At Home With Yelp: New Homeowner Checklist

Buying your first home is one of the most exciting milestones in adult life, but in all of your homebuying excitement, are you missing something? Buying a home is more than wall painting and picking new furniture. Here are the 5 things that every NEW homeowner should put on their to-do list and how Yelp can help:

1) Clean your chimney before the winter – Just like stocking up on firewood, chimney sweeping is a major project that should be completed before the start of each winter. Some burn logs may not be an efficient tool in getting out last years’ gunk, so hiring a chimney sweep is always a smart idea! You can search and request a quote from a local chimney expert on Yelp any time.

2) Clean your gutters in the spring – Once leaves and other winter debris have melted away, and in to your gutters, they can start to rot the exterior of your home. Gross. Regular gutter maintenance is an integral part of keeping the exterior of your house in tip top shape! Search Yelp for your next gutter gut-er.

3) Change your air filters after the summer – Dirty air filters reduce your air conditioner’s efficiency by HALF. Making sure they are clean is imperative to prolonging the life of your unit. Just go to your local hardware or department store to pick up a couple, one for now and a spare.

4) Clean your dryer exhausts every 6 months – When dust bunnies attack is a real nightmare. Trapped dust and lint in your dryer exhaust can create a fire hazard, but regular maintenance can lower the risk immensely. Use a wet/dry vacuum to clean those exhaust ducts routinely!

5) Flush the hot water tank – There’s nothing quite like a nice hot shower to warm you up on a cold, groggy winter morning. But like any appliance, your hot water heater needs a little TLC. Flushing the sediment out annually will help to keep your tank running at maximum efficiency all year long and improve it’s lifespan. Call a local expert today so you don’t have to worry about not having hot water on a freezing winter morning.

Interior design and life stylist, Lauren Makk is Yelp’s new Home Editor You may recognize Lauren from TLC’s “Trading Spaces,” ABCs “FAB Life” and OWN’s “Home Made Simple.” Now as a part of the Yelp family, she’ll be sharing how you can use Yelp to create incredible, affordable transformations in your home. You can find more tips from Lauren here.