To a new homeowner — and sometimes even a seasoned pro — home maintenance can feel overwhelming. While it’s true there is almost always something to do around a house, there are several tasks you should be checking off your list this spring. Enter: Our home maintenance checklist. This simple, straightforward list will help you know what you should tackle first and how to avoid common costly mistakes new homeowners make in the spring. 

Regular home maintenance can protect your financial investment in your home. Most notably, home maintenance can be a way to prevent large, costly repairs by catching minor problems before they develop into disasters. Preventive maintenance can also increase the lifespan of your appliances, which saves you money in the long run. 

Keeping your appliances and systems running smoothly can also increase the energy efficiency of your home. This not only helps protect the planet, but it also passes on savings to you with lower energy and water bills each month. 

If you’re interested in larger gains, home maintenance can also increase the overall value of your property. Keeping your home running smoothly and looking beautiful will help your home be more attractive to buyers and you won’t need to invest in a bunch of last minute fixes come moving time.  

Finally, one home maintenance benefit people often overlook is that it can protect you from liability lawsuits. Whether it’s removing low tree branches or stabilizing a weak deck joist, keeping your house in shape means a safer home for you, your family and your guests.

Spring cleaning is a global phenomenon for a reason: it feels good to reset after a harsh winter, and it’s important to prepare for the upcoming summer months. Basically, we all know it’s good to do, but sometimes it’s hard to know how to start. 

There are many different ways to help prepare your home this spring, but here are the four essential tasks for your home maintenance checklist. 

A good place to start spring upkeep is with your HVAC system. HVAC systems are one of the most expensive parts of our homes and regular maintenance can prevent a costly repair down the road. First on your list should be replacing your HVAC filter. This filter should be replaced based on your HVAC system’s specifications, but a good rule of thumb is every two or three months. 

Next, schedule a spring check up with an HVAC professional. During a seasonal check up, your HVAC technician should physically inspect your HVAC unit, evaluate the accuracy of your thermostat and check your refrigerant levels. All this information can help the technician understand the overall health of the machine and recommend any needed fixes. This seasonal service often runs around $100 and can extend the life of your unit and keep you from a surprise air conditioning failure in the middle of a July heat wave. 

Next on our spring home maintenance checklist is taking care of your water heater. To keep your water heater running efficiently, you should be flushing it at least once a year. This prevents damage and increases the overall energy efficiency of the appliance. 

Be aware, however, if you haven’t flushed your water in the last 5 years, many plumbers recommend hiring a professional. Sometimes the sediment gets built up and can lead to expensive repairs if flushed incorrectly. 

This is a big category, but a little yard work in the spring can help solve a lot of problems in the summertime. Start by checking out your sprinkler system. Winter freezes can wreak havoc on sprinkler systems if they weren’t winterized properly. Spring is a good time to notice any problems and fix them before the summer heat. 

You’ll also want to consider laying a pre-emergent herbicide and fertilizer on your lawn. Pre-emergent helps prevent weeds before they even have a chance to grow while fertilizer can strengthen your lawn, making it harder for any weeds to sneak in.  

Early spring is also a good time to trim any trees or bushes. Spring trimming can help improve the aesthetic appeal of the plant as well as strengthen it. You’ll want to trim before the tree has a chance to bloom to avoid diverting the plant’s energy toward closing up the pruning sites when it needs to be pushing out new buds.

Finally, a good rule of thumb at the season change is to inspect everything. Take time to walk around your property and look in, around, under and on top of everything. A quick run through can often be the difference between, “oh dang, how long has this leak been here?” and “Good thing we found that leak.”

Now that you understand the basics, here’s a more indepth list of how to prepare your outdoors this spring. 

While the outdoors have more obvious needs in the spring, your indoor space still has plenty of areas to maintain to keep your home running like clockwork. 

Most things on our lists are doable DIYs for even the most novice homeowner and, if done right, can save you a lot of money over the years. For example, a simple caulking task will often run you $250-$400 according to HomeAdvisor, but the materials to do it yourself only cost $30-$40. The key is taking the time to do them right. A bad DIY job is often more expensive in the long run than hiring a professional, so here are our tips to help you be successful. 

Don’t tackle a deck installation on your first day. Instead, start small with caulking a toilet or trimming a small tree. Each small task from your home maintenance checklist that you complete is one you don’t have to pay someone else to do. 

There are a lot of tools you could buy at the hardware stores, but here are a few basics we think you should own to get started:

• Caulk gun
• Cordless drill 
• Pliers

If you need more specific tools to complete a project, check to see if you can rent them from a local hardware store. A walk-behind aerator machine costs $4,000 or $5,000 to purchase, but you can rent one at Home Depot for around $100 a day and even split the cost among your neighbors.

Understand what you know and what you don’t know, and figure out how to learn. From step-by-step instruction manuals to video tutorials, there are many ways to acquire the confidence to DIY your way through almost any home maintenance project. Check out our guide to how you can learn DIY home repair skills for more ideas.  

If home maintenance is something new, you’re going to make mistakes. Remember to ease your way in to minimize the impact of those mistakes, but also take a moment to learn from them and improve. You can also often get advice from experts, whether it be from classes at your local hardware store, YouTube or your neighbor. Some cities even provide free consultations on work that requires a permit. So if your project is bigger, you might check out your local city services for help. 

This is probably the most important tip: know when to stop. The difference between successful DIY and a very expensive bill from a contractor is often understanding where your limits are. We’ll talk more about this in the next section, but make sure to understand where your skills and safety are limited. 

We love a good DIY, but several home improvement projects are best left up to the professionals. We suggest finding a professional if you have to do anything that might need specific expertise or safety equipment. This might include electrical problems, interior plumbing leaks, roof repairs, HVAC repairs, or major structural repairs. If you do need to hire a professional, you can help lower the costs by doing a little research and comparing prices. 

 You’ll also want to consider where you’ll get the materials for your project. Some professionals will want to source materials themselves as many can get materials at a discount. However, some will then sell those same materials to you with a significant upcharge, so it might be cheaper to purchase your own. If you are considering buying your own, check out these easy ways to save at Home Depot or Lowes before you purchase.

If you’ve owned your home, apartment or condo for a while, it’s probably gone up in value. And a company called can help you tap into it — without selling your home or taking out a loan. 

It invests between $15,000 and $600,000 in your home — and gives you a lump sum of money in exchange for a cut of its future value. This can be your primary home, a rental property or vacation home. 

You’re not taking out a loan, so there’s no monthly payments. Instead, when you settle your investment, Hometap gets an agreed-upon percentage of the new home value.

You have 10 years to settle, and you can do whatever you want with the money — like fix your roof. You can have money in-hand in as little as three weeks. After you close on the investment, your funds are wired within a matter of days.

To get started, to find out if this is a good fit for you and your property. You’ll need a credit score of at least 500 to qualify.

Home maintenance is more than just a chore, it’s a chance to refresh and reset your home each spring. By following our home maintenance checklist, you’ll be able to protect your home’s value and prepare for the summer months.

Contributor Whitney Hansen covers banking, credit cards and investing for The Penny Hoarder. She also writes on other personal finance topics.