When spring comes, it’s time for beautiful flowers, warmer weather, and, of course, some spring cleaning. For many people, seasonal cleaning means throwing away some of the clothes and other items you no longer wear and donating them to charity. However, it can be more intense as some parts of your home need additional care or upgrading. The amount of time you invest in maintaining your home will have a direct impact on how much you enjoy spending time there! Here are some parts of your home that you should clean or repair for spring.
Honor Your Deceased Loved Ones
Death is a part of life, therefore, you likely have many loved ones whose memories you carry on. One of the ways people honor the passing of loved ones is with a granite gravestone marker. Whether your family member is buried in a traditional cemetery or family plot on your private property, make sure you keep these grave markers clean. While granite is one of the hardest and most durable materials on the planet, it could collect dirt or grime on its surface when you don’t tend to it. So if your family member or beloved family pet has such a gravestone marker, do what you can to keep it clean. Keeping it clean mainly involves wiping down the surface and pulling up any weeds that may start to gather around the area. Then, you can feel more confident putting down flowers regularly.
Renovate Your Bathrooms
The bathroom is one of the most, if not the most, used rooms in any home. After all, anyone who lives in your house has to use the bathroom several times daily. The more people who live in that home or visit it, the more used your bathrooms will be. That’s why you must keep your bathroom clean and make it a major part of your spring cleaning duties. Over the past few months, your regular bathroom cleaning may not have gotten rid of grime buildup in some of the grout. So now’s the time to take a toothbrush or other scrubbing tool and put in some elbow grease to get rid of any built-up grime or mildew. If you have vents in your bathroom, you should also check them for dust buildup to ensure they can still effectively do their job when you need ventilation.
In addition to spring cleaning your bathrooms, you should consider some long-overdue renovations. After all, bathroom renovation is the second most popular type of renovation American homeowners do. Considering the necessary and luxurious functionality that bathrooms provide, it’s no shock that it can be a renovator’s dream. Since you must wash daily, you should ensure your showers and baths are as comfortable as possible. Why not get rid of that bath and shower combination and separate them? Then, you can enhance both of them separately. What better time than to extend your shower tiles from the top to the floor where the tub used to be? You can replace all of the existing tiles with a new design. A bathroom renovator can also use that area to give you additional storage with built-in shelves in the shower walls. It’s also the perfect time for custom glass shower doors. These shower doors can be completely transparent, frosted, or mosaic. The shower doors may also be half static or ones that move on a hinge, accordion, or sliding mechanism, based on your preference.
Upgrade Your Decks
Decks and patios continue to be popular with American homeowners. If you already have a deck, you can improve it by cleaning and staining it. If you have a deck made from wood, check it for signs of mold or wood rot. After all, when wood is exposed to the elements without adequate protection, it can become worn down. The last thing you want is to step on a panel on your deck and fall through. Contact local deck contractors to inspect your deck and see if the wood is safe. If everything is okay, you can further enhance it by painting it. If you have a patio, you have more flexibility with materials, as a patio is flat on the ground. Therefore, it can often consist of cement, brick, stone, or a combination of those materials.
If you have a patio with weathering elements built up, you may want to hire a power washing professional with the materials to safely clean off that stone, cement, or brick pavement. Once your spaces are clean, it’s time to add upgrades like fire pits, better furniture, or custom railings. If you enjoy cooking, especially on the holidays, why not look into an outdoor kitchen space? More Americans have fallen in love with installing outdoor kitchens. It adds more value to the home, gives you extra space to cook, and makes it easier to cook outside, especially if you’re a fan of smokey or smelly foods like fish. Your outdoor kitchen upgrade can have the same amenities as an indoor kitchen. Have fun picking out countertops from granite or quartz, storage features, and decide on your cooking preferences. You can always have a stove and oven outdoors, but you may want to add a wood fire oven for custom pizzas.
Prevent Noise Pollution from Garages
Unfortunately, a malfunctioning garage can become a major source of noise pollution. If your garage door is constantly squeaking and creaking every time you open and close it, it can be a nuisance to anyone trying to sleep in your home. It can be just as much of a nuisance to your nearby neighbors. That excessive noise is a sign something is wrong with your garage door motor, and the problem may likely increase. You should also look out for your garage door operating at a slower level. It may eventually lead to your garage door stopping and not working at all. As a result, your car may get stuck inside, making it pretty hard to get to work without calling an Uber. Contact your local garage door contractor to check your garage door and ensure everything is fine. It may be an opportunity for you to install a new garage door, particularly if you redesigned other elements of your exterior. Then, you can have a new garage door from different materials that further add to your curb appeal. From wooden barn doors to customized metal, there are many ways to create a beautiful garage door that adds to your home’s aesthetic.
