A New Home Buyers Annual Maintenance Checklist
Whether you’re a first time buyer or an experienced homeowner, moving into your new property is an exciting adventure. In order to keep your home spick and span throughout the seasons, it’s important to plan on how best to take care of the space, beyond the weekly clean.
Alongside the regular mopping and dusting, there are longer-term maintenance tasks that generally need to be done on a yearly basis. From defending it against changes in weather, to giving your appliances a fine-tuning, here’s our guide to keeping your home in great working order, and a place you’re proud to call home.
Spring
- Check your drainage: If you have any large trees nearby, check regularly for leaves piling up your gutters. With the blustery autumn months now over for another year, spring is the perfect season to scoop out the debris.
- Deep clean: It’s spring cleaning time, so safely move the sofas, bed and any other large furniture to get underneath and give the floor a hoover or mop down. This is also a good opportunity to wipe the underside of your furniture and, while there are no obstructions, give the windows a thorough clean – with the lighter days, streaks will show.
Summer
- Green fingers: It’s sunny and temperatures have begun to soar, so it’s time to make full use of your garden. Clean down the garden furniture, mow the lawn and trim any bushes and trees that are starting to grow out of control so you can really benefit from your outdoor space – think summer bbq parties.
- DIY: With the longer, drier days in summer, there’s no better time to get decorating and test out what colours work in your rooms against the natural light. During the winter months, tasks like painting and tiling can be arduous because the colder weather means drying times are slower.
Autumn
- Check the heating: If you haven’t already, now’s the time to check that your heating is in tip-top shape and each of your radiators are warming through correctly. If you don’t know how to work your thermostat, use the QR code that is printed onto the system.
- Outdoor taps: To avoid frozen pipes, try to leave some background heating on all the time. Although your pipework is well insulated, if you think the pipes may be frozen do not turn on hot water taps as this will empty the hot water tank. During frosty weather in particular, make sure the stopcock to any outside taps are shut off.
Winter
- Maintain your paths: Keep moss away from any paths or paved areas around your house with a pressure washer or putty knife.
- Decorate with lights: During winter, the days are much shorter and this can have a big effect on our mood, so brighten up your home by fitting or fixing your exterior lighting. If you already have a wooden wall trellis in your garden, drape some dainty LED lights over the front – you’ll have a magical winter wonderland right outside your door. Installing a bright, automated security light near your front door will also be useful to prevent any slips or trips when entering your home.
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