10 Ways to Prep Your Midwest Home for Summer

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As the weather warms up here in the midwest, we’ve slowly been prepping the house and yard. We find that if we do a little bit at a time starting in spring, we are able to actually enjoy the warm summers when they’re here. Over the last month or two we’ve been busy with these home maintenance tasks and I wanted to share just exactly what our midwest house prep for the summer looks like. Most of it we’ve learned over the years and I wish we would have had a list of some sort when we were brand new homeowners. I actually created this free summer home prep list for those of you who sign up for my email list. Hopefully you’re able to take some of this to your own home so that you’re prepared to have the best summer!

Why Prep Your Midwest House For Summer?

First, let’s talk about why it’s even important to prepare your home for summer. Growing up, my parents were always working on our house, and I was usually annoyed to be honest. Why does this even matter? Nobody else does this much house work, why even bother? I didn’t really think about the “why” until I became a homeowner myself. Now I’m thankful they instilled the value of taking care of your home in me. We should care about prepping our midwest homes for the summer season for a handful of reasons:

It saves you money. By being proactive and fixing anything that is already damaged or realizing you might need something in the near future before it gets even worse will save you money in the end. 

It saves time. Doing this ahead of time and having an actual plan helps you space it out over a couple of weeks versus having to cram it all in at once. If you have little kids, you know how valuable time can be!

Creates a stress free season. If you prep things ahead of time, you are able to actually enjoy the season. For example, we recently got a new sump pump with a battery backup. It didn’t completely crash or anything, but it was old and we had it in the budget, so we got a new one. Now we won’t panic and cross our fingers that our basement won’t flood with the next storm. 

Improves your health. Cleaning anything and preventing bugs from entering your house keeps you healthy overall. 

Improves the value of your home. If you ever want to sell your house, you’re going to get way more if it has been maintained well. 

Improved aesthetic and overall comforting feeling. I don’t know about you, but I want to actually enjoy sitting on my patio and be proud of our home when we have guests. I want to be comfortable, confident and calm in my own space.

The Best Midwest Summer Home Preparation List

Every year it’s slightly different, but this is what our summer house prep looks like this year. Full transparency, my husband does a lot of the outdoor stuff while I take on more of the indoor projects. It’s just what works for us and we couldn’t get all of the things we wanted to get done if we didn’t work together. Don’t be afraid to ask your partner or even a friend or other family member for help. Most people are more than happy to do so!

1. Hang the patio lights. We got string lights for our patio last summer and took them down before winter so that they keep up and stay nice and functional for when we actually use them. Wisconsin winters can be brutal so putting summer things away is important. This means the stakes we use to hang them up with too.
2. Connect the outdoor hoses back up. We take down the hoses in winter to prevent any water from freezing and bursting the hose or pipes. Hooking them back up is always one of my favorite signs of nicer weather coming as it means so soon I’ll be watering the flowers!
3. New sump pump. This is one of those bigger purchase things. As I said above, we had an old sump pump and knew we’d need a new one within the next 5ish years. This year it was in our budget so we went ahead and got a new one. We are supposed to get our first big storm of the season tomorrow actually, and it’s already reassuring having one with a battery back up.
4. Wash the deck and outdoor furniture. This is pretty self explanatory. We store our deck chairs in the garage during winter (again, to keep them functional and long lasting), so we sprayed the deck and cleaned all of the furniture.
5. Fertilize the lawn. This helps keep our yard healthy and free of weeds. (I’m on the hunt for a more natural lawn fertilizer option that works, so if anyone knows anything let me know!!)
6. Seal cracks around the windows/doors. We have been getting springtails (teeeny tiny bugs) in our house and Alex has been determined to stop them. We recently began sealing any cracks we’ve noticed.
7. Prep the lawn mower. I’m not the one cutting the grass, that’s my husband Alex’s job. It’s not that I won’t, but more so because he’s so type A that the one time I did do it, I did it “wrong”. Haha! Anyway, he preps the lawn mower then and makes sure it’s all ready to go for that first mow.
8. Hang artificial plant/trim real plants. This is more my style of “summer prep” – the decor! Our front porch gets zero sun, so I’ve been playing around with fake plants. It’s hard to find the perfect one, but this one has been pretty impressive so far. Hanging this up means summer is officially on its way. If you don’t have any fake plants, make sure your real plants are trimmed up and ready for growth!
9. Vacuum gutters. Alex said they were full of gunk and other parts from our roof, so he had to vacuum vs using a leaf blower. This is important for storm prep!
10. Switch fans from clockwise to counterclockwise. This way our summer airflow will be most useful and keep us the coolest when needed.
    

So there you have it! 10 different ways to prep your midwest home for the summer season. Hopefully you found these things useful and got some new ideas so that you can get at it and prep your own home for summer. Remember, it’s helpful to be prepared and know what you’re dealing with before the season actually starts. Would you add anything else on your “must do before summer” list? If so, I would love to hear it!