10 Post-Holiday Home Maintenance Tips

After holiday festivities, many of us conclude our “winter home maintenance” with removing decorations and lighting. But January is usually a good, quiet time to take care of other household maintenance tasks as well. Consider my 10 post-holiday household tips…

1. When packing up holiday decorations, make sure to color-label your boxes before putting them into storage so you can find them more easily next year. You may decide to use colors for inside/outside, family members, or priorities of importance.

2. After cleaning out your closets to make room for Santa’s bounty, share what you don’t need anymore with the less fortunate. Donate!

3. Be sure to clean your holiday linens before putting them away until next year. Likewise for your festive dinnerware/serveware. Use cardboard between dishes to avoid chipping.

4. Scoop up all the decorative pillows, afghans, throws, etc., and launder them or send them to the cleaners. Steamclean carpeting.

5. Holiday get-togethers usually mean germs on solid surfaces – and these can live on surfaces a long time. Be sure to sanitize hard surfaces such as counters, telephones, laptop computers,remote controls, etc. (especially during the cold and flu season).

6. Organize your home improvement files. Review warranties and product manuals to check on recommended maintenance for furnaces, equipment, appliances and tools. Mark your calendar to track scheduled upkeep, service and monthly filter changes.

7. Inspect furniture, cabinets and vanities for loose knobs, pulls and hinges. Lubricate squeaky door hinges with lightweight machine oil.

8. Fix squeaks in your floors and stairs by applying weight to the area and driving a galvanized finish nail through the flooring into a floor joist or stringer.

9. Check/add salt to your water softener.

10. Unless you use daylight savings time as your reminder, now might be a good time to check smoke and fire alarms; replace batteries; and check fire extinguishers.

Homeowners, take a breather now because my next maintenance post will send you outside this Spring for tougher checks and repairs!

What tips do you have to add to my January home maintenance list? Please leave them in the comments below!

And if you have any questions about home design or about selling or buying a home in metro Albuquerque, be sure to contact me today!