Winter is in full swing in almost all of Pakistan. For most people, this means cosying up with your family and friends while enjoying a bonfire party at home. But for many homeowners, the change of weather also brings the need and urgency to prepare the house for the harsh winter season. There are plenty of ways to maintain your home in top condition during the cold weather.
Without further ado, let’s check out some of the best home maintenance tips for winter.
Best Home Maintenance Tips for Winter
Although this might not be a list of fun things to do, it contains some of the most important tasks for homeowners who want to protect their home from the winter chill.
- Insulate your windows
- Maintain stairs
- Ensure dust-free surroundings
- Drain the water heater/geyser
- Trim trees
- Inspect outdoor lighting
- Protect the condensing unit of the air-conditioner
- Insulate water pipes
- Insulate the roof
- Prep your garden for spring
Let’s discuss each one of them in detail.
Insulate your windows
Before the temperatures really start to drop, you must insulate your windows. It should be your top-most priority when prepping your house for the winters. Why? Because there is no other place in the house that allows heat to escape from the house more than the seemingly innocuous cracks in your windows.
When a cold draft creeps in from a small outlet in your window, it not only brings down the room’s temperature, but also saps the life out of your carved wooden furniture.
One of the best tips to maintain your house in winters is to block out all possible entry points for cold air. While there are plenty of ways to insulate your windows, you can use a simple rubber strip and stick it to the window frame. This is also an effective method to keep mosquitoes away.
Maintain stairs
This is a universal truth: If you fall or hurt yourself in the cold weather, the pain is ten times worse. Imagine if you fall or trip in your own house just because you didn’t fix that one problematic step at the right time. When the winter season starts, make sure to take a good look at your staircase – whether it is the front stairs or the stairs within your house – and fix all the possible errors.
A pro tip: Add skid-free mats to your stairs, especially if you have senior citizens or small children living with you. Apart from the trip hazards, the dry winter spell can crack your wooden staircase. Make sure to varnish it properly before the winter season starts.
Ensure dust-free home
Winter brings in dry, dusty air, which can accumulate in your house. If you want to prepare your house against the cold spell, make sure to have a dust-free environment. Roll out extra rugs and carpets. Keep them inside. Place a humidifier in the room to maintain humidity levels. Creating an allergy-free home is arguably one of the most underrated home maintenance tips for winter. Don’t miss this!
Drain the water heater/geyser
An important tip to follow when maintaining your house in winters is to drain out the excess water from your gas geyser. Switch off the geyser and drain out excess water. This will help in the proper functioning of your geyser. This simple practice will ensure a good supply of warm water the entire winter season.
Trim trees
If you have old trees in your garden or outside the house, make sure to cut out its heavy branches that are on the verge of falling. Or else, you will have to face an injury, if God forbid, the tree branch falls off during a storm or heavy rainfall.
Inspect outdoor lighting
Winter calls for shorter days and longer nights. This means there are less sunny hours. You need to make sure there is enough lighting both inside and outside the house. You don’t want to mess up your evenings in a dark, dreary spot in the house. Amp up your lighting to illuminate the surroundings in your house.
Protect the condensing unit of the air-conditioner
If you have an air conditioner, make sure to cover up its condensing unit. You need to simply wrap it up with a plastic sheet so that the weather change doesn’t affect the functioning of your air conditioner. It’s one of the simplest home maintenance tips for winter. So there’s no excuse for skipping this one.
Insulate water pipes
To avoid water pipes from freezing and cracking up in the winter season, make sure to insulate them properly. Wrap up the water pipes using Styrofoam and plastic sheets. This is an important precautionary measure to take before the temperatures dip too low.
Insulate your roof
Even if there is no snowfall, the cold air blowing on the roof can lower the temperature in your bedroom drastically. It is important, therefore, to insulate your roof beforehand. There are different types of insulation used in homes. Pick and choose any insulation that suits your needs and protect your roof from the cold winter spell.
Prepping your garden for the spring season
Some people think that winters are not a good time to do gardening. But they are wrong! Winters are the best time to prepare your garden for the upcoming spring season. From preparing the soil using fertilizers, planting seasonals like phlox and petunias to trimming down your trees, it is important to prepare your garden in the winter season.
So, these were some of the best winter home maintenance tips that you must follow to keep your house in top shape. If you have already ticked on most of the points shared in the winter home maintenance checklist above, then you can pat yourself on the back for being a good homeowner.
In case, you have missed out on any of the above-mentioned tips, now is perhaps a good time to implement these tips. For more informative posts, stay tuned to the best lifestyle blog in Pakistan. Don’t forget to write to us at blog@zameen.com.
