Today’s blog post is about the fall preparations that I am doing to get our house ready for autumn and dare I say it…….winter.
I almost gagged a little when I wrote that headline. Don’t get me wrong……Fall is my favorite season, but life is just happening too fast. They say the days are long, but the years are short, and I totally agree with that. Mike left for his walk across Spain and will actually have his first day on the trail today. It’s definitely one of the hardest days because he will be crossing the Pyrenees mountains. Today’s walk is 19 miles and over 6,000 feet of climbing. He will start his day in France and end his day in Spain. Since I will be joining him in a few weeks for the last 200 miles, I need to get started on our fall preparations. After all, we will be deep into fall by the time we return home, and I want to be ready before I go. And besides that, Sept. 1 is the first day of fall in my brain, no matter what the thermometer is saying. These are some of the things I have on my list:
Make Pillows
I love changing out the pillows with the seasons. It’s one of the advantages of having neutral furniture. I bought some really colorful fall fabric last week and will use it to make at least two pillows. I also bought a cute pillow for the porch and will pull out my other fall pillows to mix in with the new ones. To learn how to make the fall pillow in the photo, go here.
Clean the Courtyard
The courtyard is looking tired right now. The annuals have suffered from the high heat and low rain, and leaves have been falling. In fact, a few times each week I have to sweep dry leaves that are dropping from the huge trees that surround our house. They started falling in early August. Is that happening where you live?
Schedule Lawn Treatment
Our lawn was fertilized in the spring, but it hasn’t been treated since then. Since it is new sod, we need to stay on top of watering and feeding it so that it will thrive. Lucky for us and our grass, we had a wet winter and spring which gave it a good start.
Clean My Sweaters
I store my sweaters in a cedar closet that we had built in our basement. Instead of taking them to the dry cleaners, I clean them in our dryer. I wrote about it in this post. It will be nice to have clean sweaters stacked in my closet and waiting for cool weather when we get home.
Schedule Fireplace Maintenance
We learned the hard way about the importance of having our fireplace logs cleaned each year. You can read about that here. Of all the chores that need to be done for fall, this is one of the most important.
Clean the Dryer Vent
As a way to prevent fires, this is also an important task to have done once a year. I just like to have our dryer vent cleaned in the fall when I am dealing with all of the other maintenance tasks. Plus, companies often are running specials in the fall. So, I will schedule this to be done before I leave, too.
Switch Out Accessories
I will switch out our summer accessories for autumn items before I leave. Of course, I am not going to purchase pumpkins and gourds yet. I will do that later. Also, I am not going to plant mums and pansies before I leave. If it’s dry while I am away, then they could die from lack of water. We hope to have an in-ground sprinkling system installed next year.
Clean the Fountain
I will give the fountain a good cleaning before we leave and cover it with a tarp. That will protect it from more falling leaves and rain water while we are away.
Clean the Kitchen Runner
Even though it does not show dirt, I know that our kitchen runner is hiding stuff I don’t even want to think about. Before I leave, I am taking it to our rug cleaner so it can get a deep cleaning. Now let me tell you that I have also considered using my new power washer on it. I read a blog post about using the power washer to clean her living room rug, and the writer had great results. Have any of you tried this?
Make Apple Butter
And there’s just one more thing. I like to make jam or apple butter in the fall. It’s kind of like a squirrel collecting his nuts to store away. It gives me comfort to know that I will have 12 pint jars of goodness to slather onto my morning bagel or biscuit. It makes me happy. Here’s the recipe for slow cooker apple butter that I use, but here’s one for peach jam and blackberry jam. They are all delicious and really aren’t hard to make.
Well, that’s my list of fall preparations. Looking at it makes me tired. I better get started. Do you have chores that you do for fall? We would love to know them.
Take care.