Avoid a Sewer Overflow
Your septic system is important, as it stores wastewater flowing from your toilets and drains. According to Bob Vila, you should have your septic tank pumped at least once every three to five years. If time is up for your septic pumping, schedule a septic professional immediately. Otherwise, you may see and smell signs that cleaning is overdue when poor smells come up through your drains. You may also hear loud gurgling noises when water goes down the drain. Toilets may stop flushing. You may notice excessively green patches on your drainage field, which may begin to smell and attract mosquitoes. Avoiding a sewer overflow is essential to always having functional toilets and drains, and preventing a nasty flood in your home that could ruin your surfaces. If your septic waste leaks into your soil, it can contaminate it and seep into your local water supply. That’s a lot of expensive work to clean up.
Clean the Air
Spring means warmer weather that eventually turns into hot summer weather. As a result, expect to start using your AC system more. You should get your HVAC system inspected at least once annually, but you may need more inspections if you use it a lot or are in a dusty area. Your local AC company should come in the spring to ensure that your unit is still functional enough to efficiently use throughout the summer months. After all, you don’t want to run the risk of having your AC shut down in the middle of a heat wave. According to the CDC, over 11,000 Americans have passed away from heat-related illnesses since 1979. Don’t become a statistic by not staying on top of your AC unit. In addition, an AC contractor inspection can ensure your filters are clean, and your duct system is free from mold, dirt, dust, contaminants, and allergens that you would breathe in whenever your unit is on. They can prevent your home air from becoming a dirty nuisance that’s not safe to breathe in. Breathing in poor air can cause respiratory disorders like asthma and lung infections. Keep the air inside your home as clean as you want the air outside by having timely inspections and repairs, or even consider a new installation before summer hits. A new AC from the Energy Star brand may help you save as much as 15% on your monthly energy bills.
Prevent Water Contamination
Water is an essential resource you must keep as clean as possible in your home since you don’t want to drink or bathe in contaminated water. That’s why efficient backflow testing and backflow replacement is essential as part of your spring cleaning. This plumbing service involves checking your back flow preventer device by assessing its pressure levels. Otherwise, clean water becomes contaminated when untreated or contaminated water is siphoned into it. Proper testing means you and your family can shower and drink in peace, without bacteria or viruses causing health concerns.
Get a Long-Lasting Roof
Don’t forget about your roof this spring. If you’ve noticed algae or moss growing on your roof, an inspection can check for wood rot beneath that organic growth. If the moisture has not created wood rot yet, you can still effectively remove that algae or moss growth with solid power washing. However, it may be time to call a residential roofer who specializes in materials like metal for a new installation upgrade. After all, a metal roof can last 40 to 70 years, as long as it’s well-installed, according to Bob Vila. You’d also have a home that can understand winds up to 140 miles per hour. A metal roof also adds energy efficiency to your space, as it naturally reflects heat, creating a cooler environment where you save on your HVAC usage.
Hire Junk Haulers
As you do your serious spring cleaning, you may realize you have more things to remove than you thought. If doing your own renovations, you may need to remove those older materials or want to throw out clothing that’s not good enough to give away, you may need a reliable dumpster rental. Professional dumpster rental is essential for these big seasonal cleanups. After all, your municipal garbage pickup comes once or twice a week, but may not be able to handle the full load you have. So make things easy on yourself and a local garbage pick-up by hiring a professional rental just for your cleaning out. After all, once you finish your cleaning, they can come and pick up your container and dump it whenever you need. You can keep renting the container for as long as you need. Such a clean-out may go on for several days or weeks until you’re done.
Prepare for Winter Heating
Don’t forget winter will be back before you know it. The warmer months are a perfect time to prepare the home for when it cools down again. Contact your local boiler repair services, so you can have a working heating system for propane fuel. That way, there won’t be any lull during the next seasonal change, and you can always ensure your home is as warm in winter as cool as it is in summer.
As you can see, there are several steps to take when cleaning and repairing your home for spring. Spring is a time of rebirth and nature, as you’ll see in your gardens and landscapes. You can have the same rebirth inside your home by cleaning and upgrading the appropriate areas. Use this guide as a way to have a spring-ready home in 2024.