How to Prepare Your House for Winter: 21-Step Checklist

Winter is coming, and your property needs preparing. When the leaves start to fall, it's time to get your home ready for the months ahead: inside, outside, and out on the lawn.

Below is a tried-and-true checklist of 21 steps to prepare your property for winter, whether you live in it yourself or rent it out. If you're a landlord, a handful of these steps split between you and your tenant, and we've flagged those along the way, along with the notice you owe a tenant before doing any of this work on an occupied property.

Why Prepare Your Property for the Upcoming Winter Months?

Winter can be hard on a property, a lawn, and an electrical bill. The steps you take now mitigate damage and boost energy savings for months to come. A few concrete reasons to get this done every fall:

• Safety. Ice can form on unmaintained gutters, and wooden steps deteriorate quickly without protection. Doing the work ahead of time keeps the house, and anyone who visits, safe.

• Energy savings. Air leaks around windows and doors let warm air escape, and that shows up on the utility bill. Fixing trim, caulking windows, and making sure doors and windows close properly saves real money over a winter.

• Damage prevention. Winters are harsh, especially on a home's exterior. Properly preparing the property helps prevent rot, mold, burst pipes, and worse.

• Timing. Once winter is actually here, it's often too late. Caulking and painting in the cold is a losing game, and sealing windows and doors once the days turn cold wastes the warm air you're trying to keep in.

Most winter prep doesn't take much time or money — a weekend, if things go well. If they don't, winterizing might take a bit longer, but at least you'll know before it's too late.

21 Ways to Prepare Your Property for Winter

1. Test Your Heating System

You don't want to find out your heating system is dead right when you need it. It's a lot easier for a plumber or HVAC expert to work on your system in the fall than in the winter.

Change your filters and test your heating in advance to make sure your furnace and thermostats are working properly. Look around your water heater for signs of leaks or moisture, and take care of minor issues before they become full-scale problems. If the property is tenant-occupied, this is also the moment to make sure a working furnace filter and a working thermostat aren't quietly becoming your tenant's problem in January. Small fixes now save an emergency call later.

2. Seal the Exterior

Exposed wood and trim on the outside of your home need to be properly caulked, painted, and sealed. Look for chips in your paint and gaps behind your trim where moisture can accumulate. Take care of problems before the cold months arrive.

You can handle most minor painting and caulking jobs yourself if you catch the problem early. If the wood starts to rot, though, you'll need a carpenter to replace your trim — and then you're starting the caulking, painting, and sealing process from scratch.

3. Check for Air Leaks

Feel around your windows and doors for cold air getting in. These leaks can lead to substantial energy bills as warm air escapes night after night, week after week. You might find trim that needs replacing, windows that need caulking, and doors that need better sealing.

Finding air leaks in the fall gives you plenty of time to fix the problem. Small leaks are a DIY job with weather sealing strips and caulk, but bigger problems need a professional. Give yourself time to find one and get on their calendar before the season books them up.

4. Clear Your Gutters

Start from the top and work your way down. Remove all the leaves from your gutters, and make sure nothing is blocking your downspouts. If you have large trees around your property, wait until all the leaves have fallen before you clean out your gutters, or you'll likely end up doing it twice.

Once you've cleared the top of your gutters, pour a bit of water down your downspout and confirm it exits where it's supposed to. Add extensions to take water further away from your home if necessary; water depositing too close to your foundation and porch supports can saturate the soil and cause real problems. The farther away you can deposit the water, the better.

5. Clean Your Chimney

Get your chimney cleaned in the fall so you're ready for the fireplace come winter. Your chimney can also be a source of cold air leaks, which is another reason to look at it now.

Clear any obvious obstructions and make sure your damper opens and closes properly. If it's been a while, have your chimney professionally cleaned. A pro will remove hard-to-reach obstructions and make sure smoke escapes efficiently and safely.

6. Test Carbon Monoxide and Smoke Detectors

Winter heating is often the biggest cause of property fires. While your carbon monoxide and smoke detectors should work year-round, double-check the batteries and test them before heading into winter.

Carbon monoxide is a bigger threat in winter because windows and doors stay closed up tightly, as they should. Install detectors where necessary and replace batteries before you need to — the annoying chirping sound they make is an unforgettable reminder if you don't. If you rent the property out, testing detectors and reporting a dead one immediately is the tenant's job under most leases — worth a quick written reminder before the season starts.

New to renting out a property? Our complete guide to renting out your house for the first time covers the steps before you ever get to seasonal maintenance.

