Be Prepared! Your Essential Fall Home and Garden Checklist

Fall is here, and we’re all enjoying football season and gearing up for Halloween celebrations. But as you wash your favorite fall jackets and adjust to the changing weather, your home and garden are also experiencing the change of season.

Without the proper care, you could wind up with mildewy mounds of leaves this fall, a cold house or a leaky roof this winter, or bare patches in your lawn next spring.

Use the 7 keys in this fall home and garden checklist to prepare for fall, and have a cozy winter!

1. Take care of Your Furnace

Your furnace is your home’s workhorse, and it gets quite a workout during the winter months. The furnace is one of those things that you usually don’t think about until something goes wrong, but a heating failure in the middle of January is a pretty rude reminder.

Besides a freezing-cold house and bursting pipes, furnace problems can also lead to poor air quality in your home, or even dangerous carbon monoxide leaks. Use this fall furnace care guide to keep your furnace healthy and family and your home warm.

2. Check Your Roof & Rain Gutters

Your roof protects your home from the elements and helps keep you warm in the winter. Roof problems can start out small but, if left unchecked, can lead to wallet-punishing water leaks or a budget-busting roof replacement.

Inspecting your roof at least twice a year, in the spring and fall, will help you catch any issues early and protect your home from autumn rains and winter snow. Use this autumn roof maintenance guide to prepare your roof for the months ahead.

While you’re inspecting your roof, be sure to check for moss growth. Moss on your roof not only looks ugly–it can damage your roof and even contribute to leaks.

Keep your roof moss-free with Wet & Forget Outdoor. Wet & Forget Outdoor wipes out moss, lichen, algae, mold and mildew on your roof with no scrubbing needed, and its gentle formula won’t corrode your downspouts or kill your lawn like bleach can.

Your home’s rain gutters are your roof’s key teammates for preventing water damage. Without properly functioning rain gutters and downspouts, water could pool at the base of your home.

As a result, you could be left with a wet basement or even serious foundation damage. The Foundation Repair Association recommends that you inspect and clean your rain gutters and downspouts twice a year, in the spring and fall.

Use this gutter inspection guide to keep your gutters and downspouts in top shape.

3. Maintain Your Driveway

Autumn is a rainy time across much of the U.S., and all that rain can put a strain on your driveway. Autumn rain and winter freezes can crack asphalt or concrete, damage pavers, and cause potholes or “bald spots” in your gravel driveway.

Use this guide to prepare your gravel or paver driveway for fall, this guide to maintain your concrete or asphalt driveway, and this guide for seal coating your asphalt driveway.

4. Plant Fall Vegetables and Flowers

Certain garden vegetables and perennial flowers are best planted in the fall. Planting garlic in the fall allows the cold-loving bulbs to lie protected under the soil during the winter, and be ready to spring into action next spring.

Use this guide to find out how to plant garlic in the fall.

Tulips are a colorful signal that spring has arrived. But, if you want beautiful red or yellow blooms next spring, fall is the time to plant the bulbs.

Check out this guide for information on 5 perennial flowers that you can plant in autumn.

5. Remove Fall Leaves

Trees add soothing shade and beautiful colors to your garden, but most trees shed their leaves in autumn, leaving you with the chore of getting rid of them. If you leave big piles of leaves on your property, they will make a welcome home for allergy-inducing mold.

Piles of leaves also block the sunlight from reaching the grass beneath them, killing patches of your lawn.

There are lots of ways to remove fall leaves, from raking to leaf-blowing.

Wet & Forget team member Melissa bought an inexpensive leaf blower that doubles as a leaf vacuum with a metal impeller for grinding leaves into mulch. She used the vacuum to clear the fall leaves from her small garden, and the leaf mulch was perfect for protecting her garlic bulbs during the winter freezes.

Check out this guide to the 5 easiest ways to remove fall leaves, and see which method is right for you. You might not have quite as much fun as this little guy, but our guide can make your job easier!

*Note: if you have a mold allergy, you should consider wearing a mask while removing leaves.

6. Beat Fall Allergies

All of these outdoor activities can lead to a lot of trouble for those of us who suffer from fall allergies, especially if you live in one of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America’s “fall allergy capitals.”

If you’re one of the unlucky people with an allergy to ragweed, mold or other fall allergens, there are steps you can take to spend less time sniffling and sneezing, and more time having fun. This fall allergy survival guide will help you beat ragweed and enjoy the season.

7. Save Time & Energy

You have plenty to do this fall, from taking the kids to practice, to watching the big game. The last thing you need to be doing is wasting your time scrubbing, when there is an easier way.

Let Wet & Forget Outdoor do the work for you by wiping out algae, moss, lichen, mold and mildew on all your outdoor surfaces, with no scrubbing, bleaching or pressure washing needed.

Inside your home, let Wet & Forget Shower set you free from scrubbing your shower, and keep your eyes open for new Wet & Forget Indoor mold and mildew disinfectant cleaner, which is coming soon!

Make your job easier with this home and garden checklist, and have a wonderful autumn!