Your home is a huge investment, and understandably, you want to protect that investment! One of the best things you can do is to stay on top of routine home maintenance .

This doesn’t mean you always have to be the one fixing and repairing things, you can hire someone to help, but it does mean you need to be aware of what’s going on in your house and take steps to help maintain it.

Cleaning is one of the biggest ways to keep your home in great shape. There are plenty of issues that come from not keeping a house clean, from mold to leaks to holes and weak areas in the house.

Plus, when the house is clean, you’re more likely to spot if there’s some kind of issue early enough to take care of it.

Inspecting. At the change of each season, do a walkthrough of your house, both inside and out, looking for anything that doesn’t look quite right. This could include things like:

• Rotting wood.
• Moisture where it shouldn’t be wet.
• Paint chipping or peeling.
• Holes where insects could be hiding.
• The condition of the carpets, tiles, and wood floors.

Do this enough times and you’ll be so familiar with your home, you will immediately spot when something doesn’t look right.

Repair and Maintenance. Inspecting is great, but it’s only good if you use the knowledge you’ve gained to fix problems.

As soon as you think there’s an issue, start looking at how to fix it, ask your friends and neighbors, or get in touch with a professional handyman. If you catch an issue and solve it right away, it won’t grow into a major problem!