7. Shut Down the Sprinkler System

This is arguably the most important step on this entire list. Get it wrong, and you could end up with a huge, expensive mess come springtime.

It's not enough to just turn off your sprinklers. Most systems need the lines blown out to make sure no moisture remains in the lines, where it could freeze and cause problems. A professional is worth the cost here to make sure it's done right.

Want to do it yourself? Here's what the process looks like:

• Turn off the water. Find the main valve next to your water meter and turn it off. If you have backflow prevention valves, shut those off too.

• Switch off your timer. Turn off your automatic timer so the sprinklers don't try to run. Modern systems often have a Rain Mode that turns off the timer without losing your programmed settings.

• Drain the water. There's likely water already sitting in the pipes even after you shut off the supply. Blow-out draining, using an air compressor to force remaining moisture out of the sprinkler heads, is the most common technique — always wear protective goggles. Done wrong, this can damage the system, which is exactly what a proper shutdown is meant to prevent. We'd recommend hiring a professional.

• Leave your backflow valves partially open so any remaining water drains naturally.

• Insulate above-ground components. Wrap your shut-off valve and exposed pipes in insulation tape or foam covers to prevent freezing.

8. Drain Outside Faucets

While you're draining your sprinkler system, do the same for your outside faucets. Unplug the hoses and let the remaining water drain out of the line, so no pipes freeze and potentially flood your home, basement, or yard.

9. Cleanup and Rake the Yard

Clean up fallen branches and dead plants from your yard. Rake the leaves off the lawn, or mulch them with your mower. Either way, get the big leaves off the lawn to help with aerating and growing grass.

10. Aerate Your Lawn

Aeration keeps your lawn healthy and alive. Without it, compacted soil restricts water and nutrient absorption, and that eventually leads to dead grass.

Rent an aeration device to break up the soil and let air, water, and nutrients reach your grass's roots. Doing this in both fall and spring keeps your grass lively.

11. Start Growing Grass

You have two windows to grow grass: spring and fall. Fall is the better of the two, but it requires aerating, seeding, and properly fertilizing before the temperature drops too much.

Water your lawn well a few days before aerating. The better you aerate, the more likely the seeds are to reach the soil and take hold. Rent an aeration machine from your local hardware store (it looks a lot like a mower) and aerate everywhere you're going to seed.

Starting in the fall gives you a head start. Yes, the cold will temporarily put your grass to sleep, but if you've aerated and seeded properly, it'll be primed and ready to bloom in spring.

12. Fertilize the Grass

After aerating and seeding your yard, it's time to fertilize. The best time is 2 to 3 weeks before the ground freezes. Depending on where you live and what grass you have, the right fertilizer might be labeled as a winterizer.

Winterizer fertilizer is different from a springtime blend; it provides different nutrients, in different ratios, with a release profile suited to a lawn about to go dormant.

13. Remove Dead (or Dying) Trees

Dead trees and branches can be a hazard, especially once they're cold, brittle, and weighed down by snow. Take time in the fall to remove risky trees or dangerous limbs.

It's also a lot easier to climb a ladder and handle a pair of clippers when there's no snow on the ground and your hands aren't freezing — so there's that advantage too.

14. Scan Your Roof

Check your roof for holes or damaged shingles. Summer storms and nasty critters can make your roof a liability come wintertime. If you spot issues, hire a professional to get things in shape before the snow does.

15. Check Your Fuel Supply

Do you use propane to heat your home? Make sure your storage tank is full and ready to go come wintertime. Double-check your contracts and payment methods to confirm your supplier will handle regular refuels, so you're not scrambling once the tank runs dry.

16. Stow Your Lawn Care Equipment

Don't let your mowers or weed eaters sit outside all winter. Put them in your garage or shed for safekeeping. This is also a good time to empty the gas, if your equipment uses it, and do some maintenance — new string in the weed eater, a check that your mower's blades are sharp, aligned, and cutting properly.

Doing your due diligence in the fall means you're ready when the sun comes back out in spring.

17. Restock on Ice Melt

Take a look at your ice melt inventory. Restock and buy extra bags before the ice prevents you from getting out your own front door.

18. Examine Your Snow-Clearing Tools

Double-check that your gloves, boots, shovels, and any snow-blowing machines are ready to go. The last thing you want is a broken shovel after the snow's already piled up around your driveway and cars.

19. Prep Your AC Unit for Winter

Some homeowners like to cover their AC unit; that's mostly personal preference. More importantly, make sure the unit doesn't turn on during winter — running an air conditioner when it's below about 60°F outside can damage it.

