What the house needs in May, north of the equator
14 jobs, in five groups.
May is the month to do the outside work while the weather is kind and before it is hot enough to be unpleasant. Paintwork comes first: bare wood that went through the winter should be dealt with now, in a settled dry spell with a few dry days behind it and ahead of it. Wash and re-oil the decking, bring the garden furniture out and check the joints and bolts before anybody sits on it, and run every irrigation zone to see where the water actually lands, which is rarely where you think. Indoors the summer preparation starts: wash the air conditioner filters, check the fridge and freezer door seals with a sheet of paper, clean the ceiling fans, and get the insect screens up before the windows start living open.
Safety
- Test every smoke alarm
- Press the button on each one until it sounds. It takes two minutes and it is the single most useful thing on this list.
- 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.
Water and heating
- Wash the air conditioner filters
- Before the hot months, and again halfway through if it runs daily. A blocked filter costs more in electricity than the machine costs to clean.
- Check the tank lid and the overflow
- Lid on properly, overflow clear, nothing growing in it. Five minutes in the roof once a year.
Inside
- Wash and put away the winter bedding
- Wash it before it goes away rather than when it comes out, and store it somewhere dry with the door left ajar.
- 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.
- 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.
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 patio down
- In the settled weather before you start using it. Give it a day to dry properly and look for the joints that need repointing.
- Wash the bins out
- In the warm months, when it matters and when they dry in an hour. A rinse and a splash of disinfectant is enough.
- Bring the garden furniture out and look at it
- Check the joints and the bolts before you sit on it, and give timber its oil while the weather is dry.
- 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.
The garden edge
- 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 May. The same list is tickable onthe 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 forMay, which covers what to sow, what to plant out and what is ready to pick.