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Here’s Your Fall Home Maintenance Checklist
The leaves changing color is a sign that you may have some fall home maintenance tasks to tackle. With summer in the rearview and colder temperatures ahead, being proactive now will keep your home in pristine condition throughout the autumn days and nights. We’ve compiled a list of several tasks to tackle around your home this fall.
Fall Home Maintenance Checklist
Clean Gutters
Water damage can spell serious trouble for homeowners. And with many climates experiencing additional rainfall this time of year, it’s time to prepare accordingly.
- Start by ensuring that gutters and downspouts are functioning properly. (Don’t attempt this task yourself if you have a multi-story house with a steep roof; hire a professional instead.)
- If your home is surrounded by trees, you may need to clean out your gutters a few times a year, especially in the fall. Check to make sure your gutters are flush with the roof and attached securely, repairing any areas that sag or sections where the water can easily collect and overflow.
- Clean out the gutters and downspouts, checking that outlet strainers are in good shape, and are firmly in place. Finally, check that your downspouts direct water away from your house, not straight along the foundation.
- If you haven’t already, you may want to consider installing gutter guards. Gutter guards create a barrier so water can get through to your gutters, but debris can’t, limiting gutter buildup (and the time you spend cleaning out your gutters). There are DIY installation kits available, or you can always hire a professional to install a gutter guard system.
- If you have a sump pump under your house, now is a good time to test it. Run a hose to make sure draining water travels directly to the pump and that the pump removes the water efficiently and expels it well away from the foundation. For more information about how sump pumps work, go to howstuffworks.com.
Check for Leaks
The best opportunity to catch leaks is the first heavy rain after a long dry spell, when roofing materials are contracted. Check the underside of the roof, looking for signs of moisture on joints or insulation. Mark any leaks that you find and then hire a roofing specialist to repair them. Waiting for leaks to show up on your ceiling is a recipe for disaster. By then, it’s too late to act; insulation and sheet rock will have already sustained damaged, and you could have a mold problem on your hands.
Don’t forget the basement. Check your foundation for cracks, erosion, plants growing inside, broken windows, and gaps in the window and door weatherstripping. Make sure to properly seal any leaks while the weather is nice. This will ensure materials dry properly.
Fall Home Maintenance: Pest Prevention
Rodents are determined and opportunistic, and they can do tremendous amounts of property damage (and endanger your family’s health). As temperatures cool, take measures to prevent roof rats and other critters from moving in. Branches that touch your house and overhang your roof are convenient on-ramps for invaders, so trim back branches so they’re at least four feet from the house. If you do hear scuttling overhead or discover rodent droppings in your attic, crawl space or basement, take immediate action.
Maintain Your Heating and Cooling Systems
Preventative maintenance is especially crucial for your home’s heating and air-conditioning systems. Fall is a smart time to have your systems checked and tuned up if necessary. Don’t wait for extreme temperatures to arrive when service companies are slammed with emergency calls. Between tune-ups, keep your system performing optimally by cleaning and/or replacing air filters as needed.
If you have a wood-burning fireplace, a professional inspection and cleaning will help prevent potentially lethal chimney fires and carbon monoxide poisoning. Even if you don’t use your fireplace often, always keep a supply of dry firewood or sawdust-composite logs so you have a backup heat source in an emergency.
Insulate & Seal Your Home
Insulating your home is a cost-efficient investment, whether you’re trying to keep the interior warm in the winter or cool in the summer. Aside from more major improvements like energy-efficient windows and insulation, there are some quick fixes and projects that you can tackle DIY.
If an exterior door doesn’t have a snug seal when closed, replace the weather stripping; self-adhesive foam stripping is much simpler to install than traditional vinyl stripping. If there is a gap under the door (which can happen over time as a house settles), you may need to realign it and replace the vinyl door bottom and/or door sweep. Air also sneaks inside through electrical outlets and light switches on exterior walls. Dye-cut foam outlet seals placed behind the wall plates are a quick and inexpensive solution.
For more tips on seasonal home maintenance, home repair tips and more, visit the Living category of our blog:
Featured Image Source: Getty Images – Image Credit: svetikd
6 Home Cleaning Tips to Eliminate Household Odors
A home that smells fresh feels fresh. But as all homeowners know, even after spending hours cleaning your home top to bottom, musty and unclean smells somehow find a way to hang around. We’ll take a look at some of the most common household odors and offer home cleaning tips to eliminate them room by room. Plug your nose, throw on a pair of rubber gloves, and let’s dive in!
