As a homeowner, there is a seemingly endless to-do list of maintenance tasks that you need to get done. Many of these tasks don’t take too much time, yet, many homeowners (like me) can never get around to them. Having these jobs done can prevent costly repairs and devastating losses to your home and property. These are FIVE of the most important home maintenance tasks that you simply can’t neglect:

1) Every 3 Months: Change Furnace Filters:

Clogged filters make your furnace fan work overtime. This means higher heat bills and likely having to replace your furnace earlier than expected. Changing your filter is an easy  and fairly inexpensive way to improve the air quality of your home and save you a lot of money. It keeps money in your pocket, and keeps your family healthy.‍

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2) Every Six Months: Check Your Smoke Alarm  

Considering the danger of neglecting this one and how easy it is to do, checking your smoke detector is the biggest no-brainer on this list. For most alarms, just press and hold the ‘test’ button; it will beep if it’s working. If your smoke detectors have batteries, they should be changed once a year. Smoke detectors should be replaced every 10 years.

3) Every Spring: Clean Air Conditioner

Most a/c units are located outside. They suck in all the dirt, dust, leaves, and garbage that’s continually blowing around, yet the cold air blowing in your home on those hot summer days is nice and clean...where does all that debris go? The answer is the coil fins inside your unit. All that junk is hard on the machine (and it’s disgusting). But not to worry, it’s an easy fix: each spring, use a garden hose to gently rinse out the fins. Doing this simple task every Spring will keep your a/c humming for many years. 

4) Every Fall: Clean your Eavestroughs 

You may wish you owned a swimming pool...but probably not in your basement. Clearing out your eavestroughs every fall prevents water from overflowing and seeping into your basement. A word of warning on this one, if you’re going to do this yourself, it’s dangerous - very dangerous. If you’re going on the roof, get a safety harness. Better yet, invest  $40 and buy an extension wand for your hose that allows you to spray out your eavestroughs from the ground.

5) Every Two Years: Duct Cleaning and Furnace Service

Of these five tips, this is the only one that can’t be a DIY for most people. Fortunately, it also has to get done the least often. Cleaning your ducts and servicing your furnace every couple years will keep the air in your home clean, and prevent surprise breakdowns - and while some times may be not as bad as others, there is never a good time for a furnace breakdown. Personally, I think that as long as you strictly follow the first tip (regularly change the filter), you may be able stretch this to every three years, but if someone in your house has allergies, asthma, or other respiratory issues, stick to every two years. 

Let us make your To-Do list ‘Totally-Done’:

If you don’t have the time (or interest) in doing these things yourself, or if your days of standing on a chair to check smoke detectors, or climbing on the roof to clean eavestroughs are behind you, you have one of two choices: 

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1) Get your mother-in-law to do it (or your son-in-law).

2) Use the Omnee app and let us find a PRO to do it for you. 

With the Omnee app, we’ll do the work of finding good Service Providers for that task on your home to-do list, and they’ll give you a competitive quote, right in the free app. You just sit back and use the app to monitor it all from your couch, your office, or even the cabin.

Check it out at omnee.ca. it’s super easy, and you can conquer your home to-do list.