Happy Valentine’s Day! Don’t forget to show your home some love this year. After you’ve eaten all the chocolate with your sweetie be sure to show your home some love too. These 5 ways to love your home this Valentine’s Day are a great way to get a jump start on your spring cleaning.

There’s something about winter that makes humans start to gather everything and keep it. If you’re like most families you’ve got piles of things all around your home. You may not even notice them anymore. Shorter days means a lot of house work goes undone. Now that the days are beginning to get longer, it’s a great time to get a jump on the organizing and cleaning you’ll want to tackle this spring.

5 Ways to Love your Home this Valentine’s Day

Smoke Detectors – Sure, you change the batteries in your smoke detectors every time you set the clocks ahead or fall back, but do you check to make sure the unit can still detect smoke? You can easily check this by blowing a candle out close to the smoke detector. If it doesn’t set of the alarm, it’s time to get a new detector.

CO2 Detectors – While you’re at it, it might be time to swap out the old CO2 detector with a new one since there’s really no way to test it.

Service Appliances – If you’ve got older appliances it might be worthwhile to have a repairman or handyman come out and service all of them – checking to make sure they are running in tip-top shape and to clean them out. This is an especially good time to clean the dryer lint from the window vent. You can do a lot of this yourself, but a professional can do it more efficiently and will be able to identify any problems.

HVAC – Your furnace is still working hard to keep your home warm during these last several weeks of the heating season. Don’t forget to change the air filter on your furnace. This should be done every month. Now is a great time to call your HVAC company and have them come out and do a maintenance check on your air conditioner. When the warm weather hits you’ll know your unit can keep up with the heat.

Put the Vacuum to Work – Now is the time to chase the dust bunnies out from under the sofa, beds and all the other places they hide. Do a thorough vacuuming in all the places you avoid vacuuming. Use the attachments on your vacuum to get rid of spider webs and dust in high places. Give the carpet a really thorough cleaning. If you have a carpet cleaner now is a good time to use it. If you don’t have one you can rent a professional grade cleaner from most hardware stores or big box home improvement stores.

Doing these 5 items will set you ahead of the class when it comes time to do your spring cleaning. You’ll spend less time this spring indoors and more outdoors enjoying the warm weather.