There is far more to home ownership, than merely living there and paying the necessary bills. One must enter into this situation with an open mind, in order to protect what for most people, is their single largest financial asset. Nevertheless, we often witness homeowners forgetting essential maintenance, repairs, and other seemingly common necessities and actions, which can easily be solved by this underrated tool. This blog will briefly examine the importance of creating a checklist when taking care of a home.

The idea of checklists may seem tedious and boring, but by regularly implementing a structured routine, you will find yourself accomplishing much more in quicker time. This practice can save your home from countless problems, and can free yourself from potential headaches. Having a basic framework of what needs to be done will make it easier to pinpoint any problems before they occur, as well as improving efficiency and minimizing mistakes.

Not only will checklists show what needs to be done, they will help you remember when those tasks should be completed. Trying to remember everything at once will often lead to forgetfulness which is counterintuitive when taking care of houses. Checklists will also enable you to remember the costs related to the tasks, such as repairs or buying tools.

Owning a home requires maturity, and a reliable approach. By creating checklists, you can potentially save yourself from the consequences of forgetting to complete a task. Remember that while homeowners must take care of their houses on a regular, focused, sensible basis, it is equally important to carefully plan out and list the tasks that need to be accomplished.

We have assembled a sample checklist broken down into monthly, quarterly, and annually items to complete. A lot of these items will vary according to the specifics of your home.

Monthly:

Inspect and Change out HVAC filters if needed

Clean the range hood and filter

Clean the garbage disposal

Clean the furnace filter and replace if needed.

Check the outside of your home for any problems or issues. These could be a loose gutter, dead branches hanging over your house, insect nests, etc

Quarterly:

Test smoke and carbon detectors

Flush toilet(s) if you have ones that are being rarely used

Inspect your fire extinguisher(s)

Clean and dust everything in your home

Annually:

Clean out gutters