With winter not too far away, fall is a great time to get any repairs done and get your home ready for the cold months of winter ahead. We’ve got you covered, here's a checklist of some things you can do this fall to get everything ready for the ice and snow.

1. Take care of trees and shrubs | Prune properly to avoid falling limbs in storms, trim any dead trees or branches.

2. Rake leaves |  Everyone's least favorite job, but leaving fall leaves on your lawn over winter can inhibit spring growth. To make the job easier, choose a lightweight rake and wear gloves to protect your hands.

3. Clean Gutters and Downspouts | As soon as most of the leaves have fallen, clean the gutters and downspouts on your house, or hire some help. Clogged gutters during storms cause water to pool and can damage your roof or siding.

4. Make exterior repairs | Look for signs of damage to the roof, siding and foundation, if anything needs repair, schedule it before winter weather hits.

5. Add weatherstripping | Weatherstripping applied around the frames of windows and doors helps boost winter warmth and cut energy costs. Add door sweeps to the base of drafty doors to keep heat in and cold air out.

6. Shut off exterior faucets and store hoses | Protect your pipes from freezing temperatures by shutting off water to exterior faucets before the weather dips below freezing. Drain hoses and store them indoors.

7. Clean dryer vents | Lint buildup in dryer vents can make your dryer work less efficiently and even cause a fire — cool, dry fall weather increases static electricity, which can ignite lint that has built up, so now is a key time to get that lint out.

8. Deep-clean the kitchen | Take a day to tackle some of the more labor-intensive cleaning tasks, and keep your kitchen working efficiently and looking great:

- Degrease the range hood and filter

- Clean the oven

- Vacuum the refrigerator coils

- Scrub tile grout

- Clean light fixtures

- Wash the walls and backsplash

- Wash the garbage can and recycling bins

- Clean small appliances

9. Check safety devices

- Test smoke and carbon monoxide detectors

- Check the expiration date on your fire extinguisher 

- If you haven’t checked your home for radon, fall is a good time to do so — with windows shut, radon is more likely to become trapped in your home.

- Radon at high enough levels is extremely harmful, so if you find that your home has radon hire a contractor qualified to fix radon issues.

10. Clean and maintenance heating system | Making sure your furnace or boiler are cleaned, maintained and in working order before you need to turn on the heat is an important safety measure.