Owning a home in Chicago means staying ahead of four very different seasons, and each one puts its own kind of stress on a house. Financial experts generally recommend budgeting 1 to 4 percent of your home's value every year for maintenance and repairs, and the homes that stay in the best shape, and hold their value best, are usually the ones where small things get caught early rather than left to become expensive things. That is really the whole idea behind this checklist: a little attention on a regular schedule beats a big repair bill later.
Below is our full home maintenance checklist organized by season, with a link to a complete guide for every task, covering why it matters, how to do it, and when it makes more sense to call a professional. If you would rather not keep track of any of it yourself, we built a free calendar you can subscribe to that sends you a reminder right when each task comes up.
Subscribe to our free home maintenance calendar
We put every task on this checklist into a shareable Google Calendar, timed to the season it actually belongs to. Subscribe to the CCG Home Maintenance Calendar here and it will sit alongside your other calendars, sending you a reminder for each task a few days before it is due. It is free, it works on any device that supports Google Calendar, and you can unsubscribe any time.
Fall home maintenance checklist
Fall is about getting your home's major systems ready for winter before the cold actually arrives, while the weather still makes it easy to get outside and check things over.
- Schedule your HVAC tune-up before heating season, so a technician can catch any issues with your furnace before you're relying on it every day.
- Clean your gutters once the bulk of leaves have come down, so melting snow and fall rain have somewhere to go instead of backing up under your roofline.
- Have your chimney or fireplace inspected before the first fire of the season, especially if it's been a year or more since the last one.
- Check weatherstripping on doors and windows for gaps or wear before the cold settles in.
- Test your smoke and CO detectors and swap the batteries if yours don't have a sealed 10-year battery.
- Change your furnace filter, and keep it on a roughly every-three-month rhythm through the year, since this is the one task on the list that repeats on its own schedule rather than showing up once a season.
Winter home maintenance checklist
Winter maintenance in Chicago is mostly about protecting your home from the two things a hard freeze threatens most, frozen pipes and water finding its way in where it shouldn't.
- Keep faucets dripping during a deep freeze on any pipes that run along an exterior wall, to relieve the pressure that causes pipes to burst.
- Check for ice dams after snow accumulation, particularly after a heavy snow followed by a thaw and refreeze.
- Know where your main water shutoff valve is and confirm it still turns freely, so you're not searching for it for the first time during a burst pipe.
- Test your sump pump before spring thaw while there's still time to fix or replace it before the snow starts melting in earnest.
Spring home maintenance checklist
Spring is when winter's effects on your home become visible, and it's the season to assess what the cold and moisture left behind before you're using your outdoor space again.
- Schedule your AC tune-up before the first real heat wave, while HVAC companies still have open appointments.
- Inspect your roof and gutters after winter for anything a hard winter may have loosened, cracked, or torn free.
- Re-caulk your windows and check for winter damage once temperatures are reliably back above 40 degrees.
- Service your lawn equipment and lock in your landscaping start date, both take longer than people expect and are easier to handle before everyone else's lawn is overdue too.
- Test your smoke and CO detectors again, twice a year is the general rule.
Summer home maintenance checklist
Summer is the season for the outdoor projects and the tasks that need warm, dry weather, plus a few indoor spots that quietly need attention year round.
- Power-wash your exterior, deck, or patio to clear away a winter's worth of grime before you're using those spaces all summer.
- Inspect your deck or porch for warping before it's carrying a full backyard gathering or a holiday crowd.
- Inspect and clean your dryer vent, a task that matters for fire safety any time of year but is easy to fold into a summer cleaning pass.
- Check grout and caulking in your bathrooms for cracks or gaps before they let water get behind the tile.
Frequently asked questions
What should be on a new homeowner's maintenance checklist?
Start with the systems that are expensive to ignore: your HVAC system, your roof and gutters, your plumbing, and your smoke and CO detectors. From there, the checklist above covers the rest of what a typical Chicago home needs across a full year, organized by the season each task actually belongs to.
How often should you do home maintenance?
Most tasks on this list are seasonal, meaning once every three months, but a few, like changing your furnace filter, are worth doing more often. Testing smoke and CO detectors and scheduling an HVAC tune-up are both worth doing twice a year, once in spring and once in fall.
How much should I budget for home maintenance each year?
A commonly used guideline is 1 to 4 percent of your home's value per year. For a $400,000 home, that generally works out to somewhere between $4,000 and $16,000 annually, though the actual number depends heavily on your home's age, systems, and how much of that maintenance you're able to do yourself.
Do I need to hire a professional for all of this?
No. Many of these tasks, like changing a furnace filter, testing detectors, or re-caulking a window, are approachable for most homeowners. Others, like an HVAC tune-up or a chimney inspection, are worth leaving to a licensed professional. Each guide linked above notes when it's reasonable to do it yourself and when it's worth calling someone.
Is there an easier way to keep track of all of this?
Yes. Subscribe to the CCG Home Maintenance Calendar and each task on this list will land on your calendar automatically, right when it's time to take care of it.
