Lifestyle

Your essential January home maintenance checklist

1 January 2026

With Christmas behind us, it’s time to look ahead to the new year and get your home ready for another 12 months of comfort. This could mean compiling a new year declutter checklist, cleaning the tricky spots you’ve neglected recently, or carrying out annual jobs that we often forget about during the hustle and bustle of everyday life. 

Whether you’ve recently settled into your new Shared Ownership home, or you’re cleaning up to prepare for a move, this January home maintenance checklist should put you in good standing for the year ahead.

Declutter and donate

It’s easy to accumulate things we don’t necessarily need, particularly when it comes to clothes that we wear once and then stuff at the back of a wardrobe for the rest of the year. In fact, 56% of UK adults claim to have rooms in their home that are deemed ‘unusable’ due to high amounts of clutter. 

One of the first items on your January checklist should be to clear out any unwanted clothes, household items or even furniture that you no longer need. This is a task that you could even get started on before the new year, during that strange limbo period when we’re all too full of Christmas turkey and don’t know which day of the week it is. 

• Get organised: Organise your items into three categories: regift, donate, and dispose. If something is essentially unused and you can think of a new home with one of your friends or family members, give it as a gift. If it’s high quality, donate it to a local charity shop that could do with the funds. And if it’s no longer usable by anybody, dispose of it in the correct way. 
• Try the 90/90 rule: When working out whether an item of clothing is worth keeping, ask yourself whether you’ve used it in the last 90 days, or whether you will use it in the upcoming 90. If the answer is ‘no’, then it’s probably time to let it go. 
• Bring in outside support: Sometimes, we can grow blind to how unnecessary certain items are in our homes. We’re so used to seeing them that getting rid of them just seems impossible. To overcome this, try bringing a close friend into the picture; they might be able to open your eyes to letting certain items go, or at least support you through the process. 

Deep clean and detox

Putting together a new year’s cleaning checklist can feel overwhelming if you’ve not been on top of chores during the festive period, but taking the time to get your home back to normal is a great way to start fresh. 

It’s estimated that we spend two years of our lives cleaning our houses in the UK, so learning the best approaches to getting the job done fast (and right!) makes all the difference. 

• Start with your most-used spaces: Areas that have been used consistently throughout the festive period – like your kitchen and hosting areas – should be the first priority when it comes to your new year’s cleaning checklist. These would’ve undoubtedly built up a lot of grime and wear and tear, so it’s important to give them some TLC in preparation for another year of use. 
• Set a schedule: To help you get on top of cleaning into the new year, create a cleaning schedule that you can stick to. Cleaning the house is always easy to put off in favour of something more enjoyable, but if you set aside the time in advance, you’ll be more likely to get the chores ticked off so you can forget about them until next time. 
• Stick to the timeless tips: There are a number of cleaning ‘hacks’ that make the job much more tolerable and efficient. From dusting rooms top-down to avoid creating more work for yourself, to adding a bowl of lemon and water to your microwave for stress-free cleaning, use these handy hacks as much as possible. 

Maximise your home’s efficiency 

It’s a well-known fact that new build homes – like our Shared Ownership houses and apartments – have better energy efficiency than older properties. In fact, 86% of new builds have an A or B EPC rating (an indicator of energy efficiency), compared to just 5% of older buildings.

But to really maximise the efficiency of your property, part of your January home maintenance checklist should involve checking that everything is working as effectively as it can. 

• Bleed your radiators: Even the most modern radiators need some light maintenance from time to time. If you feel around your radiator and notice that certain parts are much cooler than others, it could be a sign that air has got into the system and needs flushing out. Even if you’ve not carried this out before, a quick YouTube tutorial will show you how to complete this simple – but very effective – annual maintenance task.
• Seal out draughts: During the colder months of the year, why make your heating work harder than it needs to? Check around the edges of your door and window frames, and if you notice cold draughts blowing in, seal these up as soon as possible. You can use a simple draught excluder for your front door, whereas draught-proofing strips work wonders around windows that need a little extra help. 
• Replace outdated curtains: While you might be tempted to replace furniture like curtains around January time due to a change in tastes, you might also want to do so from an efficiency perspective. Thick curtains that are measured correctly to the dimensions of your window can help to keep warmth in during the long winter nights, and will also keep your home cool if they’re shut during the day in summertime.