do sell, but maintaining your home is critical for your own health, safety, and peace of mind. And luckily, it doesn’t have to be overwhelming! The important thing is to stay organized and not let yourself procrastinate on important tasks. One way to stay on top of regular home maintenance is to create a maintenance schedule. We’re going to take a look at a few general suggestions and ideas on how to get started, but what’s key is figuring out a system that works for you. Many of the ideas below are from HomeLight- check out this article to download a home maintenance schedule to your own personal calendar.
Getting started on a home maintenance Schedule
While every house is different, there are some near-universal categories you can base your schedule around. Here are some options:
Preventative care: While all home maintenance, is, in a sense, preventative care, in this category you list tasks that specifically are about inspecting your property to identify any concerns and keep problems from arising or escalating. Tasks here could include: Looking for cracks in the floors and walls, testing smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, looking at your pipes for leaks, and inspecting your foundation, basement, and crawlspace.
Maintenance and upkeep, which is making sure the systems you have in place can function at their best: Clean out gutters, termite and radon inspections, test sump pump, replacing old lightbulbs with more energy-efficient ones, cleaning out your garbage disposal, drain your water heater once a year, checking your sprinkler system, clean your siding, check electrical outlets, and clean your chimney.
Keeping up appearances. While this includes some shallow cosmetic fixes, most things that seem like aesthetic fixes actually serve a serious purpose in the safety of your house. For example, touching up exterior paint doesn’t just keep your house looking nice; your paint coating helps prevent water damage to a house. Regular chores like vacuuming, cleaning windows, trimming overhanging branches and vegetation in your yard, along with things like recaulking, roof inspections, and staining a deck, have both cosmetic and structural importance.
You can use these categories as broad ways to organize the kinds of tasks you need to do. Another option is to organize tasks by section of the house they are in. For example, all yard and exterior maintenance are together, or all kitchen work, bathroom work, or attic work. Or organize it by categories, such as all tasks related to water damage in one category, and all tasks related to safety in another.
When you’re thinking about a timeline for when to do these things, we love this handy checklist that breaks down which tasks are weekly, monthly, and seasonal. Some tasks are best done in certain seasons, like checking your sprinkler system before it’s really needed in the summer, or your chimney before winter. But most other tasks can be done whenever you have the most time and motivation. Again, what’s crucial is to stay organized! And while some of this can be done DIY, when it comes to things like your HVAC, roofing, or plumbing, we strongly advise you consult a professional (like one of Forever Home Inspection’s preferred vendors!)
At Forever Home Inspection, one of our core tenants is continuing education and empowerment. We empower our clients by giving them crucial information through their home inspections. We empower our inspectors by requiring the highest standards of technical training and certification, and we empower Realtors and other real estate professionals through our continuing education courses. We hope you’ve learned something from this article and the rest of our blog. Schedule your own home inspection with us!
Sources:
https://www.homelight.com/blog/home-maintenance-schedule/
https://www.homelight.com/blog/home-maintenance-checklist/
