15 Things In Your Home You Must Clean Before Winter Hits

There's so much to look forward to during the winter season — such as a slew of festive holidays to enjoy, the thrill of winter sports and beautiful frozen landscapes, and the perfect excuse to hunker down and get cozy indoors. However, there's also a lot of areas of your home that no doubt need some extra prepping and cleaning before hibernating for the season. Part of this pre-winter clean is crucial for the upkeep of your home; gutters and chimney flues, for example, should be cleared of debris and dirt in order to keep your roof and fireplace in tip-top shape before dealing with harsh winter elements. And cleaning doormats, blankets, and high-touch surfaces is essential with the impending cold and flu season, as well as indoor winter allergies wreaking havoc on our physical health. 

But cleaning certain areas of your home before winter is also incredibly beneficial for you and your family. In fact, a deep clean before winter sets in is one of the best things you can do to care for both your physical and mental health. One study published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, for example, found that homes with more clutter correlated with an increase in depressed mood, whereas less clutter correlated with a reduced depressive mood — which is crucial with the onset of darker, colder days, and seasonal affective disorder to contend with. 

From outdoor allergens to mud and muck, your doormat is your home's first line of defense: collecting all the gross stuff from every shoe before it enters your house. And when winter comes, it will be working extra hard to keep your floors clean by picking up all that slush and snowy mess. So before winter arrives, give your doormat a good cleaning to ensure it's cleared out and able to work effectively at catching all the outdoor gunk. Bonus: a clean doormat makes a great first impression when holiday guests are arriving at your home!

When cold weather hits, you'll want to be ready to pump up the heat and keep everyone in your home toasty and warm — but you'll also want to be sure you can do so efficiently and without costing a fortune. To keep energy bills from skyrocketing and to put less stress on your unit, be sure to clean your HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) system by changing the filter at the start of the season.

It's not just your HVAC that needs attention. To keep warm air flowing properly through your home, you'll also want to change the air filters, as well as clean your air vents, which can easily accumulate dust and pet hair. While the task may sound daunting, simply vacuuming them with your vacuum's brush attachment should do the trick — and ensure that everyone stays cozy when the temperatures drop.

As the daylight hours get shorter and shorter, many of us are extra eager for ways to light up our homes during dark and gloomy winter days. After all, not getting enough vitamin D from sunlight is a surefire way to aggravate seasonal affective disorder. One simple way to ensure you're getting the most out of the winter's waning sunlight? Make sure your windows are thoroughly cleaned of dust and grime both inside and out so that maximum daylight can shine through.

One of the great pleasures of winter is taking the opportunity to slow down and stay warm under a comfy sherpa or fleece blanket on the couch. But your thickest, most winter-appropriate blankets have probably been sitting idly in your closet since last winter collecting dust — which can do a number on indoor allergies. Before you snuggle up with those flannels and furs, make sure you've washed or dry cleaned everything so that they are fresh and ready for seasonal use.

Speaking of snuggling up, most of us can agree that the fireplace is one of the absolute best spots to do so in wintertime. If you have a wood-burning fireplace in your home, there's no better place to gather on a cold day than in front of the family hearth. But before hunkering down, you'll want to be sure you've cleared the fireplace of any soot, ash, debris, and creosote — a dark residue leftover from burning wood, which can harden and become flammable or create blockages.

Another important component of fireplace maintenance is cleaning out and inspecting the chimney flue, which should be done at least once a year by a professional. They'll clean out any leftover buildup from last winter season and ensure that smoke can flow up and out of your home properly. Not only will this improve heating efficiency and the air quality in your home, it also decreases the risk of chimney fires — so you can enjoy those chestnuts roasting on an open fire safely.

Just as you're probably looking to snuggle up somewhere warm for the winter, rodents, insects, and other pests are on the hunt for a cozy spot to do the same. Clogged gutters offer a safe haven of debris for rodents to nest for the winter. Plus, all that gutter buildup can freeze over and block the opening, creating even more of a hassle and restricting water flow. So be sure to clear out your gutters ahead of time to steer clear of winter roof-related issues.

From barbecues to lazy evenings on the porch, your outdoor furniture probably got a lot of love during the dog days of summer, but now it's time to store it away until next season. Before tucking outdoor furniture away for the winter, be sure to give it a good cleaning to remove dirt and debris that may have accumulated. Doing so ensures that mold and mildew doesn't have the opportunity to grow while your outdoor furniture is in storage — which will keep your furniture in top shape and help prolong the life of your tables and chairs.

With all those winter holiday meals to prepare for, your oven is often working double-duty during the cold weather months, so be sure to give it a proper scrubbing to remove any baked-on grease and grime. Not only will this prevent more baked-on food and grease from accumulating in your oven, it will also keep your kitchen from getting all smoky every time you heat it up.

When chilly temperatures arrive and your shorts and swimsuits are (unfortunately) no longer practical, it's time to start rummaging through your closet for all those well-insulated sweaters, snowsuits, and coats. So while you're already rooting around and swapping out your spring and summer wardrobe for the heavy winter wear, it's a good idea to clean out and organize your closet before winter weather sets in. You'll thank yourself in the spring, when all that decluttering makes it easier to find your seasonal items — and means you're less likely to spend unnecessarily on duplicate pieces you didn't know you already had.

Cleaning the dust from smoke and carbon monoxide detectors is one of the most important task to tackle as you're going about your home and giving it a refresh before wintertime. The risk of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning is especially elevated during the winter, when this colorless, odorless gas can unknowingly leak from appliances used during cold weather. Likewise, there's the risk of fires during winter from portable heaters, charcoal, and unattended burning candles. To stay safe, double check that your carbon monoxide detectors and smoke detectors are working, and replace batteries if necessary.

When you're doing a deep clean of your home, you may not think much about the little spots, such as door knobs, light switches, handrails, and faucet handles. But these sometimes overlooked areas are actually among the most high-touch surfaces that germy hands come in contact with the most, and are hot spots for spreading illnesses. So ahead of winter cold and flu season, it's a good idea to give these often-ignored areas some extra disinfecting and care to eliminate germs that can make you, your family, and any guests sick.

If you live in an older house or apartment building, you probably have experience with those dreaded, noisy radiators that tend to harbor hidden dirt and grime. But for many of us, these clunky contraptions are a reality of winter living, and very necessary to keep cozy when it gets chilly. Equally necessary? Cleaning those radiators — which, if left untouched, can create foul odors and even heat less efficiently. So before your radiators turn on for the season, be sure to give it a good scrub with some mild dish soap and a non-abrasive sponge.

From Thanksgiving to holiday parties to cozy nights lounging at home solo, many of us tend to do a lot more cooking and baking while cooped up at home during the cold weather months. So before you start rummaging through your kitchen cupboard for ingredients for grandma's chicken soup or your famous gingerbread cookies, be sure to do some cleaning out first. It's easier to find everything when you organize your pantry space, and it's a good opportunity to discard of any spices (yes, these do eventually expire!) or other baking goods that are past their use-by date.