12 Home Maintenance Items That Will Help Prepare You for Winter

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Your house is supposed to be your refuge from the weather, a place where you can feel comfortable no matter how frigid it gets outside. But with rising utility costs, keeping your house warm can be more of a challenge than it used to be—and even if you’re proactive about defending against the cold, your home can still take a wintry beating.

Now’s the time to take action. Home maintenance products designed to defend your home against freezing temperatures, blowing snow, and freezing damage will not only make your home more comfortable, but also hardened against winter damage.

The basics

There are a few simple purchases you shouldn't skip this year—even if the Farmer's Almanac is predicting a moderate season.

• Space heaters. No matter how much effort you put into it, your house (or specific areas of it) may still be chillier than you want. A solid space heater or two will serve you well.

• Caulk. Re-caulking windows and doors will help keep out drafts and protect your home from water and ice damage. You can even use a caulk with a built-in trigger so you don’t need a caulking gun.

• Weather stripping. Some foam weather stripping tape around windows and doors can go a long way toward blocking drafts. You could also apply some classic plastic window insulation kits to particularly drafty spots.

• Draft blockers. Placing a few draft blockers under doors can help keep cold air out and warm air in.

Under Door Draft Stopper and Blocker

$46.90 at Amazon

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$46.90 at Amazon

Power snow shovel

If you live in an area where it snows, you know you’ve got some shoveling in your future. In this day and age, however, doing that shoveling manually is just a way to destroy your back and ruin your day. A cordless power shovel will make clearing those steps, sidewalks, and driveways a lot easier, and get you inside for cocoa a lot faster.

Thermal curtains

If you’ve taken the basic steps to stop drafts from coming into the house but you’re still feeling the chill near your windows, thermal curtains will add a layer of insulation to hold back that cold air. Bonus: They’ll do similar work in the summer, helping your home to stay cool.

NICETOWN Bedroom Blackout Draperies Panels, Three Pass Microfiber Noise Reducing Thermal Insulated Solid Ring Top Window Curtains (Two Panels, 42 x 72 Inch, Gray)

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$21.63 at Amazon

$25.45 Save $3.82

Pipe temperature monitors

Frozen pipes are a nightmare. Leaving a strategically chosen faucet to drip during cold snaps can help prevent your pipes from bursting, but it won’t actually stop them from freezing. You need two things: Pipe insulation tape (or foam covers, though the tape is more flexible and easier to adapt), and pipe temperature monitors like this one, or this one. The insulation can help keep your pipes warm, and the monitors will give you some warning if things are headed toward a freezing disaster.

If you want to be really proactive about frozen pipes, you could also invest in pipe heat cables, which will keep your pipes at a steady temperature and make freezing pretty much impossible as long as you have power.

Garage door insulation kit

Your garage door is just slightly better than having a huge, garage-sized open space on your house. If you want to have a warmer home overall, sealing up that drafty garage door with an insulation kit is a good start. It’s relatively easy to apply, and will make a difference in terms of drafts and heat transfer without compromising your door’s operation. Bonus: It also works to reduce sound transfer, making your garage a little quieter.

Reach Barrier 3009 Garage Door Kit Adhesive Pads Included, 8 Bubble Insulation Panels, Silver

$82.00 at Walmart

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$82.00 at Walmart

$69.95 Save 0.00

Roof heat cables and rakes

Your roof is (hopefully) built to handle snow loads, but that doesn’t mean having several feet of heavy snow sitting on it for weeks or months is a good idea. You can shovel your roof if you’re careful, but a good roof rake is a safer and easier option. You can also invest in some roof heat cables—these can prevent ice dams, which occur when your home’s interior heat melts roof snow, which then re-freezes at the edges, causing leaks and expensive damage.

Faucet covers

All the pipe insulation in the world won’t help if you have exterior spigots or faucets on your house. These fixtures can freeze, too, and cause damage to both the exterior and interior of your home. To prevent that, pick up a few inexpensive faucet covers and pop them on every exterior fixture you have.

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