Home Maintenance Archives | The Neighbor Blog

Dewinterizing: What It Is and Why It’s Important

Spring is here, and what does that mean? Time for dewinterization.

Dewinterizing is an important part of your Spring home maintenance checklist, and whether you’ve winterized and dewinterized a home or vehicle before, this is your ultimate guide to ensure you don’t miss any important steps.

So before you head outside to enjoy the longer days and warmer weather, read on to learn everything there is to know about dewinterization — what it is, why it’s so important, and how to do it for your home, RV, boat, car, and more.

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Spring Home Maintenance: The Ultimate Guide

The birds are chirping and the sun is shining, and homeowners know what that means: It’s spring home maintenance time!

Spring is the perfect time to do some of the jobs and tasks that will keep your home well-maintained, and whether you’re a new homeowner or a veteran at spring cleaning, this guide will help you get everything done.

Read on to learn all about spring home maintenance: Why it’s so important, some expert tips, and our Ultimate Spring Home Maintenance Checklist, which will help you get every task wrapped up before summer is here. …

How to Clean a Chimney Yourself

If you own a home with a wood-burning fireplace, then knowing how to clean a chimney is critical. Chimney fires can cause catastrophic damage to your home. For some people, hiring a chimney sweep is the most effective way to take care of chimney cleaning. But if you prefer …

How to Clean a Dishwasher

Your dishwasher works hard to keep your dishes clean. It sees a lot of gross, smelly stuff, which means you occasionally need to give your dishwasher a thorough cleaning. Whether you’re learning how to clean a dishwasher for spring cleaning or holiday preparation, it’s a good task to include …

A First-Time Homeowners Guide on Everything You Should Know

Homeownership is on the rise.

In our 2020 American Migration Report, we found that 54% of people who were moving (or planning to move soon) were moving from a rented home into one they owned themselves.

Even amid that tumultuous year, people were becoming first-time homebuyers. And that report showed that even more Americans plan to move this year than in 2021. Does that mean another jump in homeownership numbers? Only time will tell.

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How to Reupholster a Chair — The Complete Guide

There are a variety of reasons you may want to reupholster a chair. Maybe you found a great thrift store purchase that has great bones but just doesn’t fit your unique sense of style as you plan to move into your first apartment. Perhaps you pulled a chair out …

Square Footage: How to Calculate It, How Much You Need, and More

Do you know your home’s exact square footage?

If you don’t, you’re far from alone. While square footage is one of the most important data points to know about a home, there’s a lot of confusion about how to measure it. And first-hand accounts from homebuyers tell us you can’t necessarily trust the square footage that’s claimed on a home listing.

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The Homeowner’s Guide to Outdoor Pipe Insulation and Winterization

As a homeowner, you have an important responsibility to winterize your home and outdoor features. Similar to the way you winterize your lawnmower, your car, your home, and other important possessions that will be subject to harsh winter weather, there are ways to protect your home. Outdoor pipe insulation …

How to Winterize a Sprinkler System: An Essential Guide

Your sprinkler system helps you maintain a lush green lawn and healthy garden during the growing seasons. Before the first freeze arrives, it’s essential to learn how to winterize your sprinkler system or call in a technician to take care of the job for you. While many professional landscaping …

How to Clean a Glass Stovetop

Smooth glass stovetops are great appliances. But even small specks or spills can stand out on the surface. What’s even worse is, if you do not keep the surface spotless, those food particles can burn to the stovetop, making it look old and dirty. Getting that showroom shine back …

The Ultimate Guide to How to Winterize a Camper or Travel Trailer

Through the spring, summer, and fall, you enjoyed amazing adventures in your camper. As the traditional camping season draws to a close and winter arrives, however, you may have already decided that winter camping isn’t for you. To make sure that your camper is ready to use again when …

How to Put Christmas Lights on the Roof: A Complete Guide

As the temperatures dip and the holiday season approaches, many homeowners are beginning to plan a Christmas light display. But before you dig your favorite holiday lights out of storage and dig through your garage for the ladder, it’s a good idea to take a moment to consider the best way …

How to Winterize a Car: The Ultimate Guide

Winter weather can be tough to face. The conditions can also wreak havoc on your car. If you’re not going to store your car for the winter, preparing your car for the cold, wet conditions of winter is the best way to avoid damage. Unfortunately, many drivers don’t know …

Your Ultimate Guide to How to Winterize a House

Harsh winter temperatures have a major effect on everything outdoors, but winter can also affect your home. Learning how to winterize a house will provide you with the information you need to keep your home safe, warm, and free from potential damage. If you’ve never prepared your home for …

The Ultimate Guide to Fall Lawn Care

For most people, the idea of lawn care evokes images of sweltering summer days and quality time with the lawnmower. Surprisingly, fall lawn care provides some of the most important benefits for a healthy lawn throughout the year. Whether your lawn will be facing harsh winter weather or a …

Affordable Home Improvement: 54 Genius Project & Renovation Ideas You Can Do for Cheap

“Affordable home improvement” can feel like an oxymoron.

As most homeowners know, improvement projects tend to come with hefty price tags, long timelines for completion, and the inconvenience of living in a construction zone for as long as the project takes to complete.

But home improvement doesn’t have to be such …

How to Get Rid of Mold: The Ultimate Guide

Mold is an unsightly and smelly nuisance that can crop up practically anywhere from your bathrooms and kitchen to your basement. More importantly, mold in your home is dangerous. It can damage your home and even threaten your health.