1. Get Rid of Kitchen Odors
In many ways, the kitchen is the heart and soul of a home, but all that cooking and baking comes with a consequence: bad odors. From rotting food to stale air, the kitchen can easily whip up bad smells to combat. Start by emptying your refrigerator and use warm, soapy water to wipe down the shelves. Dispose of expired food products and clean up leaking food containers. Deep clean your dishwasher next, scrubbing those tough-to-reach spots in the back and clearing out the food traps. Next time you take out your garbage and compost, give the trash cans a quick wash with soapy water. Natural cleaning solutions can also help to supercharge your cleaning efforts. Baking soda can easily cut through grease, while lemon and salt can make a powerful mixture to eliminate odors. For more, read the following blog post:
2. Bathroom Cleaning Tips
The toilet and the shower are the main culprits in the bathroom for unwanted odors. Proactively cleaning and regularly maintaining your toilet can prevent bad smells and potential water damage from material buildup. Don’t let that toilet scrubber collect dust; regularly clean the rings in your toilet bowl and use toilet spray to maintain freshness. Your shower is a magnet for mold growth, especially around the ring of your bathtub and along the bottom of your shower curtain. Use a one-part white vinegar to four-parts water mixture in a spray bottle to clean your shower curtain, or simply throw it in the wash for a solo cycle next time you do laundry.
3. Carpet Cleaning
Your carpet and flooring may not immediately come to mind as candidates for emitting household odors, but they are. It is generally recommended to clean all household rugs and carpets every six to twelve months. If you do not have a carpet cleaner at home, they are widely available for rent at local hardware and/or carpet cleaning stores. If you have hardwood floors, purchase a hardwood cleaning solution to mix with water. Consider picking up some knee pads, too!
Image Source: Getty Images – Image Credit: Publishing Group
4. Eliminate Pet Odors
You can’t live without your furry friends, but sharing a home with them means you have to deal with some extra smells. Most importantly, clean up pet accidents right away to prevent lingering odors and potential damage. Regularly cleaning all pet toys eliminates germs and leaves them smelling fresh. The same goes for pet bedding and blankets: regularly run these items through the wash to absorb pet odors. And next time you’re at the store, consider picking up a pet-specific cleaning solution to really zap that pet must from the air.
5. Improve Home Air Quality
All odors travel to our noses by air. Improving air quality improves the health of your household while helping to eliminate odors. Consider investing in an air purifier with HEPA filters to remove dust, pollen, mold, and bacteria from the air in your home. Crack a window when cooking to let air cycle naturally and prevent it from getting stale.
6. Bedroom Cleaning Tips
In the bedroom, bad odors usually stem from fabrics and dirty clothes. Consider storing dirty laundry in the laundry room to banish all smelly clothing and add in a fabric freshener cleanse to your seasonal cleaning methods. After all, the bedroom is where you’re breathing air for hours at a time each night, so it’s worth it to purify your surroundings as much as possible. Also consider adding candles or essential oils to really sweeten the air in the bedroom.
For more helpful home cleaning tips, learn how to get your appliances cleaner than ever:
7 Tips for Cleaning Your Appliances
Featured Image Source: Getty Images – Image Credit: PeopleImages
6 Natural Cleaning Solutions for Your Home
The last thing you want to do when cleaning your home is spread chemicals around; your house won’t be as clean, and it can pose risks for the health of your household. Organic home cleaning products reduce this risk by relying on natural ingredients that can often deliver a deeper cleanse. You can find cleaning solutions like these browsing the aisles at your local grocery store. Here are a few common cleaning methods and how to apply them around your home.
6 Natural Cleaning Solutions for Your Home
1. Clean with Lemons
When life gives you lemons…clean! And then once your home is sparkling clean, make lemonade with the leftovers. Lemons are not only delicious in food and drinks, but their chemical makeup is tailor-made for cleaning your home. Mixing lemon juice and baking soda makes a powerful cleaning solution that can tackle most cleaning chores normally performed with a sponge. When combined with soap, baking soda, and water, lemons can also be an effective degreaser. Find a recipe online and get to cleaning naturally!