Remember, an air conditioning unit isn't designed to keep things cold when it's already cold outside. Its job is to bring your inside space to a specific temperature. If your house feels stuffy at 72°F and you turn the thermostat to 70°F, the AC will kick on to make that happen, whether or not you actually want cooling. Switch your thermostat to heat-only for the season — that way, if you want a cooler room, you let the outside weather do the work instead of triggering the compressor.

20. Winterize Your Swamp Cooler

An evaporative cooler is full of water, which causes problems once temperatures drop below freezing. To winterize it and avoid frozen lines, damage, and heat loss:

• Disconnect the water line. Turn off the water supply, disconnect the line from the cooler, and blow through it to clear and dry it out.

• Drain the water at the base of the cooler to prevent rust and freeze damage — a bucket and a sponge do the job.

• Clean your cooler of dirt and grime once it's already open, and swap out the evaporative pads so it's ready to run come spring.

• Install the winter cover. Skip the plain sheet — find one with vent panels for adequate airflow.

• Seal the vent. Vents can cause heat loss, so remove the vent cover and install insulation or cardboard over the opening before putting the cover back on.

21. Insulate Your Attic

Hot air rises, and it might be escaping quickly through the top of your house if your attic isn't insulated properly. Not sure if your insulation is doing its job? A roofing professional can check ventilation and coverage and flag anything that needs topping up.

If You Rent This Property Out

Everything above applies whether you live in the property or lease it to someone else. A few things change once a tenant is involved:

• Give proper notice. Any inspection or on-site work at an occupied rental needs advance notice under your lease and state law — typically 24 to 48 hours, sometimes more. Some of this list (sprinkler shutdown, exterior sealing, gutters) doesn't require entering the unit at all; other steps, like an HVAC check, do.

• A few of these steps are the tenant's job, not yours. Testing detectors and reporting a dead one immediately, keeping the thermostat above roughly 55°F even when away (to prevent frozen pipes), and reporting leaks or drafts promptly are usually on the tenant under a standard lease. Put both lists — yours and theirs — in writing before the season starts, whether that's a short email or a note in the tenant portal. Vague ownership of a task means neither of you does it, and the pipe bursts in February.

• The stakes are a little different. A skipped step on your own home costs you money and a headache. The same skipped step on a rental costs you money, a headache, and a tenant who loses heat or water while you sort it out — worth the extra half-day it takes to get this list done properly.

FAQ

How much does it cost to winterize a property?

Most owners spend somewhere between $200 and $600 on a typical winterization pass — a sprinkler blowout, a chimney cleaning, and an HVAC tune-up are the three most common paid services, and DIY items like caulk, weatherstripping, and ice melt add relatively little. Costs rise quickly if fall maintenance gets skipped and something fails mid-winter; an emergency plumber call for a burst pipe routinely runs into the thousands.

When should I start winterizing my property?

Start in early-to-mid fall, before the first hard freeze in your area — typically September or October in most of the U.S. Sprinkler blowouts, gutter cleaning, and exterior sealing all need to happen before temperatures drop consistently below freezing, and contractors book up fast once the season turns, so scheduling early matters as much as doing the work early.

Can I winterize a property myself, or do I need a professional?

Most of this checklist — testing detectors, draining faucets, raking, storing equipment, restocking ice melt — is straightforward DIY work. A few steps are worth paying for: sprinkler blowouts (easy to damage the system doing it yourself), chimney cleaning (a pro finds buildup you can't see), and HVAC service (diagnosing a furnace issue takes equipment and training most owners don't have).

Do I need to notify my tenant before winterizing a rental property?

Yes. Any inspection or on-site work at an occupied rental requires proper notice under your lease and state law — typically 24 to 48 hours, though some states require more. Some steps, like sprinkler shutdowns or exterior work, don't require entering the unit at all; others, like an HVAC check, do.

What's the single most important winter prep step?

Shutting down and blowing out the sprinkler system is the step most likely to cause an expensive failure if skipped — a frozen line typically means a spring repair well into four figures. Heating system service and detector testing are the close second and third, since they're the two most directly tied to safety.

Managing a Rental Through the Seasons

If this property is a rental you self-manage, winter prep is one of the few maintenance pushes worth doing proactively instead of reactively. A tenant who loses heat in January calls you at 9 p.m., not in October when the fix was a $40 furnace filter. Software like Nomad can take the repetitive parts of running a rental off your plate: syndicating the listing, screening every applicant, generating the lease, and triaging maintenance requests around the clock. You still keep the decisions: who lives there, what gets fixed, by whom, and what gets spent. See how Nomad works.