With Halloween over, attention now turns to the winter and for many the festive season too. Whatever your beliefs and interests, there are many things you can do to prepare your home for the winter. Without further ado, here are eight jobs to get before winter (or at the very beginning)!
1. Consider Your Heating System
First and foremost, you’ll want to carefully consider what steps you can take to ensure you and everyone in your household stay warm this winter.
To begin with, you should have your boiler (if you have one) serviced annually by a qualified heating engineer. Not only is this important to maintain the functionality and efficiency of your boiler but to help keep it safe.
Along with an annual servicing, you should have your radiators bled at least once a year or more often if needed and the lead-up to the winter would be a great time to have this done. Unlike with a boiler service, you can bleed your radiators DIY once you follow the manufacturer’s instructions to a T.
We also advise that you have your central heating system power flushed (this must be done by a professional) every 5-6 years or more often if a professional deems it necessary/suitable. This is a process of using chemicals and water to rid a heating system of dirt, debris, rust, and sludge.
2. Test Your Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarms
Checking that your smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors are working is essential on an ongoing basis and this includes in the lead-up to the winter.
Here is how often you should test these alarms:
- Test your smoke alarms at least monthly but ideally every week
- Test your carbon monoxide detectors are least monthly but again, each week is ideal
Now is a great time to get into this habit. While it could be argued that testing these is more important in the winter as electrics, lights, and heating are more in demand during this time of year, keeping up weekly or (at a minimum) monthly testing of your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms is crucial to keeping you and everyone in your household safe.
Beyond the points already raised, you’ll want to replace the batteries and units as often as necessary. Check the manufacturer’s instructions to get a sense of how often this should be done but obviously make sure to replace batteries or units sooner if required. If in doubt, ask a professional to evaluate them.
3. Clean Your Guttering (and have it repaired if needed)
Pre-winter is a great time to clean your gutters or early winter if it’s already into November by the time you read this. The good news is that, with the right knowledge, skills, and safety awareness, you can clean your gutters DIY, although hiring a professional won’t cost a lot if a professional is needed or preferred.
In order to clean your gutters, take the following steps: *
- Use a ladder to reach the gutters and make certain a second person holds the ladder at the bottom while you’re using it.
- Use a trowel or gutter scoop to scoop up debris and put it into a plastic bag while wearing gloves.
- Descend the ladder with the bag and scoop or trowel. Be very careful when doing so.
- Repeat the process if needed to remove the remaining debris.
- Clean the gutters with a garden hose if the garden hose pressure is safe to use on your particular guttering. If in doubt, check the manufacturers’ instructions for both the guttering and the garden hose and if still unsure, hire a professional as you don’t want to risk destroying your guttering which will be costly and could be dangerous when working at a height.
*Please note that if you need to clean your gutters at a height of more than four feet atop a lower level, scaffolding is needed. In that case, you’d have to hire a professional to set up the scaffolding and perform the work of cleaning your gutters before they finally disassemble the scaffolding.
Of course, in some scenarios, your guttering may need repair work or either sections of the guttering or even the entire guttering may need replacing. If repair work or gutter replacement work is needed, these sorts of jobs necessitate the work of a professional.
4. Declutter Your Home
Another job worth doing before the winter time (or early on in the winter season) is decluttering your home. You’ll probably need two or more days (e.g. a weekend) in order to complete this work and two full days in each case to really complete a thorough job.
It’s best to take the following steps to declutter your home:
- Make a clear enough plan with an approximate schedule for the day(s) you wish to declutter your home. Your plan should include
- Ensure you have time for two breaks, totaling around 90 to 120 minutes (e.g. a 30-minute break followed by a 60-minute break later in the day). Be sure to eat enough during breaks to keep your energy levels up.
- Also, make sure to stay hydrated throughout the day (e.g. drink water during breaks and while working too).
- Do not push yourself too hard. If the work takes longer than expected, just schedule another day or half day than you originally planned to finish decluttering your home.
- Have several bin liners that are clearly labeled by name and ideally color coded (e.g. the bin liners could be different colors or have tags/labels of different colors).
- More on the bin liners, you could have one bin liner or one set of bin liners for items you want to put away in the attic, another for items you want to recycle, and another for items you wish to donate to charity. For items you simply want to rearrange, perhaps actively rearranging them or, say, putting them away in cabinets is the best approach rather than using another bin liner for these items. *
*Make sure to check each bin liner and double-check at the end of the process. You don’t want to risk putting a bin liner in your recycling bin only to realize that was the one with items you wanted to keep in the attic for potential use.
5. Prepare Your Garden for The Winter
You should also consider steps to prepare your garden for the harshness of winter. Here are some ideas to consider:
- Clear your garden of autumn debris (e.g. fallen leaves, dead plants, etc.). You can add the debris to a compost bin. Use gloves and wash your hands after the job is done anyway. *
- Remove moss and any debris that could act as a slip-based hazard.
- Have some de-icing salt on the ready for frosty times so you can help address icy conditions in your garden during the winter.
- Prune deciduous trees, plants, and shrubs in the wintertime.
- Consider cutting the grass in the winter if it’s reasonably mild. If unsure when and how to cut the grass in the winter, ask a gardener or hire one for the job.
*The only scenario you shouldn’t put organic debris in a compost bin is if it has issues (e.g. disease). Consult with a gardener if unsure what to do in specific scenarios.
6. Clean Your Conservatory or Garden Room
After a busy year (and especially the activities of summer), the winter can be a good time to clean your conservatory or garden room.
While conservatory cleaning or garden room cleaning can be done DIY once you know exactly what is involved (this includes following the manufacturer’s instructions carefully), you may prefer or require the work of a professional (the latter would apply if you’re unsure as to what is involved or feel a professional job is needed for the results you want).
7. Additional Steps to Improve Your Home’s Energy Efficiency
While we’ve discussed ways to maintain your heating system’s efficiency, there are other ways of improving the energy efficiency of your home all around.
Here are some tips to consider to enhance your property’s energy efficiency:
- Get into habits like keeping interior doors closed (especially on cold evenings).
- Fit draught excluders to suitable locations like gaps around doors and windows while following the manufacturer’s instructions to a T in each case.
- Move furniture away from radiators so that your radiators can heat up rooms properly.
- Consider having thermal curtains installed in one or more rooms.
- Have a British Standard jacket fitted to your hot water cylinder.
Aside from the steps discussed above, there are more expensive measures that may interest you this year or even at some point down the line. These include double-glazing, loft insulation, and cavity wall or solid wall insulation.
8. Interior Design Changes If You Fancy Some
Last but not least, you may also want to change your home’s interior design for the wintertime.
Some popular interior design winter trends for 2023 include:
- Biophilic design to welcome in vibes of nature.
- Introduce opulence (e.g. various gold accents)
- Winter texture (e.g. boucle, felt, natural line etc.)
