As October sets in, so does the time to prepare your house for the winter months. Home care can be a bit overwhelming, especially to a first-time homeowner. There is a lot to do in order to prepare your house for the winter months.
I was fortunate because my parents were nearby to help show me the ropes.
The key I found when I found myself to be the sole caretaker for my home was to make lists and take notes on what to do.
This process breaks it down into small, manageable steps to take so your home is fully prepared for winter.
Here is a list of 14 easy ways to prepare your house for those cold winter months:
Final Fertilizer Treatment
If you are taking care of your own lawn care, now is the time to apply your final fertilizer treatment. This last treatment of the season typically takes place in the late October/early November timeframe, before the first freeze has set in.
When we first put in our lawn, our landscaper told us there was no need to purchase a special winterizer treatment. He said there was typically an upcharge for the product, but it was pretty much the same thing.
Here is a link to the fertilizer we typically use on our lawn.
Yard Cleanup
Fall is a big time for yard cleanup. Leaves need to be raked. Shrubs, bushes, and annual flowers need to be trimmed and pruned.
Certain types of coniferous plants should be wrapped in burlap so the cold winter air doesn’t cause them to lose all their needles. This is especially important for younger plants or those plants that will get hit by strong winds over the winter.
Put Away Summer Yard Items
Certain summer yard items should be put away for the winter, so the cold, snow and ice doesn’t damage them.
If you have any hoses around the yard, you should drain them and bring them inside. This also goes for anything else that might freeze, such as glass birdbaths, or other yard decorations.
Patio furniture should also be brought inside if you want to keep it in good shape. Glass tables, chairs and other furniture can be brought inside or placed under overhangs to prevent them from being covered in snow and harmed by other winter weather.
Clean Gutters
Cleaning out gutters and downspouts is another important step. Over the course of the summer and fall, leaves and branches can gather in gutters and cause them to clog.
Clogged gutters and downspouts can lead to ice dams during the winter months if they aren’t cleaned out.
Ice dams look dangerous, causing many icicles to hang off the roof, so safely get on your ladder and check out those gutters for clogs this fall.
Clean-Up Lawnmower
At the end of the season, it is important to clean up your lawnmower to keep it running well for a long time. This includes cleaning grass off the blades and washing the mower deck.
If you choose to, you can also use certain products, such as a fuel stabilizer, to stabilize gas through the winter months if you choose to not siphon the gas out of the mower.
Heater Maintenance Check
Experts recommend having your heater checked once and tuned up once a year to make sure it will continue to run smoothly through the winter. They can check things like the drainage system, vents, the intake system, and different parts of the motor and combustion system.
In conjunction with this one, you should also check your external vents for your heater and dryer. Make sure the vents are clear and not blocked by anything on the outside of the house.
Storm Windows/Doors
Depending on the age of the house, your house may have storm windows. In the fall, the screens should be removed from the windows, and then the storm windows are put on in place of the screen for the winter months.
The same goes for storm doors. At our house, we have a storm door on our front door. In the summer months, we have the screen on it and in autumn, we switch it over to a glass storm door.
Storm windows and doors help insulate the house in the winter. They also keep the snow away from the inner window and door, which can help prevent ice buildup around the edges.
External Water Shut Offs
External water spouts should have their water turned off in the fall. There are some kinds of water spouts that are built to not need this shut off, but personally, I feel better with them shut off.
This keeps the pipes from freezing and exploding in the winter months. This is super easy to do, as long as you know where the water shut-offs are.
Ours are right below where each of our outdoor faucets are located in the basement. There is a simple valve and all you need to do is to turn it the other direction to shut the water off.
Air Conditioning Unit
Some people like to protect their air conditioning units from the winter elements. If you do choose to do this, only the top of the unit needs to be covered.
Covering the top of the air conditioning unit may help to provide protection for the coils inside the unit. Here is a good article that discusses the merits of covering the air conditioning unit for the winter months.
However, if you cover the entire unit, it may cause issues with moisture buildup (leading to mold) or attract rodents with it being a prime location for making nests during the winter months.
Here is an example of an air conditioning cover that would meet this requirement.
Cover Your Windows
Again, this one probably applies mostly to older homes. If your windows are a little drafty and you want to keep more of your heat inside the house during the winter months, you can cover your windows with plastic to achieve this.
Humidifier
Running the heater all winter long can really dry the air out. For this purpose, people may have humidifiers in their house.
You should get your humidifier ready when you are running your heat regularly. For some people, this might entail just getting the portable humidifier out and filling it with water.
Others, like me, might have a whole-house humidifier attached right to their furnace. For whole-house humidifiers, you should insert a new filter for the year and check the drain hose to make sure it isn’t plugged.
Then just turn it on for the season and you are all ready for the winter months.
Winter Tools
Fall is the time to get all of your winter tools out of storage and put them in an easily accessible place. This can include shovels, ice scrapers, snow rakes, salt, and any other tools you like to have on hand.
For those of you who may not know, snow rakes are used to remove snow off your roof. This can help prevent ice dams on the roof and remove the weight of the snow off the roof.
If you don’t have these tools for winter, it is good to buy them before the first big snowfall, so you are prepared while everyone else may be running out to purchase items at the same time (think Covid and toilet paper but to a lesser extent).
Snow Blower Preparedness
While this could have been included as part of the winter tools, I broke it out because it involves a little bit more effort to prepare it for the season.
Ideally, before the first big snowfall, pull your snowblower out of storage. You’ll want to change the oil, check the spark plugs, put some fresh gas into it, and make sure it starts.
There is nothing worse than not checking your snowblower early in the season and then being forced to shovel that first snowfall because the snowblower won’t start.
Sometimes when I was still living at home my dad would put off checking on the snowblower until after hunting season was over. Normally, this wouldn’t seem quite so bad since we don’t have a ton of snow in November here in Wisconsin. But, every once in awhile, we get that early year snowstorm.
That left my mom frazzled trying to troubleshoot problems trying to get the snowblower to work herself. I remember several intense phone conversations between the two of them as he tried to walk her through everything to check. It is best to get the snowblower running early on.
Bonus Tip: Caulking
This is a bonus tip that I’ve included here. Again, this is more for older homes, but it should be considered early on in the season, while the weather is still nice.
Some people suggest that if you have visible cracks between your window and door panes, you should caulk them.
If you choose to do this, make sure you read the instructions on the caulking to verify that you caulking with the right conditions. Some caulks can only be used within a range of temperatures and depending on the cure time, the temperature at night may be too cold for the caulk to be effective.
Get Started
Making sure that your home is well cared for will allow it to provide you with a safe and comfy place to live for even longer.
Now that you have the knowledge on how to prepare your home for winter, go out there and get started!
Enjoy that fall weather while you can before even colder temperatures set in. But once you’ve gone through this list, you won’t have to worry about those cold temperatures so much, because you’ve taken the proper precautions.
We all know there is no better feeling than marking something off your to-do list, right?!
Good luck with your fall home maintenance and see you in the next post!
If you’d like, you can grab for my quick Fall Home Maintenance Checklist below to mark off each item as you complete it.
