Fall Home Maintenance Checklist

Fall is in the air, and it’s time to start thinking about what you should be doing for your home this season. I’m sharing a quick home maintenance checklist for the fall season to keep you on track! This post is sponsored by Blueair, but all opinions are 100% mine. Thanks for supporting the brands that support Love & Renovations! 

I think it would be an understatement to say that I am not an expert when it comes to home maintenance. I feel like Corey and I kind of bumble along most of the time and make things up as we go.

That’s how all adults are doing things, right?

At least, that’s what I tell myself to stave off the panic attacks about my inadequacies as a grown-up.

I mean, I’m really good at creating a cozy home, making my house feel more hygge, and creating adorable fall decor. But home maintenance? Not so much.

Anyhow, when Blueair reached out to me about writing a post about their air filtration systems, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to do a bit of research and brush up on my fall home maintenance musts. Some of these things I was already doing each year, but some are new to me (whoops!). You know I love to share my knowledge, so I put together a quick home maintenance checklist of things you should do each fall to maintain your home and to keep everything in good working order.

This is by no means a comprehensive list – it will probably vary a bit depending on where you live (for example, here in Texas where the weather is mild throughout the winter, there’s a lot less prep work that we need to do), so be sure to know your area and what’s important for where you live. I rounded up what I believe are the top 10 things you should do each fall to maintain your home – if you do nothing else, check these off your list and you’ll probably be okay.

Fall Home Maintenance Checklist

• Do a quick inspection of your roof and siding. Now’s the time to check for missing shingles on your roof, leaky siding, or anything else that could cause major issues come winter. If it’s too difficult to climb on top of the roof, just use a ladder and some binoculars to give everything a good once-over. Check for cracks, missing shingles, or anything else that appears to be a red flag for larger issues.
• Clean your gutters. While you’re up there, go ahead and check out your gutters and make sure they’re clear of leaves and debris, are flowing freely, and function as they should. If your gutters get clogged it can mess with the exterior of your house (and cause some of those problems we were checking for in the first tip), and nobody wants that.

• Consider an air purifier. I don’t know about where you live, but the allergens in Central Texas are rough, y’all. Every fall like clockwork we become sniffling, sneezing hot messes and I’m tempted to just caulk all of my doors and windows closed and never leave again. We recently got the chance to try out these Blueair air purifier systems from Home Depot and now we have one in both our bedroom and Jackson’s. It could just be in my head, but I already feel like I’m sleeping a bit more restfully and the air in our bedrooms just feels cleaner. Blueair purifiers remove things like pet dander, dust mites, and odors in the home, and you can even use them when you’re painting to help with some of those nasty VOCs and paint smells. We’ve had an air purifier in our room for a while, but our old one was way too small for our room, and it was ugly. With my Blueair purifier, I can change out the fabric pre-filter on the outside so it matches our room (I’ve got the black covers on right now, but there are tons of options), and it’s well-designed so it doesn’t look terrible. I also love that they aren’t too noisy, but I find that they provide the perfect amount of white noise to lull me right to sleep at night. Getting rid of all of those airborne particles that are messing with your allergies can help everyone in your house feel better this fall!

• Do some quick pruning in your yard. Since your trees are about to go dormant for the winter season, it’s a good time to trim off any dead growth and get them looking nice for the winter. Goodness knows this is something Corey and I have never been great about keeping up with, but since we’re getting ready to move our trees are all in tip-top shape this fall! Maybe we’ll be better in the next house?
• Have your fireplace cleaned. I know. You don’t wanna. It’s annoying. But if you use your fireplace, you’ve got to have it checked and cleaned on the regular. It’s smart to have it inspected and cleaned every fall, but at the very least do some cleanup so it’s not a total mess when you go to light your first fire of the season.

• Check the batteries on all of your smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors. You want to make sure these are always in good working order, and when you’re already taking care of some other fall home maintenance, it’s a good idea to go ahead and give these a once-over to make sure they’re working. Replace any batteries that need to be replaced, and test the detectors.
• Rake those leaves! Listen, I know a yard full of freshly-fallen, brightly colored fall leaves is just so pretty. But don’t leave them there all season. I have made this mistake before (don’t laugh at me), and when you actually get around to raking the leaves up, it’s a giant mess, half your grass is dead, and you’ll be cursing yourself the entire time. Save yourself the headache and just take care of it a few times throughout the season. Bonus points if you make a big pile and let your kids jump in it (or, you know, jump in it yourself)
• Clean and (possibly) cover patio furniture. Here in Texas we really don’t need to cover up our furniture – it’s entirely possible that it’ll be warm enough for us to eat Christmas dinner alfresco. However, in most regions, you’ll need to cover your patio furniture or store it in the garage. One thing everyone should do, though, is a quick walk-through of your backyard (and front yard) to clean everything off, make sure nothing is damaged, and just prepare it to be used a little less.

• Re-caulk your windows and bathrooms. Now is a good time to check for any drafty windows and add some fresh caulk around the windows if necessary. It’s also a great idea to check your bathrooms and kitchen to make sure the caulk around your bathtubs, counters, and sinks is looking fresh. I’ve been working on this as I’ve prepared the house to be put on the market and have realized I probably should have been checking it more regularly! I definitely needed some fresh caulk in our bathrooms, and it’s looking a lot better now.
• Do a general cleanup. I feel like right when the craziness of summer is over, it’s a really good time to just do some general cleanup to the most hardworking areas of your home. Organize your garage or workshop, remove any dead plants from your yard, and maybe even give your home a good powerwash. It will make a big difference if you set aside specific times to take care of these little tasks each year, and you’ll be glad you did!

As we’ve been getting ready to sell our house over the last few weeks I’ve learned that these tiny little things that are not fun or exciting to do really do make a huge difference in how clean and updated your home feels. As you saw at the beginning of this post, I made a quick little checklist for reference – I tend to do a lot better keeping up with these sorts of things if I have a visual! Feel free to print it out and stick it on your fridge if it helps. I might just tape mine to the mirror so I can see it every day and won’t have an excuse to forget half of it.

Kidding.

Kind of.

Be sure to check out Blueair at Home Depot if you’re looking for a good way to clean the air in your home. I’ve been really pleased with the two systems we have, and I really do believe in the importance of using something like this to help keep your air clean!