The Only Home Maintenance Checklist
You Actually Need

Search “home maintenance checklist” and you'll find lists with 87 items, color-coded printables, and enough tasks to fill every weekend for a year. Nobody follows those lists. That's why they don't work.

This is the short version: the tasks that actually prevent expensive failures, organized by how often they need to happen.

Check your HVAC filter. Replace it if it looks gray. A clogged filter forces the system to work harder, raises your energy bill, and shortens the life of a $7,000-12,000 system. This is the single highest-value maintenance habit in your home.

Test smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Press the button. Thirty seconds per detector.

Run water in unused drains. Guest bathrooms and basement sinks have traps that dry out, letting sewer gas into the house. Running water for ten seconds refills the trap.

Look under your sinks.Slow leaks under kitchen and bathroom sinks cause cabinet rot and mold long before you'd otherwise notice. A flashlight and ten seconds per sink.

Spring: Clean gutters and check that downspouts discharge away from the foundation. Walk the exterior and look for winter damage: cracked caulk, peeling paint, damaged roof shingles. Service your air conditioning before the first heat wave, when HVAC companies still have open appointments.

Summer: Check your irrigation for leaks and overspray against the house. Inspect wood decks and fences for rot. Look at the sealant around windows and doors while everything is dry.

Fall: Clean gutters again after the leaves drop. Have your heating system serviced before the first cold snap. Disconnect garden hoses and shut off exterior faucets before the first freeze. Check weatherstripping.

Winter: Keep an eye on your attic after heavy rain or snow for signs of leaks. Check your water heater for rust or moisture at the base. Test your sump pump if you have one by pouring a bucket of water into the pit.

Flush your water heater. Sediment buildup is the main reason water heaters die at year 8 instead of year 12. Draining a few gallons through the bottom valve takes 20 minutes.

Have your roof looked at. From the ground with binoculars is fine most years. Look for lifted shingles, damaged flashing around chimneys and vents, and granules collecting in gutters.

Test your water pressure. A $10 gauge from the hardware store screws onto an exterior faucet. Above 80 psi stresses every fixture, appliance, and pipe joint in the house. A failing pressure regulator is a $350 fix; the burst supply line it causes is a $15,000 water damage claim.

Check your grading. Soil should slope away from the foundation. Settling landscape beds that trap water against the house are the most common cause of foundation and crawlspace moisture problems.

Nothing, for a while. That's the trap. Deferred maintenance doesn't send a bill in year one. It sends one in year five, and the bill is a roof leak that ruined the ceiling, an HVAC replacement three years early, or a foundation repair that started as a $30 downspout extension.

Insurance data consistently shows that the most common and most expensive home claims, water damage above all, trace back to small maintenance items that were never on anyone's radar.

What actually matters

Deferred maintenance doesn't send a bill in year one. It sends one in year five, and by then it has grown a comma.

The hard part of home maintenance was never knowing what to do. It's remembering to do it, for your specific home, with your specific systems and their specific ages.

BTLR keeps track of what your home actually has, how old each system is, and what's due next, then reminds you at the right time. The checklist stops being a document you lose and becomes something your home tells you.

What actually matters

Fifteen minutes a month is the cheapest insurance policy you'll ever have.

Know what your home needs, when it needs it.

Upload your inspection report, get your BTLR Score, and finally have a system that flags problems early, while they're still small, covered, and cheap to fix.

Free. No credit card required.