Preventative Home Maintenance Checklist

Preventative home maintenance checklist.

Preventative home maintenance checklist. A house may last for generations, but its parts and systems will only last a lifetime with regular attention. A roof can spring a leak, or a furnace can fail on a frigid winter night.

Create an annual preventative maintenance plan to prevent problems. Regularly checking your home's major systems can also help you avoid emerging crises.

The preventative home maintenance checklist below takes just a short time to perform and can help prevent hazardous conditions and expensive repairs. Tackle these tasks throughout the year to keep your home running smoothly.

Yearly Preventative Home Maintenance Checklist

Take advantage of sunny days to inspect your home's exterior. Yearly home maintenance tasks include:

Inspect and clean the roof, downspouts, and gutters, and repair if needed

Have your chimney inspected; clean it if needed

Have heating and cooling systems professionally serviced to keep them in tip-top working condition

Check the seals around your windows and doors inside your home and replace weatherstripping as needed.

This simple fix can make your home energy efficient. Now is also the time to check your home's flooring for wear and plan to refinish, repair, or replace it as needed.

Seasonal Preventative Home Maintenance Checklist

Seasonal preventative home maintenance checklist:

Check your home's masonry and stucco for surface cracks; seal and repair if needed

Clean or change furnace filters (do this monthly if you have pets)

Check the areas around your washing machine and dishwasher for leaks, and seal or repair as needed

Semi-Annual Preventative Home Maintenance Checklist Tasks

Caulk areas in your home that allow outside air in.

Twice-yearly tasks to tackle around your home:

Scrub away any mold or mildew on your home's exterior with a bleach-and-water solution.

Check for leaks in the attic, basement, and garage. Repair yourself or bring in a professional if needed.

Check caulking around tubs, showers, and sinks; replace it as needed.

Monthly Preventative Home Maintenance Checklist Tasks

Clean your home's exterior semi-annually.

Here are the essential preventative maintenance tasks to perform each month:

Clear your front walkway of surface debris, algae, snow, and other pedestrian hazards.

Test batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

Monthly Maintenance and Cleaning Checklists

Some tasks only need to be done once or twice a year. The problem is that we forget to do them once or twice a year. Otherwise, we tend to put them off until spring cleaning, which makes the chore so daunting that it never happens.

The best plan is to break annual and seasonal tasks down by month and tackle them daily or weekly. This way, everything gets backed up, and things eventually get done.

Concentrating on one room or area each month is more rewarding because you can see the results.

Here's the month-by-month home maintenance and cleaning schedule that works best for me. You can try it to help ensure it all gets done this year.