As a homeowner, you can prevent a majority of tomorrow’s problems by maintaining your home today. Regular home maintenance can boost your property value, reduce stress and reduce the amount of money you spend on minor and major home repairs. Whether this is your first home, or you need to start a new regimen of good home maintenance habits, it’s time to learn what to maintain and how often. Here’s your basic guide to preparing a home maintenance calendar.
Scheduling maintenance checks: what to pencil in monthly
There are systems around your home that should be inspected and maintained on a monthly basis. If you haven’t been taking the time to get on your hands and knees to check these systems, you may have been neglecting your home. To keep things manageable, you can stagger each item on a weekly basis to avoid becoming overwhelmed. Here’s a checklist of items that should be added to your maintenance calendar each month:
• Change A/C and heater air filters
If you have a forced air system, you should be changing your air filters out once per month. By changing the filter, you can improve the air quality in your home and also reduce the stress you put on your A/C and heating system.
• Clearing clogs in the dishwasher
It may be the last thing you think of, but if you use your dishwasher on a regular basis, make time to clean out the drain bin on a monthly basis. All of those food particles that are caked onto your dishes will wash down into the drain bin and clog the drain if it is not cleaned. Cleaning this drain will prevent clogs and an entire system breakdown.
• Make sure your fire extinguisher is charged
This is more of a safety reminder rather than a maintenance issue, but be sure that your fire extinguisher is ready to go should you need it.
• Check water softener salt levels
If the salt drum is low on salt, add salt to prevent hard water.
• Garbage disposal maintenance
The garbage disposal gets stinky for a reason. If you do not flush the disposal with hot water and baking soda, the grime will accumulate and lead to a serious problem.
Scheduling maintenance checks: what to schedule every other month
Now that your monthly tasks are pencil into your calendar, use this list to determine the checks required every other month.
• Clean wall furnace grills
Take a cloth and clean the grills to improve efficiency and air quality.
• Clean range hood
The range hood filter will accumulate grease as you use your range. Unless you do not cook regularly, you should use a product designed to break up grease to clean off the grease filter.
It sounds like a lot of work, but when you own a home, it’s important to care for it properly. No matter how old or new your home is, you need to maintain it. Neglect leads to expensive bills you simply could have avoided. Take on the role as a homeowner and the time you spend will save you a small fortune in the long term.
Check back as we discuss matters you need to address less often through the year, but important all the same to home efficiency. If anything more serious should go wrong with any of your major appliances, be sure you’re protected by a home warranty from American Home Shield.
Ready for more home maintenance tips? check out part two of this series here.
Post Author: andyc.
