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Preparing Your Home For Fall {Things to Do Now} & A Giveaway

by | Sep 16, 2015 | Decorating Inspiration, Family

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Preparing Your Home For Fall {Things to Do Now} & A Giveaway

This post is in partnership with FilterEasy

When we lived in our last house, we were getting pretty good about keeping up with the regular maintenance. Or so I thought. Granted, it was a newer house so there wasn’t as much upkeep since most of it was in great new condition and we had updated so much ourselves. But with all houses, there are certain things you need to keep on top of or do on a seasonal basis. There are also tasks that are much easier to accomplish before the temperature and weather changes. And of course, there are the seasonal updates that are just for fun! The fun ones are my favorite :).

Fall is the perfect time to update the paint or stain on your front door and porch. As long as the rain holds off and the temperatures aren’t still too high where you live, that is! Paint and stain can protect the wood as well as make your home more attractive and ready for seasonal wreaths and decor!.

Our front door makeover is here and you can read about our back deck makeover here.

Preparing Your Home For Fall {Things to Do Now} & A Giveaway

If you have window boxes or planter boxes, wouldn’t it be amazing to fill them fall foliage? I’ve always loved these window boxes on a house in my old neighborhood in Portland. I would love to have window boxes to change for the seasons!

Preparing Your Home For Fall {Things to Do Now} & A Giveaway

I love planting seasonal foliage and cutting flowers outside, and its fun to bring the outside foliage in, too! A fresh bouquet will make your home so inviting and remind you of how much you love fall (you do love fall, right?).

Speaking of seasonal updates, one thing I have been striving to do over the years is to think ahead for outdoor holiday decorating! My goal is to hang my Christmas lights around the porch in October, when it isn’t FREEZING and POURING out. Yeah, it’s a little early perhaps for celebrating Christmas, but you’ll be so glad you got your lights up without freezing your fingers. So often I skip hanging lights because I don’t want to go out in the cold, so when I finish that task early I’m so happy in December when I see my twinkling lights. That’s a task worth doing early, I say!

Preparing Your Home For Fall {Things to Do Now} & A Giveaway

Here’s a list of five important (but less fun) fall home maintenance tasks I think are easy to forget (or put off)!

1. Remove the hose and turn off the outside water.
2. Clean your gutters and downspouts.
3. Check your roof, driveways and walkways.
4. Fireplace cleaning
5. Replace furnace and air return filters (an important task year-round!)

As the weather changes, you need to make sure your home and yard are ready for the harsher elements and colder temperatures. You want to protect your investment in your home, save money, as well as keep your family safe!

Preparing Your Home For Fall {Things to Do Now} & A Giveaway

I was the worst at remembering to clean the air filters at our old house. Ugh. How embarrassing is this? Truly horrible. {Shudder}. When you open the vent, it looks like giant furry rodents have made a home there. Ew.

Have you remembered to change your return air vents lately? Or your furnace vents? Go look at yours and come back to tell me if they look as yucky as mine. I bet they do! Did you know you are supposed to change filters every three months? It makes sense, just imagine breathing in that furry rat-hair like dust for months on end! Yuck. Surely your furnace can’t operate properly or efficiently with that much dust. YOU can’t operate efficiently with that much dust. Changing your filters every 90 days will save energy, keep your home clean and prevent expensive HVAC repairs so it really should be on our seasonal to do list.

Preparing Your Home For Fall {Things to Do Now} & A Giveaway

Just as I was moving out of my old house, I heard about a new service called FilterEasy that will send you new filters regularly, taking the guesswork out of remembering to order and change your filters! FilterEasy filters cost the same or less than those in stores and there is free shipping, so you don’t have to spend your day driving around looking for the right sized filters (or forgetting what sizes you need!).

Preparing Your Home For Fall {Things to Do Now} & A Giveaway

Lately I’ve been automating EVERYTHING I don’t want to think about, don’t like to do or forget to do. It’s been a huge time and stress saver for me. Since there are so many benefits to changing your air filters on time, I’ve signed up for FilterEasy in my new house. With each filter delivery, I’ll remember it is time to change them! No more furry rodents living in my filters, thank you. That’s one less thing I have to worry about.

