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September 22, 2025 · 3 min read · The Sherpsy team

Fall maintenance, in the order that matters

Seasonal checklists usually fail by being complete. Thirty items in September is thirty items nobody does. Four items, ordered by what winter will cost you if you skip them, is a Saturday.

In order

Heating first, because it is the one thing you cannot improvise and the only month with appointment availability is this one. Then water: hoses off, exterior faucets drained, anything that can freeze and split. Then gutters, once the leaves are actually down, because doing it early means doing it twice. Then detectors — smoke and carbon monoxide — since the heating season is when CO risk starts.

Everything else can wait

Caulking, weatherstripping, insulation, chimney sweeping: all worth doing, none of them the thing that ruins a February. Do the four, write down what you noticed while you were up there, and let the rest be a list rather than a guilt.

Give the household one place to look.