Many homeowners realize the importance of getting rid of mold quickly. But …

The Ultimate Home Inspection Checklist for Buyers

Buying a new home can be nerve-wracking, especially if you’re moving into your first home. That’s what makes the home inspection such an important part of the process.

This guide gives you everything you need to know about your house inspection. It provides a comprehensive home inspection checklist for home …

How to Clean Car Seats: A Complete Guide

Car seats get dirty over time. If you provide ride-sharing services or otherwise frequently have passengers, the chances of your car interior getting dirty are even greater. Knowing how to clean car seats the right way can help you get rid of any messes and stains, keep your car …

How to Clean a Mattress: A Complete Guide

Deep cleaning bedrooms is a large undertaking, especially when you get into the deep dark corners of the closet and beneath the bed. Still, there’s one item that is often missed when cleaning bedrooms: the mattress. While you may feel clean when you go to bed, your mattress comes …

How to Insulate a Garage Door

Insulating your garage door is a great DIY project for reducing your energy bills and protecting your garage’s content from the elements. Whether it is winter, summer, or any other time of year, having an uninsulated garage door harms your home and wallet. Other distinct benefits of knowing how …

How to Clean a Charcoal Grill

If you own a charcoal grill, it’s a great tool to cook delicious meals on throughout the summer season. You can even grill year-round, depending on where you are. A charcoal grill can be especially great for use in a neighborhood block party or another special occasion that calls …

The Ultimate Knife Sharpening Guide

A dull knife doesn’t just make cutting less efficient. It’s also more dangerous because users need to apply additional force when cutting, which could result in slippage and injury. In addition to increased danger, the quality of your food could also suffer as imprecise, and inconsistent cutting leads to …

The Complete Guide to How to Get Rid of Wasps

Spring and summer lead to more time playing outdoors and enjoying the weather. Unfortunately, it can also mean wasps take up residence around your yard, porch, and home. A wasp infestation can be annoying, painful, and even potentially dangerous.

This guide will help you identify the wasps on your property …

A Complete Guide for How to Clean a Fish Tank

If you want to keep your fish happy and healthy and your fish tank looking its best, it’s important to know how to clean a fish tank properly. Having a clean fish tank will help improve your fish’s wellbeing and make water filtration more efficient. If you simply want …

How to Winterize Lawn Mowers

Landscapes — and your landscaping equipment — need seasonal attention. Before you store your lawn mower away once cold weather starts, however, you should winterize it. If you don’t properly prepare it for long-term storage, you may have to get another one next spring. Fortunately, this doesn’t take special …

How to Pressure Wash a Deck

As you gear up for some back yard enjoyment with a freshly cleaned home this spring, one daunting task you might be dreading is how to get your deck to look shiny and brand new. The simplest and fastest way to get that deck spruced up is with a …

How to Clean Wood Furniture

When you have wood furniture in your home, there are times when it simply needs to be cleaned. If you need to know how to clean your wood furniture, follow these key steps to ensure that you maintain the quality of the wood furniture and its finish while still …

Ultimate Printable Guide to Pool Maintenance for Your Home

Maintaining your swimming pool is essential for healthy summer fun, but it can be easy to forget all the details involved with proper pool maintenance. Whether you’re looking for a guide to pool maintenance for beginners or you need to jog your memory on the specifics of pool care, …

How to Insulate an Attic: The Ultimate Guide

As much as 25% of your home’s heat could be escaping through your poorly insulated attic. Just as importantly, an improperly insulated attic can lead to ice dams, which eventually cause expensive leaks and dangerous structural damage to your home.

Calling in a professional to insulate your attic could quickly …

5 Home Improvement Projects That Will Delight Your House Buyers

There are many things that you should keep in mind when trying to sell your old house, but if you want to delight your buyers (and hopefully get higher offers) you definitely have to go the extra mile. Home staging is something that can ramp up the property value …

ATV Maintenance Tips and Buying Guide

Just like any other vehicle, an ATV needs a little tender love to keep it at peak performance. ATV maintenance is similar to maintaining a car. You have to frequently check and change the oil, check out the air filter, look for damage on the nuts and bolts, maintain …

Spring Cleaning Checklist

Updated for 2021

Hopefully after a long, cold winter, you’re ready to stretch the cleaning muscles and spruce up your home. Use this Ultimate Spring Cleaning Checklist and you’ll hit all the essentials you need to deep clean every room in the house to to get your home feeling refreshed …

Home Improvements to Make Before the Baby Arrives

Preparing for a new baby is exciting, expensive, and exasperating all at the same time. Every square inch of your home needs to be transformed into a baby-proof bunker in a matter of months. From nursery interior design ideas to making space for baby storage, here are some home …

Outdoor Furniture Cleaning: How to Clean your Outdoor Patio and Lawn Furniture

Summer is the season of entertaining guests, specifically in an outdoor setting. This makes it all the more important that your lawn and lawn furniture are well maintained. Here’s how to clean your outdoor furniture, so you can make the best impression possible. Enjoy our outdoor furniture cleaning guide!
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Landscaping Tips for Beginners & First-Time Homeowners

There are a lot of amazing opportunities that owning your first home provides: the chance to customize everything you want, the freedom to put nails in the wall without having to worry about violating your lease, and of course, the yard, and the opportunity to truly make it your …