2. Use Vinegar to Clean Your Home
Beyond its culinary uses, vinegar is a fantastic cleaning aid for homeowners. Most people know it can clean, deodorize, and eliminate stains, but did you know it can eliminate small pockets of mold growth, too? Homemade cleaning recipes involving vinegar call for an equal-parts distillation with water. Once you’ve created your mix, go to town on the various surfaces throughout your home—bathroom sink, toilet, stovetop, countertops, etc.—and watch the cleaning magic take place. Test your mixture before application to make sure it doesn’t damage your surfaces.
3. Clean with Baking Soda
No kitchen cabinet is complete without a box of baking soda. Run half a cup of baking soda through your drains with hot water periodically to keep them from clogging. Add a few dashes on your sponge to supercharge your scrubbing efforts and save some elbow grease. Let it sit on greasy kitchen pans and pots for a few minutes before doing the dishes and watch the food gunk disappear. It can even polish metal, clean your shower, and absorb unwanted odors throughout your home. It truly is the natural cleaning solution with 1,001 uses.
Image Source: Getty Images – Image Credit: PeopleImages
4. Clean with Salt at Home
Salt is a staple of home life, but it can do more than garnish your meals. Indoors, it can help you with everything from removing coffee and wine stains to quickly cleaning up food spills in the kitchen. Simply sprinkle salt on the areas where food has spilled, let it sit for five minutes, and clean the mess away like magic. Another handy homeowner tip: mix 1 teaspoon of salt with a few drops of water to form a paste that can be used to remove rings left by glasses, mugs, and cups on wood.
5. How to Clean with Olive Oil
You’ve drizzled it on your salads and cooked with it, but did you know you can use olive oil to clean your home, too? By combining olive oil, vegetable oil, and a teaspoon of salt, you can quickly whip up a natural, tough-acting cleaning solution that will clean up the most resistant food spills in the kitchen and beyond. It can even polish wood furniture with a recipe of two parts olive oil and vinegar to one part lemon juice. Finally, you can clean your stainless-steel appliances with a little olive oil and a microfiber cloth.
6. Cleaning with Coffee Grounds
They’re not just part of your morning routine; coffee grounds can be one of the most helpful cleaning solutions. Coffee grounds are naturally coarse, making them an effective cleaning agent for wiping away grease and grime without scratching the material underneath. Combine a few scoops of coffee with warm water to clear debris from your pots, pans, and grill grates. Add a little soap to the mixture to get those pots and pans sparkling clean.
For more home cleaning tips, plus info on remodeling, home security, and more, visit the Living category of our blog:
Featured Image Source: Getty Images – Image Credit: LaylaBird
7 Tips for Cleaning Your Appliances
Your appliances help your home run like a well-oiled machine. But without the proper cleaning and maintenance, they can make your life more complicated. When thinking about the most helpful cleaning tips around the house, we often center our efforts on open, high-foot-traffic areas. However, spending some time cleaning your appliances will have your home feeling fresher than ever.
7 Tips for Cleaning Your Appliances
1. Cleaning Your Refrigerator
Your refrigerator is the lifeblood of your food supply. A clean refrigerator equates to fresher food and a healthier household. Start by clearing the shelves and bins so you can access the tough-to-reach spots and corners. Wipe everything down with soap and warm water or try an equal-parts mixture of vinegar and water as a cleaning solution. This is also a good time to reorganize your refrigerator to cut down on food waste.
2. How to Clean Your Microwave
One simple cleaning hack can have your microwave looking brand new. Fill a microwave-safe bowl or container with water and heat it up until it starts to boil. Turn off the microwave and let the heated water sit for at least five minutes, then safely remove it. By heating up the water, the food particles caked on the walls of your microwave will be much easier to wipe away. To eliminate germs, disinfect your microwave’s handle and buttons.
3. Espresso Machine / Coffee Maker
If your coffee maker is kaput, your whole morning routine gets thrown off. Whether you use a stovetop coffee maker, French press, espresso machine, or a good old coffee pot, performing regular maintenance will decrease bacteria and mold growth. Periodically separate the removable parts of your coffee maker and wash them thoroughly with warm soap and water. If you have a coffee press, run the parts through the dishwasher occasionally to prevent buildup in the mesh.
