14 Home Maintenance tips to do at least once a year
Look around, do you feel something itching you? It is the fact that things are not working as smoothly as they used to and neither is the house looking like a new one. It is not anyone’s fault as things get worn out, but there are certain things you can do to keep them fresh and feel fresh with them.
- Clean Your window: Washing or cleaning your windows can be a dull and slow chore, so you must make sure to get it right in first go. There are certain points you can keep in mind while doing the chore. Try not to choose a Sunny day for cleaning your window because as soon as you apply cleaner on the window, it will dry out before you will get to wipe it. Make sure to clean the sills before cleaning the window because the liquid might make a mess with dirt from sill. You can use Microfibre cloths instead of paper for wiping the window dry; those clothes are washable and super absorbent.
- Pest Control: Pest control is about managing species known as a pest. These are animals who impact human life adversely; they can be damaging and dangerous for human life. There are methods to deal with them, some common methods are:
- Physical pest control (either trapping or killing rodents),
- Poisoned bait (method to control birds, mice, rats, ants, cockroaches, slugs, snails and many more),
- Fumigation (Treatment to kills pests by sealing or keeping in an airtight tent, filled with liquid insecticide, for pests like wood-boring beetles), and
- Sterilization (Method to reduce the population of insects by releasing sterile individuals.)
- Plumbing: Plumbing is needed in our house, but we usually ignore it because of our busy lives, but we must do it at least once a year. Some simple things that you can do are like Check your showerhead, and you can use thread tape for fixing the leak in your shower. You can check for your water heater and make sure that your thermostat is not set on too high and treat tight water pipe fitting by using heat on the water pipe (you can use just torch heat for few minutes to do the trick).
- Clean your chimneys: Kitchens get really messy and dirty making cleaning it thoroughly difficult, especially chimney. Cleaning chimney can be a very complicated task, and mostly we don’t know the perfect way to do so. But you can use dishwashing liquid to get the new look out of the chimney, or you can use baking soda, you can add baking soda with vinegar and salt and clean the fireplace with it. In case you cannot manage Baking soda then you can use vinegar alone to clean the chimney. For thick and stubborn grease and oil, you can use paint thinner to clean it or remove it from chimney.
- Check air filters: You can find your air filters near the furnace or air conditioning system. The air handler of your house would be a huge box with a fan motor and fan inside. The air handler sucks the air from the house and then return the air from cooling or heating system into the house. The air filter is located at the entry of the return duct into the air handler. You should check the check them and make sure they are excellent, and you can clean them for better performance. After cleaning you feel the change in air quality and temperature, and you would enjoy the new air cycle. For excellent solution do visit this best air conditioning company.
- Clean Refrigerator coils: If you are noticing the change in temperature as in it is not cooling like a new one, then you need to clean the coil. You have to make sure first that your refrigerator has the coil that can be cleaned by costumers. You might need to clean the coil more frequently if it is placed in a dusty place. You can find the condenser coil either under the refrigerator or at the back of it or on the top of it. Always make sure to unplug the refrigerator before cleaning it to avoid any chance of getting an electric shock.
- Cleaning the Gutters: Cleaning the gutters can be dirty and you might not be able to show it off, but it is crucial for the house as having a water-filled gutter can damage the roofing. You must consider cleaning the gutter twice a year. Make sure not to try to clean the gutter from the roof, it can be a perilous position to do so, and a ladder is the best option to use, but make sure of your safety on a ladder as well. We all know how risky ladder can be. Don’t try to reach a far place where it is tough to achieve as being on a ladder does not give you much space.
- Inspect Your Boiler: You should inspect and maintain the boiler in your house. While Inspection is legally important, maintenance is not. This work is recommended to be done by a technician, and even your energy supplier can get it done. It is a vital step for long life of the boiler, or else it might give up quite early. It is like humans exercising, as we exercise we lose unwanted extra calories so that we can live a healthy life, the same goes for your boiler.
- Check your toilet: You should at least check your toilet once a year for a leak and other issues. There is an easy way to check for leaking, take a dye or food coloring, then remove the tank lid and then drop the ten drops of coloring or one dye tablet into the tank, put the lead back and don’t flush. Now, after ten to fifteen minutes looking in the bowl and if you see the color in it, your toilet is leaking. Checking your toilet every once a year is crucial as it is one of the most vital commodity we need on a daily basis, we might be able to spend a day without a shower but without a toilet? I don’t think so.
- Check your locks: You should check your locks of the house at least once a year, even if your society is known for the no-crime society you should make sure to check the locks because we never know when first time might be. And Overtime locks might get tampered due to different weather or worn out resulting in a loose system, or some pest might have tampered with them. So, it is important to keep them in check over time; it would be better if you check them more than once over a year but make sure to do so at least once.
- Inspect the Exterior: You inspect your exterior of the house once a year. It is important to do since a house is a non-living thing and cannot take care of itself. It is something that protects you from different kinds of weather like rain, storm, heat and what not but who protects it? We must defend it or at least have it checked up once a year properly to see if everything is intact as it was or if something is wrong then right measures can be taken.
- Clear Dead Plants: If you have a garden, then you must have a schedule or habit of taking care of it and clearing dead plant from it. And if you don’t then you should start doing it every year for once, it keeps the place clean and does not let harmful insects, birds or reptiles to feed on them. Also, if there are dead plants near your house or on your walls of the house, then it is risky as it might catch fire easily. One fire and it can spread in your whole house, so it is better to clean them once a year and keep yourself safe.
- Inspect Roofing: It is better to get an inspection of roofing done twice a year but if you can’t, make it happen once. To check, you just have to keep a close eye while taking a round around the house looking for signs of damage or areas that have moss, leaves or algae, look around gutter too. Now, if you find even the minor problem around anywhere the house, make sure to work on it on the same day because being it small you might forget about it and then, it might grow into a big problem in later days.
- Deep Clean: Deep clean means basic cleaning with detailed focus. Cleanings like ceiling fans, light fixtures, cobwebs, window sills. Binds, moldings, baseboards, furniture, pictures, lamps, refrigerator, stove, tub, sinks, stairs, water baskets, mirrors, and floors with other things in your house, all you have to do is keep your eye focused for any thick and old stain and then use your firm hand. It is just basic cleaning but with the goal of getting your house look like new one. You should do it every year for once, it is difficult but worth the output.
Maintaining your house can be difficult, but if you do the listed things once a year, you will find that you don’t have to get stuck with unknown problems because you will be solving them at early stage every year. It might look a long list but it is better to get them done once every year than having to spend lots of your time and money later with bigger problems and keeping the check on your house will keep things fresh, and they will keep working like new ones.