Home maintenance is so much more than changing your furnace filters every month, mowing the lawn, and closing your crawl space vents in the winter and opening them in the summer.  You also need to keep your refrigerator coils clean, clean around the dryer vents, get your chimney inspected, and much more.  CNN Money provides a great article with year-round maintenance tips, including:

Inspect your roof. Grab some binoculars and look for loose shingles, mold, mildew, or cracked chimney mortar. Catch problems early and you may avoid spending $2,000 to $12,000 (and up) for a roof replacement.

Check your attic for holes or thin spots in the insulation, and make sure the caulking around doors and windows doesn’t leak. Keep in mind that your attic should be only 5° to 10° warmer than the outside air; any hotter and you could develop ice dams on your roof, which can cause water leak.

There are dozens of great ideas in this article and if you have tens of thousands of dollars (or hundreds of thousands) invested in your home mortgage, pay attention and do what needs to be done to preserve your asset!

Photo by Collin Anderson via Flickr Creative Commons.