Home Maintenance Checklist for February
Following an annual maintenance routine helps homeowners avoid costly repairs, property damage, and keeps home a happy, healthy, and safe place for family and visitors alike.
February has us daydreaming of springtime, a return to longer days and warmer temps, and the promise of getting fresh air for reasons other than running to and from the car. But February can also present some of the harshest weather conditions and cause us to feel more blue than usual. We want to focus this month of home maintenance on the love – the love of family and the love of small projects, minor improvements, and little lifts.
We recommend revisiting the tasks on the November and December Home Maintenance checklists, which includes a lot of inclement weather prep for your home exterior. February will focus entirely on indoor tasks and outdoor planning.
This is the sixth month we’ve shared our Home Maintenance suggestions. We skipped January quite by accident and will fill in some of those gaps with February’s suggestions.
February’s Priority: Springtime Planning
In addition to the suggestions and reminders we’ve made here, we encourage you to focus on the fact that February is the shortest month, and the springtime will be here before you know it. That means your priority for February needs to be planning for spring.
Consider whatever major home renovations you’d like to accomplish this year and start calling in professionals to provide quotes. This is the time when General Contractors’ schedules for spring begin to fill up, so to make sure you get a variety of estimates and can work with the professional of your choice, make your appointments now.
If you intend to use a Home Equity Loan to achieve any major renovations, this is a great time to set an appointment with lenders as well.
February Inside Tasks
- Declutter and organize holiday décor as you’re storing decorations and other holiday items. Don’t be tempted to just throw everything in the attic or basement storage until next year. This is the perfect time to purge your collections, take stock of what you have and need, and make a list for next year. Holiday storage and other items are on sale at steep bargains at this time of year – take advantage of it!
- With February comes home sales, which means this is the time to replace worn out towels, sheets, and other linens. You’ll find major sales this month on those things, as well as sales on TVs, appliances, mattresses, and other furniture.
- Deep clean the kitchen. Safely move your big appliances and clean underneath. Better to do this in the cold when insects aren’t attracted to whatever has accidentally accumulated. Check your kitchen floor and backsplash for loose tiles and regrout as needed to seal around the edges. Systematically empty and clean out all food storage bins and containers, including whatever is in the fridge.
We suggest lining your kitchen shelving with removable contact paper to make cleaning easier in the future. - Inspect the attic for air and water leaks. When snow falls on the roof, you can easily see where heat is escaping your home by seeing where the snow melts on the roof first. You don’t have to wait until snow, however, to ensure that your attic is dry and fully insulated. There should be no cool breeze or damp spots – just use caution when you’re walking around on the joists. While you’re up there, look for evidence of pests and vermin, like droppings, nesting material, or loose or chewed wiring. Call a professional if you find any of these things.
- Paint and touch up the trim and baseboards around the house. Look especially in high traffic areas that may have gotten worn down with winter wear and tear.
This is NOT the time to do full room remodels, which require good ventilation for safely applying paint. You can however, take stock of what rooms you’d like to paint once the warmer weather strikes. - Finally, this is a great time to organize and investigate other aspects of your home. What assurances do you have in your homeowner’s insurance policy? What about your car insurance? Do you have a system of paying bills that works for you and your family? Do you have a system for receiving, sorting, and shredding snail mail? Take the time to analyze where there may be pain points that could stand improvement.
Outside Tasks
- The first outside task requires you to walk the property and note any dead branches that need to be pruned before the thaw. Do your research though – some plants prefer to be pruned in the frost, while others can be more safely pruned back in the warming months, and others in the early fall. Remove any branches that have broken in the winter storms and are causing a safety hazard to your roof or walkways.
- Plan your spring garden and create a landscape calendar for your intended lawn maintenance. It’s a good time to call your professional landscapers and ask for estimates now on their spring services.
- If your tools are located in an easily accessible place, organize your toolboxes and garden tools. Take an inventory of what supplies you may need for springtime. The worst time to organize tools is when you need to use them, so the slow season presents a great opportunity for you to get ahead of the game and get organized now.
- It’s also a great time to order summer-blooming bulbs and seeds for early spring planting. Once you’ve planned your landscape, you can then sit back in your warm and cozy home and place your orders.
- With outdoor time limited and the holidays well behind us, you’ll be spending a lot more time in your home and likely online. February is a great month to think about unusual clean-up chores, and security tasks, like updating your online passwords and cleaning up your hard drives. Update the software on your devices to make sure everything is following the proper security protocols. You can never be too careful when it comes to online security, especially as a homeowner.
Final Thought
Consider investing in a password manager to better manage your devices and apps across those devices. It’s worth the time and effort to do so. If you’re using the same password across apps and devices, you’re putting all of your accounts at risk. But no one can or wants to remember the umpteen number of passwords we need to function in our modern society. A password manager helps eliminate this strain while keeping you and your family protected.
You may be interested in:
