Make home maintenance your New Year's resolution: 9 DIYs for 2026

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Fewer Americans are making New Year’s resolutions, according to recent surveys showing a steady decline in the aspirational custom — with 44% of Americans making one back in 2022 (down from 50% the previous year), according to Medifast surveys, and 37% for 2023 compared to 31% for 2026, according to YouGov polls. And is it any wonder? Trotting out all the cliched, overly optimistic objectives like “get in shape” or “read more” (who has the time?), or “save money” (in this economy?), or “be a nicer person” (how’s that workin’ out for ya?), we may as well resolve to rub a genie out of a lamp to grant us three wishes … and then use our first wish to wish for more wishes.

But making a New Year’s resolution to start keeping up with basic home maintenance tasks you’ve been neglecting partially or entirely for as long as you can remember? Now, that’s a self-improvement promise you’re capable of keeping — and it could even help you with at least one of those other resolutions (saving money).

Whether you’re ringing in the new year or just trying to make it through the current one, HomeServe has rounded up a post-holiday to-do list of home maintenance tasks that will improve your home life.

Here are seven ways you can resolve to take better care of your home in the new year.

1. Change Your HVAC Filter

Changing out the filter in your heating, ventilation and air conditioning system is one of the simplest, yet most vital, home maintenance tasks you can do. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the most neglected. When you replace the filter regularly — every three months, at least — you can reduce your energy bills, improve air quality and extend the life of your HVAC unit. Check this one off the list, and you’ll literally be breathing easier in the new year.

2. Drain Your Water Heater

You’ll be shocked — and probably more than a little grossed out — when you see the filth that flows out of your water heater when you drain it, especially if you’ve neglected it for far too long. That’s because silt, sediment and other stuff build up over time and settle in your water heater. Draining and flushing it regularly (once a year is generally advisable) will not only improve the efficiency of your system but extend the life of this vital household appliance, saving you money in the long run and helping prevent an outage when you least expect it — like when you have a house full of holiday houseguests, a sink full of dirty dishes, a hamper full of used towels and no hot water for showers.

3. Clean Your Refrigerator Coils

When’s the last time you cleaned your fridge coils? Let’s rephrase that: Have you ever cleaned your fridge coils? No shade thrown. The answer is likely no … but it’d be a lot cooler if you did, literally. Once you get underneath or behind your refrigerator and see the caked-on crud covering your condenser coils, you’ll understand why cleaning them every six months helps your fridge release heat more efficiently, preserving your perishables, prolonging the life of your icebox and saving you money. Come next New Year’s Eve, you’ll have the bubbly nice and chilled for your midnight toast.

4. Clean Your Dishwasher Filters

Did you know that your dishwasher has filters, and that you’re supposed to be cleaning them regularly? Well, if you didn’t, your dishwasher has filters, and you’re supposed to be cleaning them regularly. Most dishwashers these days have easily removable filters, commonly found on the base of the interior of your dishwasher, underneath the bottom rack. Typically there’s a cylindrical “fine mesh filter” that unscrews from the floor of the appliance, as well as a plate-like “coarse mesh filter” held in place by the former. Both removal and cleaning — scrub the filters with an old toothbrush and dish soap in the sink — are exceedingly easy, so if you’ve never done this before, the only thing you need to fret over is how disgusting the smelly, caked-on crud likely will be. But it’ll be worth the stomach-churning chore, as your dishes will get cleaner and your dishwasher will run more efficiently.

5. Clean Your AC Drain Line

Unless you live in one of the warm-weather states along the Sun Belt, you might not be thinking a whole lot about your home’s cooling system right at the moment. But come summertime, when your AC is kicking into overdrive to fight the heat and humidity, performing this oft-neglected home maintenance task not only helps your system work more efficiently, it can also fend off flooding when this line becomes clogged. Your condensate drain line, aka AC drain line, collects accumulating condensation from your air conditioning system and channels it away from your house to a drain or the ground outside. This line can become clogged with dirt, dust, dead bugs and other debris, as well as a viscous, snotty substance called zooglea — becoming a breeding ground for mold and bacteria, possibly resulting in a backup. Pouring a half-cup of distilled white vinegar or bleach into the drain line every one to three months — as often as weekly during heavy AC use or in hot, humid year-round climates — will help keep things flowing.

6. Clean Your Dryer Vent

You’re supposed to be cleaning out your dryer vents at least once a year. That’s because lint from your laundry can build up over time, making your dryer work harder, lengthening dry times and impeding efficiency — oh, and it could also cause a fire. Here’s how to avoid inefficiency and inferno alike: Pull the dryer away from the wall, unplug it, and disconnect the hose attachment from the back of the dryer. Remove as much lint as you can from the opening by hand, and clean the inside of the dryer hose and the duct as far in as you can reach using a vacuum with a hose attachment. Find your exterior vent on the outside of your house, remove the vent cover, vacuum out the opening, and deep-clean the duct using a dryer vent kit that attaches to your cordless drill. Replace the exterior vent cover, reattach the dryer hose, restore the power, and move the dryer back into place.

7. Clean Your Oven

You’ll find that even clean ’n’ tidy households often have filthy ovens — their kitchen’s dirty little secret lurking behind that groaning metal door. But the whole out-of-sight-out-of-mind factor only goes so far — right up to the point you’re setting off the smoke alarm to warm up those hors d’oeuvres for your New Year’s Eve party. You’ve got two choices: You can either roll up your sleeves and scrub away the grime before your guests arrive, or you can over-index on shrimp cocktail, crudité and pickled herring.

8. Seal Drafty Windows

A leaky window isn’t just a cold-weather concern. Whether it’s letting the frigid winter air seep in and your heated air out, or the humid summer air in and the conditioned air out, insulating your home’s windows will stabilize your interior climate, help your HVAC system run more efficiently, and save you some cash on your utility bills. There are many ways to achieve this that don’t involve a pricey window replacement — caulking cracks, applying weatherstripping, placing draft snakes in front of the window and using thermal curtains — but a quick way to seal you up for the season on the cheap is to apply a plastic film over your problem window. So, after calling it a wrap on the past year, put a wrap on your windows in the new year.

9. Unclog Your Sink Drains — Once and For All

Is your bathroom sink a slow drainer? It’s all that hair, spat-out toothpaste, washed-off makeup, sloughed-off skin cells and all the other dreck you put down the drain that accumulates and jams up the works. But a simple, superficial clog doesn’t require a pricey emergency plumber call. You can do it yourself: Get under your sink, pop off the pipe and clean out your P-trap literally in a matter of minutes. Do that, and you’ll have one less obstruction to a productive new year.

This story was produced by HomeServe and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.