Preparing Your Home for Spring Weather

Springtime is the perfect time for starts and new beginnings. One of the best ways that you can go about getting a good start on things is by preparing your home for spring weather. Not only will this help reduce any potential problems down the line, it will also give you a chance to identify any improvements that may need to be made. Here are a few guidelines that you can use to ensure your home is ready to face the warmer spring weather.

• Inspect your home's exterior. Take a good hard look at the exterior of your home. In fact, look it over from top to bottom, from the chimney on the roof all the way down to your foundation. Look to see if there are any noticeable cracks, wear, tear, or other damage on all exterior surfaces of your home. If you come across anything that even looks the slightest bit funny to you, make a note of it and either repair it at your first chance or have a professional come and take a look at it to give you a second opinion.
• Look at your HVAC. The change of the weather is the perfect time to do a little bit of maintenance on the heating and cooling system of your home. Check to make sure that your air filters are clean, still good, or replaced as needed. If you haven't done preventative maintenance on your HVAC system recently (i.e., within the past six months) then do so now. This simple preventative maintenance measure can potentially save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars later on.
• Do some cleaning and organizing. This is also the perfect time to do your annual spring-cleaning of the interior of your home. As you are cleaning, repeat the inspection process that you did on the exterior of your home on the interior. Also, if necessary take the time to do some organizing, as cleaning and organizing usually go hand in hand.
• Check your equipment. Do a thorough inspection of your gardening and landscaping equipment. Make sure that everything is in good working order, and if necessary do some maintenance work on it. At the very least you need to get any power tools that you have (such as your lawn mower, chainsaws, and similar tools) in to be serviced, sharpened, and tuned up.
• Work on your lawn. Remove any and all winterizing tools, gadgets, and gizmos that you may have used to protect your sprinkler systems. Purge any air that may be in it, and prepare it for use. This is also the perfect time to do repair work on any damaged areas on our lawn, as well as applying fertilizer and preventative herbicides.