*Today’s post was made possible by CrossCountry Mortgage. All opinions are my own.

Now that winter is upon us, let’s talk about all of the routine home maintenance chores that come along with it. Don’t worry! None of these tasks are too time-consuming, and you can take it easy crossing tasks off your list as the season progresses. When you happen to have a free morning or afternoon, pull up your notes and see what you can tackle in 30 minutes or less. You may just find that you’re able to get more done than you think! Or, if you’re like me and like to get things off your mind once and for all, you can definitely tackle all of these to-dos in one weekend. Keep scrolling for my suggested winter home maintenance checklist.

Winter Home Maintenance Checklist And Tips:

1. Rake leaves to keep your lawn looking healthy and green. We’ve been doing this a little at a time over the past few weeks, and our city crews just recently came and nicely sucked everything up for us curb-side. My husband finds that it’s easiest to “rake” by running his lawn mower over the leaf-strewn lawn. He drops the mower deck to its lowest setting, and doesn’t engage the blade, then uses that to push the leaves into piles. You’re essentially plowing the leaves into organized piles this way.

2. Clean gutters of built-up debris so you’re ready for winter storms. We don’t have too many trees around our property, especially not in the back yard, so we don’t have to clean the gutters very often along the back of our house. That said, we do have one behemoth of a tree in our front yard that clogs up our gutters, which can be a problem during snowy and icy weather later on. To clean them, we lean a ladder up against the gutters on the front of the house, and head up with a bucket and pair of gloves. Then, we pull all the debris out, filling the bucket, then move the ladder along the stretch until it’s done. Finally, we flush out the whole gutter with a water hose.

3. Remove lint buildup from dryer vents to prevent the risk of fire. John and I are sticklers about cleaning out dryer lint to ensure good air flow throughout the length of our laundry pipes. One thing I’d like to do that we still haven’t done this year is replace the flimsy plastic dryer vent cover that’s on the outside of the house. Having a good strong cover prevents rodents and bugs from crawling up into your system, and allows you to better clear lint buildup from the pipe periodically, too.

4. Schedule your annual chimney sweep and inspection. Sadly, our fireplace isn’t operable right now until we can save up to have pretty extensive repairs done to the chimney, but if you plan to use yours, make sure you get it checked over every year to ensure safe operation during the cold months of the year.

5. Stock up on firewood in the event of a power outage.We have a gas-powered generator that keeps our house in good working order during outages, but if you have a wood stove or wood-burning fireplace that can help supplement your heating during an emergency, always make sure you have a full supply of fuel on hand.

6. Replace smoke detector batteries, making note of the replacement date on the inside of the cover. I despise this task because I’m really sensitive to loud sounds and our detectors almost always seem to go off in my hand when replacing the batteries, but it’s a really important thing to do each year. And so easy, too. There’s no excuse to skip this one.

7. Check windows and doors for drafts, then fill with weather stripping, as needed. There’s a huge gap in our front door that I’ve been meaning to fill for ages, so I’m going to use this blog post as my motivation to get it done this weekend. Where could you stand to fill open air gaps throughout your house? It’ll save you a bundle in heating (and, later on, cooling) costs, so make sure you tackle this one soon. Oh, and don’t forget that outlets along outside walls can also leak air, so check those over during your annual maintenance routine, too.

As you may have seen with the disclaimer at the top of this post, I worked with CrossCountry Mortgage to put together today’s content. I filmed a quick video for their Instagram demonstrating all of these winter home maintenance checklist ideas in action, and you can view that live here. If you’d like more in-depth inspiration, hop over to the CCM blog where you’ll find lots of extra tips. There are also suggestions for other seasons in that blog post in case you happen to be reading this in the spring, summer, or fall. Let me know in the comments what you would add to our list of maintenance to-dos in case we missed anything!