Vital Home Maintenance Tasks

You Should Do Annually!

Over the years of owning our home, in which we built from the ground up, we’ve learned so much from cleaning, maintaining and diy! So many important tips we have learned, that no one had told us, in the beginning. I thought I would share the knowledge we’ve learned and list the vital home maintenance tasks you should do annually! Doing these every year can save you thousands in repairs or having to buy new appliances. I feel, that if you are building a new home, every contractor should mention or put a list of these things together for you, but most of them dont. Read below the maintenance you should be doing each year!

Vital Home Maintenance Tasks You

Should Do Annually

1. Slide out your refrigerator and vacuum the coils on the backside.  We’ve been through our share of refrigerators, and what we have learned is that things just don’t last as long as they used to.  Parts are made cheaper and there aren’t as many repairmen working on them, causing you to have to buy a new one, sooner than you might have planned.  On the diagnosis of one of our refrigerators, a repairman had told us how important it is to do this each year.  If you don’t, the coils get clogged, blocking the airflow to the condenser, which can in turn cause it to stop cooling.   
2. Flushing out your water heater each year- doing this prevents a calcium buildup in it, which can cause you to have to buy a new water heater, sooner.  You’ll of course be in the middle of a nice hot shower and notice you just cant take as long of showers as you used to! Again, we found this out several years after we had built the house and my husband tried flushing ours out, only to find there was so much calcium build-up in the bottom that it literally stopped the flow of water going through it!
3. Change the air filters- This is something that needs done monthly, and for the life of us, we have trouble remembering to do! Here’s a tip: Set a reminder in your phone for the entire year, that way you’ll be on top of things!   
4. Clean your gutters and downspouts- Ahh mother nature! If your gutters and downspouts are building up or worse-clogged, they’re not going to work right on the next big rainstorm that blows through. Get your rear up on the ladder and make sure they’re cleared out.
5. Check the weather-stripping on your windows and doors- They wear out over time and any gaps in them can cause air to get through them.  You want your home to be as efficient as possible, so you aren’t paying more for air conditioning or heat. If you put your hand all around the seal of your doors or windows and notice a draft, its time to replace the weather-stripping, especially!
6. Pressure Wash your home- Everyone usually has a part of their home that is shaded and within a year’s time can cause mold build-up.  Ours does, every year and my husband will use bleach/water combo on it, making it a million times better afterwards! Mold is your enemy, it can spread like the plague. I recommend doing your driveway and sidewalks as well, it will shock you of just how bad they looked before you cleaned them!
7. Clean front-load washers and dryers- Yes, even the tools that clean our clothes, need a little TLC. All that water in your loads can cause build-up or mold, so it’s actually best to do a load of vinegar and baking soda every month and set it on the hottest cycle possible. Once that is finished, wipe down the rim, and inside the front door as well.  Its amazing of how mold can start growing inside there! Hopefully you are already cleaning out the dryer vent after every use, it’s also a good idea to take the duct off and check for blockages, plus vacuum in it, if possible
8. Re-caulk- What? I thought this was a once and done type thing!! NOPE- TMI- but until we noticed mold growing in our tile shower, and constant bleach treatments weren’t doing the trick, a contractor told us that we needed to be stripping out the grout and re-caulk it, periodically, replacing it with new. WHO KNEW!!!
9. Have your heating & air conditioning unit maintained annually by a professional- if you don’t, you can bet your rear it’ll go out on that 100 degree day or the day the snow blizzard hits! One wintery evening, ours went out because of a bird nest that we weren’t aware of! 
10. Clean your disposal & dishwasher- Again, don’t wait to do this annually, but a little vinegar and baking soda do wonders for cleaning and getting rid of bad smells! Sometimes I will set a cup of vinegar in the dishwasher, because it not only cleans the inside of it, but it leaves my dishes sparkling with no water spots on them! I will also sprinkle a few drops of lemon essential oil in the spot where your detergent goes.  That will also leave your dishes spot-free! A little hack I learned once!
11. Test your sump pump- Again, one of those things you might say “who knew”!!! You’ve heard it before, friends or family go away for the weekend and come back to a flooded basement, causing an enormous disaster, and a lot wasted time, when it might have been preventable. Make sure your pump has a vertical float switch, also check it a couple of times a year to make sure its working properly and dump a bucket of water down the basin.
12. Lube your garage door springs- After one garage door repair, yet again, the repairman told us we need to be doing regular maintenance on ours. Lube the rollers, hinges and track each year.
13. Patch & Seal your Driveway-Sealing it can prevent cracks and chips in the pavement that salt and weather fluctuations can cause
14. Insulate exposed pipes- Doing this in the winter can prevent pipes from busting, causing a slew of problems!
15. Get a Carbon Monoxide Detector- make sure the batteries are working!

Vital Home Maintenance Tasks

You Should Do Annually

Don’t wait for harsh weather to hit.  Do yourself a favor and implement all of these annual maintenance tasks! It can save quite a headache and extra costs that you don’t want.