Preparing Your Home For Fall {Things to Do Now} & A Giveaway

Once you take care of all the fall home maintenance, you’ll feel so snug and safe and ready for the season.

GIVEAWAY & FREE SET OF AIR FILTERS FOR YOUR HOME!

The first 100 readers to enter the giveaway will get a shipment of FREE REPLACEMENT FILTERS for their entire house! Click here to enter FilterEasy’s $250 Target Gift Card Giveaway! (Submit your email address, and then you’ll be directed to FilterEasy’s homepage with a pre-applied promo code for your free set of filters.) **First 100 readers only!**

This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only. The winner will be announced on September 23rd.

What are some of your seasonal home tasks and tips for preparing for the season ahead?

36 Comments

  1. Brenda Galiher

    Love all your tips for getting your home ready for fall… It is coming pretty quick. Fluffing my nest here in MO. Thanks ?

    Reply
  2. Megan Shepardson

    Thanks for the reminders! Fall just snuck up! I also like to give my windows a cleaning before winter. Since we will be stuck inside it’s great to have bright clear views of the outside. The pollen this year was terrible in NC so there is a bit of a haze on them and it’s been too dang hot to do anything about it til now.

    Love the auto-filter idea too. We do the razor auto ship and its great. Plus receiving filters is a great reminder to change them. It’s one of those maintenance things that gets put off….

    Reply
  3. homeonthehumber

    Autumn is defiantly the best season of the year

    Reply
  4. Chris

    Love the idea of being reminded and prepared to home maintenence.

    Reply
  5. Deb

    I’ve grown accustom to changing filters every 2-3 months. It really clears the air, but now I need some duct cleaning!

    Reply
  6. Marissa Wade

    I just signed up! We are always forgetting about the filters and end up changing them out every 5 months, lol. This just seemed like a no-brainer!

    Reply
  7. Tina

    I know to change the furnace filter on a regular basis but a filter for the air returns is new to me. Obviously this is something that would be quite useful for me! Thanks.

    Reply
  8. Heather Beato

    I’d love the freebies, but think I might sign up either way. SUCH a great idea. Not to be gross, but I wonder if there is a similar thing for septic treatments? I’m always forgetting to do that…

    Reply
  9. Kathy @ In Quiet Places

    My heart starts getting ready for fall as soon as the calendar turns to September! But it is slow to come to north Texas and so we savor every small sign of changing seasons along the way.

    Reply
  10. Marci

    Amazing!? My air return filter looks like yours and it is only a month old. Thanks for the friendly reminders for fall home maintenance. Some I remember and some I just forget, like cleaning rain gutters. Thanks

    Reply
  11. Ms. Maggie the elder

    Gosh, it was a great summer for painting in the PNW and this year we got the front under the porch done at the city house repainted and the outer deck parts stained at the Island home. Curb appeal is wonderful now at both. Added some new plants, fancy wind chimes, better lighting, new door colors, storm doors over, new mats, and (wait for it) welcomes signs since both homes do not have purely dedicated front doors, we thought this would help. And it does…

    Reply
    • Ms. Maggie the elder

      PS we use heavy metal reusable screens in the city home so I guess someone else will need to have these. We clean them the beginning of each month to reduce allergies and toxins. Country home does not have central air but that new small heat (AC too) pump that does not use the air filter system. Hurrah~~~

      Reply
  12. Susan

    Our cold air returns don’t have filters. Just the furnace unit. I wonder if it is a regional thing? I like in Chicagoland. area.

    Reply
  13. judith

    Amazing, PODS to move house, we have large vans or rent smaller self drive vans and air filters in your homes! We, in England, have airbricks in some rooms but not with filters. love the site look forward to seeing you settle in to new home, best wishes.