Image Source: Getty Images – Image Credit: kirstyokeeffe
4. Dishwasher Cleaning Tips
If your dishwasher isn’t clean, your dishes won’t be either. Get it in pristine condition with a few simple cleaning tips. After cleaning all food scraps and gunk from the drain, wipe down the gaskets with warm soapy water. Though there are a variety of dishwasher cleaning products available, you can give your appliance a thorough deep cleaning with vinegar and baking soda. Fill a dishwasher safe container with one to two cups of vinegar and place it in the top rack. Run a cycle without dishwasher detergent nor other dishes. Once the cycle is complete, sprinkle roughly a cup of baking soda along the bottom rack and run another cycle.
5. How to Clean Your Stove Top
No matter how tidy you are as you cook your stove top will collect debris and buildup from splattering oil, butter, and food particles. Throw on some rubber gloves and get ready to give it some elbow grease. Soaking food buildup with warm water will break it down and make cleanup easier. Use a hard plastic scraper to get gas or electric stove tops totally clean, and use a warm, soapy sponge to make your glass top range sparkle. If your stove has removable burners, remove them and soak them in water to make them shine like new.
6. Cleaning Your Washing Machine
Seeing stains in your freshly washed loads of laundry? It’s time to give your washing machine some TLC. Fortunately, your washing machine can do most of the cleaning work itself. Add a little vinegar to the drum and run a cycle on your machine’s hottest setting. Many newer models come with self-cleaning features and higher energy efficiency ratings to save water on each load.
7. Dryer Cleaning Tips
Don’t forget about your dryer, too! Dryer maintenance is largely a matter of cleaning out the lint traps regularly (after each use) and vacuuming the mesh. Without proper maintenance, your dryer can get clogged, leaving your washed clothes damp. And if enough dryer lint builds up, it could start a fire.
For more helpful cleaning tips, read our blog post on commonly missed cleaning spots throughout your home:
6 Commonly Missed Cleaning Spots
Featured Image Source: Getty Images – Image Credit: dusanpetkovic
13 Appliance Tips & Hacks for Household Chores
Modern home appliances make our lives so much easier: They tackle dreaded household chores, saving us time and effort. There are lots of ways to use them, however, that you may not have thought of before. From cleaning your ceiling fixtures in the dishwasher to vacuuming your pet, here are 13 little-known tricks for getting more than your money’s worth from your appliances.
5 Pet-Friendly House Cleaning Tips
Pets make a house a home. But as much as you love your furry friends, they do add a few entries to your list of chores. Keeping your home clean requires a bit of extra work, and some methods of upkeep are more pet-friendly than others. The following tips will help you keep your house clean and your pets happy.
5 Pet-Friendly House Cleaning Tips
1. Safely Clean Up Accidents
When pet owners buy a home, they proceed knowing full well that pet accidents and messes are bound to happen. Cleaning up messes quickly is important for keeping your home clean, but it will also remove the scent, so your pets don’t come back to that same area with the same intentions. When shopping around, look for cleaning products that are safe for animals and don’t contain any toxic chemicals.
2. Deep Clean to Reduce Smells
Pets have a knack for leaving a scent behind. Every pet owner knows the feeling of going through their normal cleaning routine to extinguish the pet smell from their home, only for it to linger after they’re done. To really get your home smelling fresh again, you’ll need to target your pets’ favorite areas as well as the commonly missed cleaning spots throughout your home like underneath furniture, along the baseboards, etc. You’ll be surprised at how much dirt and fur you find in these places.
Image Source: Getty Images – Image Credit: Marco VDM
3. Clean Pet Toys Regularly
Your pets’ toys are magnets for dirt, fur, drool, and other unwanted substances. It’s a homeowner’s nightmare to imagine spending hours cleaning your home top to bottom, only for a muddy ball your pets have been chewing on to roll across the carpet. Cleaning toys regularly is also healthier for your pets as it helps to reduce the spread of germs. If your pets’ toys are dishwasher safe, pop them in the dishwasher every once in a while to get them squeaky clean.
4. Keep the Air Clean
Even after you’ve exhausted all your cleaning efforts on the surfaces throughout your home, pet fur and dander can still travel through the air. It’s important to clean the air in your home, especially if members of your household have allergies. Consider investing in an air purifier, which will filter air particles to remove dust and odors, giving everyone in your home—pets included—cleaner air to enjoy.
