It doesn’t feel quite like winter now so some of these home maintenance tasks may even be performed before Spring.

In order to keep your home looking and performing its best, The Lawhead Team would like to share these spring home maintenance tips with our readers:

1. Perform a roof inspection. The roof is your home’s first line of defense against water damage. Don’t delay fixing leaks in your roof and avoid water damage when the next storm hits during spring.
2. Clean out your gutters. Fall time is when all the leaves and debris gather in your gutters. Before the spring rains hit, these gutters should be cleared out.
3. Replace or clean your HVAC filters in your home. We recommend twice a year but more if you have pets living in your home. A dirty filter makes your HVAC system work harder which not only uses more electricity but can also make your HVAC unit need repairs sooner than necessary.
4. Clean out your dryer vent. Of course you need to clean out your lint trap after every use but did you know lint can also make its way into the dryer vent? Cleaning your vent will save money on your electric bill as well as prevent a house fire.
5. When was the last time you checked your washing machine fill hose? A leaky hose under pressure can cause major damage in a short period of time so make sure you check for cracks that can become leaks.
6. Vacuum your refrigerator coils. Pull the fridge out from the wall and vacuum up the dust that has collected on the coils located on the back of the fridge. This will avoid your fridge from working harder which means less of an electric bill. A great spring cleaning activity!
7. Replace batteries in your smoke detectors. You never know when you’ll need to rely on your smoke detector to warn you of a fire…better safe than sorry so replace your batteries before spring.

Happy Easter from The Lawhead Team! We wish everyone a very fun and enjoyable Easter with family and friends. Check out some of our Easter facts:

Easter Trivia from http://www.indobase.com/holidays/easter/easter-facts/

• The name Easter owes its origin from Eastre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess who symbolizes hare and egg.
• Easter always falls between March 22 and April 25.
• Pysanka is a specific term used for the practice of Easter egg painting.
• From the very early times, egg has been considered the most important symbol of rebirth.
• The initial baskets of Easter were given the appearance of bird’s nests.
• The maiden chocolate eggs recipes were made in Europe in the nineteenth century.
• Each year witnesses the making of nearly 90 million chocolate bunnies.
• Next to Halloween, Easter holiday paves way for confectionary business to boom.
• When it comes to eating of chocolate bunnies, the ears are preferred to be eaten first by as many as 76% of people.
• In the catalogue of kids’ favorite Easter foodstuff, Red jellybeans occupy top most position.
• Americans celebrate Easter with a large Easter egg hunt on the White House Lawn.
• Easter Bonnets are a throwback to the days when the people denied themselves the pleasure of wearing fine angels for the duration of Lent.
• Easter is now celebrated (in the words of the Book of Common Prayer) on the first Sunday after the full moon, which happens on, or after March 21, the Spring Equinox.
• In medieval times, a festival of egg throwing was held in church, during which the priest would throw a hard-boiled egg to one of the choirboys. It was then tossed from one choirboy to the next and whoever held the egg when the clock struck 12 was the winner and retained the egg.
• Some Churches still keep up the old tradition of using evergreens – symbolic of eternal life – embroidered in red on white, or woven in straw, but most now prefer displays of flowers in the spring colors of green, yellow and white.
• The custom of giving eggs at Easter time has been traced back to Egyptians, Persians, Gauls, Greeks and Romans, to whom the egg was a symbol of life.
• The date of Passover is variable as it is dependent on the phases of the moon, and thus Easter is a movable feast.
• The first Easter baskets were made to look like bird’s nests.
• The maiden chocolate eggs recipes were made in Europe in the nineteenth century.

The Lawhead Team knows we all take pride in how our home looks and with warmer weather ahead of us, that means more time spent outside. We would like to share some helpful early spring gardening tips with our readers.

Fruit Trees – Most fruit trees, including apples, pears, cherries, and peaches, benefit from being thinned every year. This encourages a more open habit that keeps the trees healthy and makes it easier to harvest the produce. The best time to prune is before new growth develops in early spring.

Rose Bushes – Prune your roses just as or before new growth emerges from the canes. Cutting your roses back encourages strong, healthy shoots that will produce lots of blooms. A trim also gives the plants a more open habit, which helps them resist diseases such as black spot.

