Prepping Your Home for Fall Weather

Once summer mornings get chilly, it may be time to start thinking about fall weather. Here are a few things to do outside, inside and in the garage to make sure you’re not caught off guard and left in the cold—literally.

Outside 

• Swap out summer flowers in your planters for cold weather seasonals like mums, ornamental kale, grasses, pansies and rudbeckia. 
• In the garden, pull up annuals and cut back perennials – mulch around these with raked up leaves. 
• Clean your gutters, and then reward yourself with dessert for checking that chore off the list! 
• Have the neighborhood kids rake leaves and surprise them with pumpkin leaf bags to decorate the lawn or little ghost bags to hang from the trees. 
• Store patio furniture.

Inside 

• Take sweaters and wool blankets from storage. 
• Buy lavender sachets or cedar balls to prevent moths from moving into your closets and drawers. 
• Replace screens with storm windows/doors. 
• Store air conditioner. 
• Buy winter essentials (heated blankets, space heaters and shovels) now to beat the rush and prevent being left out of a shortage come cold-weather. 
• Check for and remedy drafts near windows/doors.

Garage 

• Rearrange so your winter tools are more accessible. 
• Think ahead—even though it might be painful—to ice and sleet. Get a bag or two of salt and kitty litter to keep just in case of an early storm. 
• Put jumper cables, a warm blanket, car shovels and ice scrapers in each vehicle. Remove liquids that may freeze. 
• Neatly hang drained hoses.