5. The Importance of Well-Groomed Pets
In the context of a clean, pet-friendly home, there’s one surface that’s more important than any—your pets themselves. Every pet owner has their routine; whether that’s regularly maintaining their cat’s litter box, wiping off the dog’s paws in the mudroom before letting them inside, regular baths and brushing, or keeping nails trimmed to avoid furniture and carpet damage, these are the boxes that must be checked to keep your home clean. For all your cleaning efforts, if your pets are still messy, then the spaces in your home will follow suit.
Read the following blog post for more information on maintaining a pet-friendly home as you look to sell:
Featured Image Source: Getty Images – Image Credit: Prostock-Studio
6 Commonly Missed Cleaning Spots
It’s easy to get into a routine when cleaning your home season after season, year after year. While simply going over the same spots may make your home feel cleaner, at the same time, it allows the neglected areas to become dirtier. Here are six commonly missed spots around the home that, once given the attention they deserve, will help make your home feel completely clean.
6 Commonly Missed Cleaning Spots
1. Underneath & Behind Furniture
Dirt and dust love to hide in tough-to-reach, tucked-away spots like behind your nightstand, under your bed frame, and on the underside of your tables, chairs, and couches. Cleaning these areas may require some heavy lifting and rearranging but it’s worth your while. If enough dust and grime have accumulated over the years that your vacuum can’t remove the buildup, try using a washcloth to loosen the sediment.
2. Vents and Fans
Vents and fans not only collect dust, but they also distribute it around your home. Ceiling fans are one of the hardest spots in your home to reach, so you may need to use a ladder and an extended duster to clean them. Clean your vent grates with a dusting brush or a wire brush depending on the thickness of the buildup. If your home has central air, remember to replace your air filters periodically. A clean ventilation system is key to protecting your home’s air quality.
3. Bathroom Surfaces
We all know the feeling of picking up a rarely used shampoo bottle in the shower to discover a grimy ring underneath it. Wipe off your bottles and surfaces in the shower to keep it sparkling clean. Scrub away the debris from your shower head and soak it in a mixture of water and white vinegar to cleanse the device and to prevent a buildup of mineral deposits. To reach behind the toilet, you may need knee pads and an extended cleaning tool. Use a disinfectant-water mixture to prevent the spread of germs. Tackling chores like these will help make your bathroom feel brand new in no time.
Image Source: Getty Images
4. Switches & Handles
Light switches, door handles, drawer pulls, and knobs are all hotbeds for germs and dirt and can easily be forgotten while cleaning your home. Take a two-step approach to cleaning these high-touch surfaces: first clean, then disinfect. Cleaning will get rid of contaminants, while disinfecting targets pathogens. The combination of the two will help make your home feel cleaner while reducing the spread of germs. Other high-touch surfaces such as keyboards, phones, tablets, and other devices require regular cleaning as well.
5. Appliances
It’s easy to think of your appliances strictly as devices that help your home stay clean and organized, but they are magnets for dirt and gunk, too. After cleaning out the refrigerator and scrubbing down the shelves, find the coils and clean them of debris with a vacuum or a brush. The floor underneath your refrigerator can be a seriously grimy spot, so a quick mop of that area is worth your while. Give your dishwasher a good cleanse to prevent mold buildup and bad odors. Remember to clean out the filter occasionally with soap and water. Cleaning your appliances routinely can help avoid repairs and can even extend their life expectancy.
6. Baseboards
Baseboards are the perfect settling point for dirt and dust. The space between your walls and floors is an easy trap for buildup, and upon closer inspection, you’ll find some combination of scuffs, dust, food remnants and scratch marks. To thoroughly clean your baseboards, you may need to move your furniture away from the walls but be careful not to scratch the floor or damage the baseboards. Wipe away the dust before cleaning the surface. Use either a mix of soap and water, water and vinegar, or the proper wood cleaner for wooden baseboards.
For more information on cleaning your home, seasonal maintenance, and more, visit the Living section of our blog.
What’s That Smell?! What to do When Your Home Stinks
Getting to the bottom of a bad stink is important as it may indicate a larger problem inside the home.
Here’s Your Spring Maintenance Checklist
Now that spring has sprung, let’s clear the cobwebs and get your home ready! Here is our quick guide to spring home maintenance:
Indoor Air Quality Basics
Luckily, there are many ways to reduce indoor air pollution. We all know that buying organic and natural home materials and cleaning supplies can improve the air quality in our homes, but there are several other measures you can take as well.
