With the changing of the seasons comes certain tasks you do around your home and yard. For instance, in the spring you start caring for your lawn and planting flowers. As summer hits, you’re preparing and maintaining the pool and checking your AC. Now that we’ve shifted into fall, there are other things you need to do to prepare.
Everyone is familiar with the big projects: raking leaves, cleaning the gutters, checking the chimney, winterizing the pool. But what about some of the smaller tasks that are often overlooked?
- Turn off outdoor water sources. This means disconnecting and draining the hose from outdoor faucets and making sure they are tightly in the off position to avoid dripping water. Shut down and winterize your irrigation or sprinkler system as well. You don’t want water to freeze in the pipes and potentially burst.
- Move outdoor furniture inside. Yes, a lot of furniture is all-weather, but why leave it out in the elements to fade, mold, or potentially receive other damage from Mother Nature or animals? If you have the space, pull it into your garage or basement for safe keeping when not in use to extend its lifespan.
- Check your firewood. If you have a fireplace or woodburning stove, you’ve likely started stocking up for colder weather. Store your firewood up off the ground a few inches and away from your home. Check for termites, ticks, snakes, spiders, and other rodents. You don’t want to invite these critters inside with your wood!
- Fluff your mulch. Once you pull out any dead plants, flowers, or shrubs, run a rake through your mulch to break it up. It likely got tamped down during the summer, so fluffing it up can help protect remaining plants and improve water flow.
- Change your batteries. When you turn the clocks back, don’t forget to check or replace the batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. You should do this again in the spring as well.
- Switch your ceiling fans. You want your ceilings to run counterclockwise during the summer to pull heat up, but you want them to run clockwise during the winter to push heat down.
- Reset automatic lights. If you have programmable lights outside, don’t forget to adjust the time they come on and turn off as the days get shorter. You don’t want to find yourself coming home at night to a pitch-black yard because your lights were still set for summer daylight hours.
Don’t get caught off-guard by problems you could have prevented. Be vigilant about keeping your yard and home safe and looking their best. As your HOA prepares its own facilities for fall and eventually winter weather, take steps to do the same at your house. If your association needs help planning or coordinating activities and securing vendors, partner with a reputable property management company like Kuester. Contact us today to learn more!
