The change of seasons is the perfect time to take care of your house. Just like when the days get shorter and the temperature drops, you need to prep your home for the spring and summer months.
Now that the days are getting longer and the temperatures are slowly starting to rise during the day, we can go ahead and expect spring soon. The change of seasons is a good time to take a look at your property and evaluate what you may need to update, clean, or restore. Fortunately, the concept of spring cleaning is pretty widespread, meaning that there are all sorts of checklists that will help you prepare for even longer days and even hotter temperatures.
Keeping a healthy home is more than just dusting and vacuuming, and cold weather with its associated precipitation can batter a house. It’s important to check things like your downspouts and gutters, roof, smoke detectors, your security system, your HVAC, and more. Here’s how to save money by preparing ahead of time for the warmer weather.
Clean your appliances
One thing that’s important to remember is that an unhealthy system means your utilities will be more expensive. Having a utility bill that skyrockets over the summer is not abnormal, especially if the systems in your home aren’t operating properly or optimized to run effectively.
Make sure to check in on all of your appliances and see what you might be able to do to help them run more efficiently. A quick (and relatively easy way) to do this is to clean beneath them — for example, move your refrigerator to sweep any dust or dirt out from underneath it. Also, be sure to dust the refrigerator itself. The fastest way to see your bills skyrocket is to quit taking care of appliances.
A good reminder to think about is that electricity is one of the biggest ways you can both save and spend extra money. Do a good job taking care of your appliances and you won’t have to cut into your morning routine to save money on utilities.
Change the filters
Whether it is your fridge like mentioned above or the air vents within your home, spring is the perfect time to change all of the filters. Dirty filters are the number one cause of appliances and even air-related problems in the home. One of the quickest ways to harm your HVAC is to leave dirty air filters in the vents because it can cause condensation within the unit. Condensation can lead to a freeze of the system overall.
And let’s face it. Nobody wants to be without air conditioning during the warmer months.
While you’re at it, do not forget to pay attention to other appliances like your washer and dryer. The dryer would love to have its filter changed, too. Finally, don’t forget to check the foundation vents if your home is built above a crawl space.
Service your air conditioner
Lots of homes have smart thermostats, but that doesn’t mean they’re smart enough to take care of themselves. Have your air conditioner serviced by an HVAC professional. It’s a good idea to have it serviced regularly over the warmer months, too.
With a smart thermostat, you can ensure that the program or app that comes along with it helps you maintain the health of your hvac system by sending you notifications when something needs to be serviced.
Prep the yard tools
How is your lawnmower running? Are your hoses leaky? Cracked pipes can happen throughout the winter, so you’ll want to head outside to take a look at all of these things before they’re necessary but not in the proper working condition.
Take care to check in on hoses, faucets, yard tools, and even your gutters or downspouts.
With some of these important maintenance chores out of the way, you’ll be ready to enjoy the warmer weather in no time.