What the house needs in June, north of the equator
19 jobs, in four groups.
June is the month for the jobs that need warmth, open windows and a few days of drying time. Paint an inside room now rather than in November, deep clean the carpets while they will dry the same day, and wash the curtains and the blinds. Outside, clean the barbecue and look properly at the gas hose and the regulator, because perished rubber is what turns a barbecue into an incident. Go up into the roof space and look for a wasp nest while it is still small and quiet: a nest found in June is an easy job and the same nest in September is not. Rinse the dust off the solar panels from the ground with a hose, and cut back the dry growth near the walls before the driest weeks arrive. The longest day falls on 20 or 21 June, with about sixteen and a half hours of daylight in London and more than seventeen in Edinburgh. In the eastern United States the Atlantic hurricane season begins on 1 June, and loose things in the garden are worth a thought before the first named storm rather than after it.
Safety
- Test every smoke alarm
- Every month. See January for how.
- Cut dry growth back from the walls
- Before your own dry season, which is summer in most of the north and winter across the summer rainfall south. Two metres of clear ground is the usual advice.
- Look in the roof space for a wasp nest
- Early in the summer, while a nest is still small and quiet. A nest found in June is a small job and one found in September is not.
- Oil the garage door track and test the safety stop
- Twice a year. Put something solid in the way and check the door stops and reverses, then oil the track and the rollers.
Inside
- Run a hot empty cycle in the washing machine
- Four times a year. See March for how.
- Fit the insect screens and check the mesh
- Before the windows start living open. A hole the size of a fingernail is a mosquito door for the whole season.
- Wash the cooker extractor filters
- Three times a year. See February for how.
- Wash the curtains and the blinds
- In the warm months, when they will dry the same day and the windows can stay open while they are down.
- Check the fridge and freezer door seals
- Shut a sheet of paper in the door. If it pulls out easily the seal has gone, and the machine will fight the hot months for you.
- Clean and check the ceiling fans
- Before the hot months. Dust on the blades unbalances them, and a wobbling fan is a loose fixing rather than a design feature.
- Deep clean the carpets
- In the season the windows can stay open all day, because a carpet that dries slowly smells worse than it did before.
- Paint an inside room while the windows can stay open
- Warm dry weather with the windows open is the difference between a room that smells of paint for a day and one that smells for a fortnight.
Outside
- Touch up the outside paintwork
- In dry settled weather with a few dry days behind you and a few ahead. Bare wood left over a winter costs far more than a tin of paint.
- Wash the bins out
- Still due this month. See May for how.
- Clean the barbecue and check the gas hose
- Before the first one of the year. Perished hose and a corroded regulator are what turn a barbecue into a news item.
- Clean the decking and oil it again
- Wash it, let it dry for two or three days, then oil it. Decking left bare goes grey and then splinters, and neither can be undone.
- Rinse the dust off the solar panels
- Twice in the dry season, with a hose from the ground and never a pressure washer. Dust costs a few per cent and is free to remove.
The garden edge
- Turn the compost heap
- Three times a year. See March for how.
- Check the irrigation timer and the sprinklers
- Run every zone before the dry months and watch where the water actually lands. Half of most systems waters a fence.
Tick them off as you go
This page is the plain list for June. The same list is tickable on the house through the year, where the ticks are kept on your own device and cleared at the start of each year. Nothing is sent anywhere.
The garden half of the month is on the almanac page for June, which covers what to sow, what to plant out and what is ready to pick.