Planting Trees and Shrubs – Spring’s cool, moist conditions make it the perfect time to add trees and shrubs to your yard for some spring gardening. There are many reasons to grow trees and shrubs: They add value and beauty to your property; they can shade your home, reducing your summer energy bills; and if you select fruit-bearing varieties such as apples or blueberries, they supply food for your family. The most common mistake when planting trees and shrubs during spring gardening is planting them too deeply. The root flare, where the roots meet the trunk, should be at or just above the soil level.

Annuals – Annual flowers fall into two categories: varieties that like it warm and varieties that like it cool. Most cool-season annuals you plant during spring gardening fade when summer heat arrives; replace them with heat-loving varieties, such as petunia, pentas, nasturtium, and lantana, for color all summer long.

Ornamental Grasses – Cut back ornamental grasses to about 4 inches tall before or just as they put out new growth when spring gardening. This is also the time to divide ornamental grasses, if you wish to do so.

Planting Seeds – Growing plants from seed is a great way to save money. You can gain a few extra weeks if you start them early indoors, or keep it simple by sprinkling seeds in moist, loosened soil outdoors. If you don’t use all the seeds you purchase for spring gardening, you can store most varieties in your freezer for planting next spring. A cool, dry place keeps them viable longer.

Vegetables – While tomatoes, peppers, and squash love hot summer weather, you can plant carrots, radishes, spinach, and other cool-season varieties while there’s still a bit of frost in the air. They’ll withstand light freezes easily making them perfect for spring gardening.

Weeding – Weeding is usually voted gardening’s most arduous task, and as such, it’s often put off. But pull, hoe, or otherwise remove weeds while they’re little, and you’ll make the job considerably easier. Small root systems are less work to pull, and if you get them before they go to seed, you’ll have fewer weeds in the future.

Mulch – When the soil has warmed up and dried out in spring, spread a 2-inch-deep layer of mulch (such as shredded wood, pine needles, or compost) over the soil surface to discourage weeds in your planting beds and hold moisture once hot summer days arrive.

Do you have some early spring gardening tips? Share them with us on our blog!

Now is the time for Spring Cleaning! Set a day aside to get your house looking it’s best for the warmer months with the following tips:

• Organize your closet: This is the first step to organizing the rest of your home. Clear out unused clothing and accessories and organize by how you get dressed in the morning. It is also useful to organize your clothes by color and style.
• Shine up your stainless steel: Use a light mist of wax-based aerosol spray once or twice a week. Don’t use too much, you don’t want to soak the surface and make it greasy. Wipe the mist with a clean, lint-free cloth. Don’t use anything abrasive such as Soft Scrub or Scotch Brite pads. This will scratch and ruin the surface.
• Remove oils and marks from walls in your home: Start with a clean cloth or sponge and water. You can add a little dish-washing liquid into the water if you have stubborn wall marks. After cleaning, make sure to rinse the wall afterward with plain water. This is a great once a year spring cleaning thing to do.
• Give your interior a different look: Make a fast easy change with bedding, towels and table linens to create a different mood. You can also switch things out seasonally or whenever you want to play with a certain color or pattern, not just during spring cleaning.
• Clean your carpets: Always take your shoes off when you get home but leave your socks on because your bare feet leave natural oils which attract dirt. For high traffic areas, bring in a professional carpet cleaner 3-4 times a year. If only once a year, make it a point to do this during your spring cleaning activities.
• Reorganize your shelves: Sort your books on your bookshelf so they don’t look uniform. Remove any ripped dust jackets. Line your books horizontally and vertically in a pattern to relieve monotony or rows.
• Take on one task at a time: It’s exciting to get started spring cleaning and sometimes you may tend to get distracted with various projects throughout the house.  It is incredibly helpful and sanity-saving to work on one area at a time.  Inadvertently, piles of stuff will migrate to other rooms in your house, but those can be tackled when you get to them.
• Start at the top and work to the bottom: Let gravity make your job easier by working with it!  Start at the ceiling by dusting the ceiling fan or light fixture then get all the spider webs off the crown molding.  Work your way down the walls, over the furniture, all the way to the baseboards and flooring when spring cleaning.

Do you have some spring cleaning tips? We’d love to hear them! Comment on our blog to tell us your spring cleaning suggestions.