Top Tips to Prepare Your Home & Yard for Winter (Part Two)

Earlier this month, our team at Sun Bear Realty & Property Maintenance in Incline Village provided some of the top tips to prepare your property for the upcoming winter. To help you with that 'to-do' list to protect your home and yard, here are a few more key chores that should be completed before the Sierra sees significant snowfall.

Turn Off Your Sprinklers:  If you haven’t done this already, stop reading this and go do it!  Be sure to disconnect and drain your hoses and store them inside away from the winter elements.

Clean/Replace Your Air Filters:  We actually do this twice a year, and it never ceases to amaze us how much dirt our filters collect. 

Check Your Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarms:  This task comes hand-in-hand at our house as we already have the ladder out to replace our air filters. During the winter months, our homes are sealed up from top to bottom which means we are more susceptible to smoke and carbon monoxide which may leak from your furnace and water heater.  If you don’t have a carbon monoxide alarm, put it on your list and get it installed.

Prep Your Landscaping: Now is also the time to protect your landscaping from the winter elements and prepare it for the springtime thaw.  Fall is my favorite time to plant new trees, and bushes, and aerate and fertilize my lawn one more time before the snow falls.  As we all live in various elevations, we suggest you make a quick visit to your favorite local hardware store or nursery to find out what the best winter fertilizer may be for your lawn.  

Once the lawn is prepped, take a look around your property for dead or dying trees.  If there seems to be one or more that may be on their last legs, it’s probably best to cut them down before the blustery winds of winter do that for you – especially if they may be leaning in the direction of your home or other structures.

For taller bushes, we wrap them up with plant netting so that collectively the plant has more stability and protection from heavy snowfall.

While we’re talking about landscaping, be sure to drain all the gas out of our movers and weed eaters as the fuel will go bad. I like to add a bit of stabilizer as well.

Get Ready for the Big One!  One more very important tip: get that snowblower out and fire it up.  As with all equipment, check the oil, fill the fuel tank, and have it close to your driveway so you’re ready when the snow arrives.

And when that is all done, go enjoy a football game or two!