The home maintenance checklist: what to do, and how often

How to use this

Don't try to adopt all of it. Reading forty-three jobs in one sitting just makes you feel behind.

Pick the handful that apply to your house and would hurt most if skipped, get those onto a real schedule, and add to it over a year. The seasonal pages break the same list into what belongs in which months, and the system pages go deeper on one area at a time.

Every week

• Clean the humidifier, if one is running. Standing water grows mold and bacteria within days, and a humidifier distributes whatever is in its tank.
• Take the trash and recycling out, matched to your local pickup.

Every month

• Test the smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. The test button on each one. An alarm that won't sound needs attention.
• Test the GFCI outlets. Kitchen, bath, garage and outdoors. One that won't trip or won't reset needs an electrician.
• Check the garage door auto reverse. The door should reverse as soon as it meets an obstruction. One that doesn't is a serious hazard.
• Clean the garbage disposal. The smell lives under the splash guard rather than down the drain.
• Clean the range hood filters. Grease clogged filters push smoke back into the kitchen.
• Clean the dishwasher filter. Rinse it and run a cleaning cycle.
• Run the plumbing nobody uses. Seldom used fixtures dry out their traps, and a dry trap stops sealing.
• Clear out expired food from the pantry and the fridge, and wipe the shelves.

Every three months

• Check the fire extinguisher. Gauge in the green, pin and seal intact, no rust or dents.
• Inspect the HVAC filter. Every one to three months depending on filter type, pets and air quality, so look monthly and change when it's gray.
• Clean the air vents and registers. Vacuum the supply and return grilles and check for blockages.
• Check under the sinks and around the toilets for damp, staining or a swollen cabinet base.
• Clean and disinfect the trash bins, indoor and curbside.
• Book or do a pest inspection. Droppings, mud tubes and chewed insulation around the foundation, crawlspace and attic are the early signs.
• Feed the lawn during active growth, not dormancy, at the rate the product label gives.
• Test the sump pump, if you have one. Empty a five gallon bucket into the pit and watch it start, clear the water and shut itself off. Less than that often won't lift the float at all.
• Clear out one room's worth of things you don't use. One box, and into the car the same day.

Twice a year

• Replace the alarm batteries. The daylight saving weekends are the easiest anchor. Sealed ten year units have none to change.
• Clean the gutters and downspouts. Late spring and late fall, and more often under trees.
• Clean the bathroom exhaust fans. Vacuum the grille and the blades. Weak fans invite mold.
• Reverse the ceiling fans. Counterclockwise for summer, clockwise for winter.
• Replace the refrigerator water filter. Off tasting water or slow ice means it's spent.
• Clean the faucet aerators and showerheads. Soaking clears mineral buildup. More often with hard water.
• Inspect the attic. Roof leaks, pests, disturbed insulation, daylight where there shouldn't be any.

Once a year

• Service the heating and cooling system. Book off season, spring for cooling and fall for heat.
• Clean the dryer vent. Lint in the duct is a leading cause of dryer fires, and slow drying is the first sign.
• Vacuum the refrigerator coils. A fridge that never seems to rest is the sign.
• Flush the water heater. Sediment steals hot water and shortens the tank's life.
• Have the chimney and fireplace inspected, before the season's first fire. Sweeping is a certified sweep's job.
• Inspect the exterior paint and caulk. Trim, corners and windows are where water gets in, and the south and west faces weather fastest.
• Inspect the interior caulk and grout. Soft or missing caulk at tub and shower joints lets water into the wall behind the tile.
• Inspect the asphalt driveway. Water that gets into a crack and freezes is what turns it into a pothole.
• Check the incoming water pressure. A gauge on an outdoor faucet reads it in seconds. Persistently high pressure is hard on every valve, washer and supply line in the house.
• Look at the weatherstripping on exterior doors and windows. Once it has gone hard or flat it's costing you heating and cooling all year.
• Look at the water heater's relief valve discharge pipe. It should be dry and pointing down. A drip is a real signal.
• Trim vegetation back from the siding and roof. Branches against a building invite pests and moisture.
• Deep clean the carpets and rugs. Grit in the pile is what wears fibers down. Every six months with pets or children.
• Winterize the outdoor faucets, before the first hard freeze. Disconnect the hoses first.
• Winterize the sprinklers, before the first hard freeze. Blow outs use compressed air, so most owners use an irrigation service.
• Aerate the lawn while the grass is actively growing. Fall for cool season, spring for warm season, and call before you dig.
• Reseed the lawn. Early fall suits most cool season lawns, and the seed label gives timing and rate.
• Refresh the mulch in the garden beds, two to three inches, in spring.
• Prune the trees and shrubs. Late winter suits most species structurally, but spring flowering shrubs set their buds the year before.

Every few years

• Replace the washing machine hoses, roughly every three years. A failed hose can flood a room quickly, and bulges, cracks or rust at the fittings are the warning signs.
• Renew the hardwood floors, roughly every four years. If water beads on the surface the finish is doing its job. When it soaks in, the wood is exposed.

Another way through the same list

Why a list isn't a schedule

The list is the easy part. Every version of it on the internet is roughly this one, and having read it changes nothing, because the failure is never that somebody didn't know the gutters needed doing.

What makes it happen is something that counts forward from the day you last did a job and tells you only what's due now. That's what Patina does, and it's why the app shows you a day rather than a list of forty-three.