Winter in Illinois is challenging for people of all ages. The cold weather and hazardous conditions affect businesses, transportation, and can even be detrimental to our health – especially for older adults who also struggle with winter home maintenance.
Maintaining a home to stand up to the harsh winter weather in Illinois often involves a lot of work and expense. Below are a few winter home maintenance tips, a comprehensive checklist and an alternative solution for older adults to help make this winter a little more bearable.
Difficult Home Maintenance Tasks
Before winter sets in, windows and doors need to be protected and you should seal any cracks in your exterior walls, driveway and foundation. Gutters need to be cleaned to ensure proper water drainage around the foundation of your home to prevent soil erosion caused by rain and melting snow. Water damage can be caused by frozen pipes, so proper insulation around plumbing in exterior walls is another critical component to proper winter home maintenance.
Even the mundane and ongoing task of shoveling snow can become hazardous for older adults. Keeping your walkways free of snow is important for your mobility and safety, but the task itself can become hazardous. The potential for an accident or injury while shoveling snow increases with age, so ensure you have the proper tools or considering hiring a professional snow removal company.
A Maintenance Checklist
There are so many tasks associated with preparing your home for the winter months that the only way to be sure to complete them all is to write a list and check it off as you go. A typical winter home maintenance checklist for an Illinois resident might include the following items:
- Schedule heating system check-up
- Check windows and doors for drafts
- Check window frames for cracks and rot
- Inspect exterior paint for chips and flaking
- Install storm windows and doors
- Check foundation for cracks
- Clean gutters
- Inspect water drainage
- Schedule chimney sweep
- Order firewood
- Check smoke and carbon monoxide detectors
- Drain any exterior hoses and water pipes
- Winterize lawn mower and yard equipment
- Trim trees away from the house
- Check attic and basement seals to keep animals out
- Start snowblower, check snow shovels
- Stock up on ice melting salt
- Buy de-icing fluid and winterize car
The list goes on and on, with each item necessary for your safety, health and property value.
The Ultimate Solution: Free Yourself from Winter Home Maintenance
It can be difficult to consider moving out of your family home, even in your retirement years. But think about the freedom you would have if you never had to work through a long winter home maintenance list again.
If you move to a senior independent living community, you’ll no longer be burdened with the effort and costs associated with the upkeep of a traditional family home. You’ve worked hard your whole life building and maintaining wealth. When you retire, it’s time to put that wealth to work for you, to give yourself a break from all that hard work. You can put it behind you so you can reap the rewards of your lifetime of sacrifice and enjoy spending time doing the things you want to do, rather than the things you have to do.
Retirement Communities
Now more than ever, older adults are considering moving into retirement communities. These communities offer low or no-maintenance apartments, condos or townhomes that are managed by a service staff. Part of the cost of purchase or predictable homeowners association dues pays for the staff to complete home maintenance chores and repairs, and upkeep of the exterior property and landscaping.
Freeing yourself from all that work doesn’t mean you won’t be as busy as you want to be. Living at a senior independent living community means that you’ll have plenty of activities, events and organizations to participate in if you choose to. And when you’ve downsized from your larger family home and now have predictable, often lower monthly expenses, you’ll be able to spend more time and money pursuing whatever it is that makes you happy. Isn’t that what retirement living is all about?
Independent Living at Beacon Hill
Once you’ve left behind the worry and work of your old property, you’ll have interior and exterior maintenance taken care of for you, and there are convenient community amenities like weekly housekeeping and flat linen service, on-site banking and dental services, and a salon. This is true independent living. And at Beacon Hill, our community provides you with the opportunities to do whatever makes you happy. You can focus on health and wellness. You can dive into old hobbies or learn new ones. You can participate in educational activities or artistic endeavors, or pursue spiritual fulfillment. Now you’re free to live life on your terms.
And you don’t have to venture out into the cold to enjoy your social life. There are multiple dining options, lounges and party rooms, a crafts room, greenhouses, gardens, a library, a computer room, a fitness center and more. And there are specially trained team members to help you with your every need. At Beacon Hill, everywhere you turn, you’ll be greeted with a warm smile, even in winter.
To find out more about how you can enjoy a maintenance-free lifestyle in your retirement, fill out the contact form at the bottom of this page.