    Reply
  14. Elizabeth Heironimus

    Good idea. My husband has been automating as much as possible, I’m sure he will be on board with this too!
    Thank you

    Reply
  15. Kathy

    I don’t have filters behind my vents…is that terrible? After seeing yours, I’m thinking I should! I will definitely look up FilterEasy!

    Reply
  16. Mary

    I love fall decorating because it can stay up so long and it’s so cozy. The furnace filter delivery is a wonderful idea!

    Reply
  17. Erin L

    I am embarrassed to admit we haven’t changed our air filter since we moved in two years ago! But considering its just for our heater and we only use for a few months out of the year, I’m hoping that makes it less gross ha!
    But I just ordered my first filter and it was free! So thank you! And I set up the auto shipment so I don’t have to think about it again!

    Reply
  18. Susan H

    This would be an awesome service to have. My furnace & AC stop working properly and then I am reminded that I have not changed the filter in time. Thank you for all the great tips… love this blog!

    Reply
  19. Janet

    Thanks for the reminders. I love Fall ~ my favorite time of year!!!

    Reply
  20. Sarah

    Check with your furnace manual or your hvac tech before you add filters to your system. I’ve been told by our service provider that you are to only have one filter in the furnace. Apparently additional filters create additional resistance that is too taxing on the furnacesystem. It sounds like many people have never had a problem, but I want this furnace to last as long as possible.

    Reply
  21. Mj

    Love fall but not the winterization projects. We heat with wood so I change filters once a month, very expensive but better than dust and breathing issues.

    Reply
  22. cindy h.

    I love the idea of the automatic reminder to change the filters.

    Reply
  23. Alicia

    Time to steam clean the carpets and start following the Organized Christmas countdown! I always do the countdown so I am sure to get at least most of the things done and I can enjoy the holidays. I look forward to getting started every year!

    Reply
  24. Lindsay L

    We of course change the filters and batteries in our smoke detectors. We also winterize our pipes and cover our outside faucets with insulation. Thanks for the tips!

    Reply
  25. Tonya

    I love your idea of automating home maintenance especially if it doesn’t cost me anything extra! Thank you for another great idea. I’m always amazed at how dirty those filters get. Yuck!

    Reply
  26. Roxanne Sandager

    Every fall, I look for sales on flower bulbs. Living in Minnesota, I like to have new tulip bulbs planted by the end of October. I usually forget what colors of tulips I planted; so I love it when they are blooming in April and May. This is one of my favorite fall jobs around the yard.

    Reply
  27. Kathleen Conery

    We have a glass wall and ceiling solarium… lovely, but a huge heat sink in the winter. So every late fall we get out the plastic wrap and insulating panels and close it up. I hate losing the sun and the view, but I hate the huge heating bills more!

    Reply
  28. Rene

    With 3 hairy/always shedding dogs I wish the filters changed themselves, this might be as close as I get.

    Reply
  29. Susan

    here in the PNW, cleaning the rain gutters and moss off the roof is what we’re working on.

    Reply
  30. Karenann

    With four cats and a dog, I have to try to remember to change the filters every month. It is very necessary!

    Reply
  31. Kimberly Jones

    Thanks for all the wonderful Fall tips. A reminder to change our filters would be wonderful!

    Reply
  32. Debbie w

    Would love to try the filters!! We try to change ours often to help with ac/heat output!

    Reply
  33. John Donovan

    Now that fall is here, it’s important to get ready! For many of us, this means not only getting ready for winter, but also changing the décor so that it fits with the seasons. I like to buy bouquets of fresh fall flowers, like mums, once fall hits.

    Reply
  34. Jenn

    It’s a good idea to be consistent with changing out your air filters. I’m bad at remembering to do that without some kind of notification or reminder. I added calendar events every 3 months on my iPhone so I don’t forget!

    Reply
  35. Heather

    The automated filter replacements are a lifesaver! Good on you for adding the more practical advice along with the more fun decoration tips. Awesome post!

    Reply

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