After a long, cold winter, your home can be a mess and you may not even realize it. Pets tend to stay indoors more in the winter, so there may be pet odors and hair accumulate on your rugs and furniture. Things can get dusty, too. Once you open your doors and windows to let the spring air and sunshine inside, you’ll notice a layer of dust all over your beautiful things. Thorough cleaning can be a real chore, there are many tips and tricks that can make it go faster and give you better results. If you need encouragement, just picture that nice fresh look, feel and smell that you’ll enjoy once your deep cleaning is complete.

You’re all settled into your home. You know all the strange night creaks, you have put your unique personality into it with your possessions and you love it. But, now you must maintain it. A home comes with great responsibility and some elbow grease. You need some tools to keep it in excellent condition. Here are some items you will want to include in your homeowner tool kit.

Autumn is here and before you hibernate there are still a few fall yard cleanup chores that must be carried out. Yes, you spent the whole summer outside pulling weeds, cleaning the deck and watering the flowers. You deserve a break, but your lawn needs to be properly put to bed and your home needs to be prepared for the upcoming winter and spring.

So roll up those sleeves one more time so you can witness your home blossom when the warm weather returns. Here are some helpful fall clean-up tips!

Maintaining your home on a regular basis is smart. If you catch a problem in the early stages, it is easier to correct it before it becomes a huge expense. For example, if you have a slow drip under your kitchen sink, a timely fix not only saves on your water bill, but it can prevent damage to the inner floor of the cabinet and the potential growth of mold. A checklist makes it easy to keep track of what needs to be done each month.

Winter lawn care probably sounds silly to some home owners. Why would you need to take care of your lawn in the winter when you can’t even see it most of the time? It’s a valid point, but it’s important to remember that lawn care does not cease in the winter. Your lawn requires care year-round and that includes the winter season.

‘Tis the season to be jolly. It’s also the season to make sure you are prepared for whatever the unforgiving winter has in store for you and your family. Winter weather preparedness and winter storm preparedness are key elements to the holiday season that we can forget about or overlook while we are busy shopping for loved ones and making travel arrangements. Being prepared for the worst of winter is always important. Winter storms can give us simple light snow for the kids to play in or they can turn into brutal blizzards that bring with them freezing rain and ice. Some storms and blizzards can affect several states at once.

Every winter in the United States, approximately 250,000 homes sustain damage from water pipes that freeze and break. Your home could lose up to 50% of its market value if this happens because once the pipes freeze and break, the water that leaks from them can destroy walls, floors and sub-floors. The good news is that there are some preventative measures you can take to keep your pipes from freezing.