During self-quarantine, gather the family for these Atlanta home maintenance tasks

With Atlanta under a stay-at-home order, now is the best time to tackle those home maintenance tasks you always put off until you had more time.

In fact, with the kids at home, this is an ideal time to teach kiddos how to do simple home maintenance while spending quality time together.

To help you get started, Judy Mozen, president of Handcrafted Homes Inc. in Roswell, put together a home maintenance “to do” list to keep metro Atlantans busy while staying safe.

These include chores for both inside and outside the home.

Wash the casa

Given Atlanta weather is supposed to be warm and dry for the next few days, it’s a great time to pressure-wash your outdoor spaces. “We get a lot of mold on our home exteriors that we need to remove,” Mozen told Curbed Atlanta.

Using a pressure washer (Home Depot rents them for $27 for four hours, and up), clean your porches and decks, walkways, and siding. Once your deck railings and handrails are clean and dry, Mozen recommends following up with a good sanding and staining or painting.

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Check your foundation

Over time, the dirt around your home may start to sink and slope toward the house itself, resulting in water draining into your crawlspace or basement. In fact, Mozen said the large amount of rain Atlanta has received since last fall can contribute greatly to this problem.

Therefore, she said it’s “super, super important” to fix this problem by pulling away pine straw and/or leaves from the perimeter of your house and examining the state of your dirt.

If it dips down toward the house, add more dirt to the area and reslope it so it slopes away.

Also, check your downspouts on your gutters, and make sure they drain away from the house. You may need to add a concrete drainage tray or additional piping to direct the water away from the house.

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Interior spruce-ups

Inside the house, Mozen suggests checking and, if necessary, replacing the weather stripping around your windows and doors. With Atlanta on the verge of warmer and hot months, Mozen said good weather stripping is key to keeping that heat outside, where it belongs.

As the humidity around Atlanta starts to increase, Mozen also said it’s important to clean your bathroom more often to keep mold and mildew at bay.

In addition, now is a great time to clean and organize your basement and attic. Mozen said it’s important to take items out of cardboard boxes and paper bags, which attract cockroaches, and store them in plastic bins.

To coronavirus-proof your home, perform a deep clean room by room. Remodeling specialist Cristina Miguelez shares a visual guide on Fixr to help you cover every space in your home, including tips on what to use for effective cleaning.

Other “to do” items include:

• Clean out your gutters.
• Tighten bolts on pull-down attic stairs.
• Tighten screws on cabinet knobs.
• Repair furniture.
• Check and change smoke detector batteries.
• Clean your dryer vent, both inside and outside.
• Change your HVAC filter.
• Clean your dishwasher; be sure to check the drain.
• Re-caulk as needed in your bathroom.
• Change light bulbs to LED bulbs.
• Deep clean rugs and tile floors.