If you are lucky enough to make the jump from being a renter to homeowner you will soon want to do everything possible to protect your investment, and the new year is a great time of year to ditch habits that could be harming your home. Even if you’re not looking to sell your home you want to stop doing many of these common habits many homeowners do.
1) If it’s not broken don’t fix it.
Most items in your home require routine maintenance, and if you live in a condo some of them might not be your responsibility to worry about, but others might be. Home Exteriors should be repainted every four to five years before you start to see peeling or fading color. If you have an HVAC system the filters should be cleaned or replaced, and it’s not a bad idea to set up a routine service contract so your system runs effectively. I know some owners do this once a year and routine maintenance not only will allow your system to routine effectively but they might result in lower utility bills.
2) Hanging dry cleaning on door knobs
Hanging clothes, bags, whatever shouldn’t be hung on a doorknob but should be put in the closet. When you store items on your doorknob it can stain the door or pull them out of alignment. If you must hang something on a door use a door wall mounted hangers or coat racks
3) Wearing Shoes inside
Play with two pairs of shoes, alternating the positions of each one.
If you live in Northeast or anywhere that actually has this thing called seasons it’s a great idea to leave shoes outside your home. Shoes scuff the floors, stain the carpets and bring in the dust, dirt, salt, sand and could bring in disease into your home. When possible try to wear slippers or socks in your home. Limit your exposure to bare feet since your skin produces oil and sweat which also is great for your flooring
4) Tossing cleaning tablets into your toilet tanks
We all have limited time at times to clean and everyone likes a shortcut, but try to forgo cleaning tablets or limit how often you use them. Eventually, those chemicals will corrode the plastic parts that keep your toilet flushing. Using a little elbow grease will protect your toilet and allow you to enjoy it a lot longer.
5) Packing stuff under your deck
If you live in a major city you might not have a deck, but if you have a deck try to limit how many items you store under your deck. If you pack to much stuff under your deck you trap moisture that can’t get out
6) Smoking Inside
Maybe you don’t care about your health, but if you care about your investment stop smoking in your home. Smoke gets into not only your furniture, but it gets into the walls, floors and even if you take the time to repaint those yellow filmed walls that were once white it could pose a health risk to someone down the road depending on how sensitive they are. It also can become quite a headache when you go to sell for your agent who has to help you sell your home. If you have to smoke outside the home away from windows and doors that could allow smoke to come in.
7) Using Closet to hide clutter
clutter makes the home look small and stuffing your closet to the gills can put excessive weight on your closet doors. Some experts say each month take one or items out of your closet put it in a box have the box sit there for a month and if after a month you don’t use it then maybe it should go.
8) Ignoring small problems
It’s easy to ignore a small wet spot on the ceiling or a leaky faucet or shower head or that musty smell in the basement, but those small issues can be a sign of a bigger problem that could cause more damage or cost you more money. A wet spot could mean ice damming, cracks around the roof vent collars or be missing or failing roof shingles. A musty smell could be a sign of mold forming. Mold can be an expensive thing to treat unless you catch it when you first notice it.
When your ready to get a great return on your home because you did all these things mentioned contact me.
Leave a Reply