Give Your Home a Head Start on Fall

Key Takeaways

• Early fall is a good time to tackle maintenance before colder weather arrives.
• Small efficiency improvements can help keep your home more comfortable.
• Heating systems should receive regular maintenance.
• A short seasonal checklist can prevent important tasks from being forgotten.

Main Article

September often brings the first hint of cooler weather, making it an ideal time to prepare your home for the months ahead. Taking care of a few maintenance tasks now can help keep your house comfortable and reduce the chance that you’ll discover a problem on the first truly cold day of the year.

Start with your heating system. Replace or clean filters as recommended, make sure vents aren’t blocked by furniture and consider scheduling annual maintenance for your furnace or heat pump. The U.S. Department of Energy recommends professional maintenance each year and notes that home heating can represent a significant portion of winter energy use. 

Next, walk around your home looking for small issues. Check doors and windows for drafts, inspect weatherstripping and look for exterior caulking that has cracked or deteriorated. Outdoors, clean gutters and downspouts, put away summer equipment you won’t need and make sure outdoor lighting is working as the days begin getting shorter.

There’s no need to tackle everything at once. Create a short list and complete one or two projects each weekend. A little preventative care in September may mean fewer surprises when temperatures fall—and more time to enjoy the season once it arrives.