Your home is many things. It’s where you sleep. It’s where you cook and eat your meals. It’s where you entertain guests and do laundry and help the kids with their homework. Your home is your own personal cinema, your hair salon, and maybe even your gym. Over the course of a day, the various rooms of your humble abode are put to good use in supporting your family, your career, and your personal interests. Keeping everything running smoothly is something of a never-ending mission.  

From replacing spent parts for your fridge to fixing those sticky doors that don’t quite hang right any more, it can be enough work to dominate your entire allotment of annual leave from the day job. Let’s look at some quick fixes to help you give your home a health check.

Storage  

Storage is often overlooked during a home health check. The problem is that after several months (and certainly after several years) of living in the same place, your accumulated possessions eat up your storage and begin to spill over.  

This is a bigger issue than you might think. A cluttered home is a disaster waiting to happen. From the obvious tripping and fire hazards that can ensue from piling up combustible possessions, there’s also the hidden danger of not having anywhere to store your expensive items and, instead, leaving them on display. 

For example, how many times have you left a phone or tablet on display through a window, because you don’t have sufficient storage space? Go through your storage and be prepared to throw out years of unwanted items.

When was the last time you checked your roof? 

Do you know how long a roof is supposed to last? It puts up with hot weather, cold weather, rain, snow, hail, the claws of birds and bird muck. Wind can dislodge tiles, and where water freezes and expands in the gaps of damaged tiles, the ice can crack the tiles in the same way that repetitive exposure to small amounts of frozen water can lead to potholes.  

To that end, and because people live in different climates, we can only look at average answers when it comes to how many years a roof is supposed to last. But the answer is typically somewhere between 20 and 25 years.  

If you haven’t had your roof checked in a long time, it may be time to call a specialist. Otherwise, you could be looking at serious roofing issues just around the corner.

Cracked paint around the windows 

Cracked paint around the windows is a “red flag” that your paintwork needs to be updated. Paint that is more exposed to sunlight (i.e., around the window) will dry out and chip much sooner than the paint in any other area of your home. That’s why you should look to your windows for signs that your paintwork is in need of proactive repair. As a rule, try to repaint your interiors every five to seven years.