Home ‘To Dos YOU MAY NOT HAVE THOUGHT OF

Most of us try to keep a checklist of home maintenance tasks that should be done at least once or twice a year, taking some inspiration from magazine articles, blogs or other “to-do” lists that they come across.

Most of these sound pretty much the same — clean the gutters, check your roof, seal up all the cracks. Not that we generally need more stuff to do, but what are some other checks and tasks should be done to protect your house’s integrity and resale value?

We’ve come up with a few that need to be done periodically:

• Check all electrical outlets and other sources of power to make sure they’re functional. If not, bring an electrician in to address any problems, and get things back up and running.

• Clean the inside of your dryer cabinet and dryer vent of any built-up lint, which if left unaddressed can spark damaging fires.

• Wash the inside of heavily used trash cans with bleach and hot water once a month — you can make this easier by spraying disinfectant each time you change a bag.

• Wipe down inside walls with a mop or Swiffer implement with a long handle to clear out cobwebs, dust and other debris that collect on upper walls without having to use a ladder.

• Maintain your garage door by lubricating the tracks on which any springs or rollers run, and check safety sensors to make sure they stop the door when something or someone gets in the way.

• Unplug and clean any exhaust fans, like the ones in your bathroom and range hood. If you can’t simply unplug them, you’ll need to shut off the applicable circuit breaker.

• Empty out and clean your refrigerator drip pan, which is found behind the kick plate (grill) at the bottom of the fridge beneath the defrost drainage line.

• Unblock outside drains by removing leaves and other debris before they get to the point of flooding your yard and home.

• Inspect the foundation and concrete slabs for hairline or larger cracks that need to be repaired before they compromise the foundation’s integrity.