From Spotlight: Ready for Summer? Make Sure Your House and Yard Are Too!

Summer Home Maintenance Tips — Specifically for June

Invest in quality tools while they’re on sale this month.

Wooden work bench with red peg board covered in tools
Image: Devyn Caldwell

Temps start to soar in June when days start to get longer.

Stop your energy and water bills from soaring, too, with these summer home maintenance tips:

#1 Stop Buying Cheap Tools

Happy Father's Day to everyone: It's tool sale month! Repairs and home improvement projects go much smoother with quality tools — and you'll like the results more. This month, take advantage of sales to buy quality brands for less or buy used tools at a local auction or estate sale. Then ditch those make-do tools that have always frustrated you.

#2 Stop Heat-Drying Your Dishes

Assorted bowls, cups, and dishes stacked into dish dry rack
Image: Emma Pratt

You're already paying extra to pump cool air into your house. Don't pay even more to use the heat-dry setting on your dishwasher. It can double your electrical load.

Instead, open the dishwasher immediately after it runs, and pull out the racks. The evaporating steam will speed-dry the dishes. Some dishwashers have an air-dry button that will automatically prevent heat drying.

#3 Stop Watering Your Lawn So Much

Three sprinklers behind house with stone retaining wall
Image: Will Olma

Lawns are a bit picky about their drinking schedule. Rather than daily soaks, they prefer deep, infrequent watering, which promotes deeper root growth. In general, lawns need about 1 inch of water per week. In a well-watered lawn, you can stick a screwdriver 6 to 8 inches into the dirt without resistance.

#4 Stop Putting Bricks in the Toilet

Light blue bathroom with white sink, toilet, and tile
Image: Fotosearch/Getty

Summer may be water-conscientiousness season, but putting a brick in your toilet is the wrong means to that well-meaning end. Brick crumbles when exposed to water for too long. Instead, switch to a high-efficiency toilet. At $90 to $330 per toilet, the $130 annual water savings to replace it with a WaterSense- labeled model is worth it. Or just swap your brick with a half-gallon milk jug filled with sand.

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Kelley Walters

Kelley Walters is a Southern writer and editor. She focuses on interior design and home improvement at outlets from HGTV to Paintzen. She lives in Italy a month every year, drinking Negronis and writing in internet cafes.