Having a home in northern Michigan means you get to enjoy your home in all four seasons. Summer barbecues, color tours, ski trips, and spring farmer’s markets. There is something to do here all year long, but with this being said come the responsibilities of maintaining your home. Here is a list of 5 ways to maintain your home throughout the year.

1. Create a maintenance check list and stick to it
Making a plan and sticking to it are very different. Most of us have high hopes to set goals and achieve them, but life gets in the way sometimes and we aren’t able to extract our plan. The first step to maintaining is sticking to the plan. If you set a plan in place to do one task a month whether indoors or outdoors there won’t be an issue of where to start or what to do first, because your monthly task is already figured out. For example, in January you check your filters for clean air flow. July, check the foundation for any cracks or unknown objects around your home. There are so many ideas to make sure your checklist is complete where every aspect of your home is getting your attention throughout the year.

2. Protect your lawn and garden
Having a home in Northern Michigan means the weather has an effect on just about everything. Your lawn and garden are no exception. Keeping up on yard work is one of the best ways to preserve your home’s sleek design. For example, in the fall before the first snow fall making sure your grass is cut short and fertilized so spring can bring fresh life to your yard. Having the leaves taken care of is also important in allowing your yard to have a renewed look once that last snow melts. Your garden being well manicured and taken care of regularly, prevents pests invading and taking over your plants and vegetables. Preparing for winter is crucial when maintaining your home to allow life to come back into your lawn and garden come springtime.

3. Smoke alarm and carbon monoxide
Two of the most important tools in your home are both smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors. A tool that almost never stops working, so a tool that you should take thoughtful care of. A good rule of thumb is to change the batteries for both during daylight savings. Just to add this small step to your checklist when changing clocks would be beneficial and could save your family and home.

4. Gutters
Gutters protect much of the outside design of your home. They prevent water from streaming in your flower beds, flooding the basement can be interrupted, preserve siding from water damage and so much more. Taking care of gutters can stop many things from happening to your home. Planning to clean out your gutters twice a year can prevent most damaging things that water can do. In the fall, clean gutters to remove leaves, sticks and other debris that has collected in them to allow water to flow through rather than be blocked. Spring is also a good time to clean them from the winter months. Spring calls for rain and having clogged gutters could cause issues that would have been able to be prevented.

5. Cleaning the exterior of your home
Living in Northern Michigan we know the winter months seem to be VERY long. After the long winter, sprucing up the exterior of your home is a must. After the snow has melted away, when you can see the sidewalks, deck and many other things the grime from winter leaves behind, something should be done. Whether it be power washing the sidewalks, deck and siding or cleaning the windows from the outside it takes spring cleaning to a new level. It instantly gives your home a new and fresh look, just want it needs after the snow has melted away. Keeping up on cleaning the outdoors of your home is one of the best ways to maintain the clean design and prevent damages from occurring to your home throughout the year.

At MPN we can help with all of these situations and more if you just don’t have the time and want to spend it outdoors with family and friends.  Just contact our office to sign up for our Estate Management Plan. We have varying levels according to how much you want us to take care of for you.