Close out the year, while trades are still here

• Everything found during the season and still open, closed or datedOctober and early November are the last weeks when a good company can be booked without a queue. An item carried into December is an item carried into March.
• Any item you have been deferring, decided either wayDeferring it again is a decision too; make it deliberately and write down which.
• Work you want done over the winter, booked nowAn empty house is the easiest house to work in, and the trades know it.
• Outstanding invoices and provider questions resolvedSo that nothing about the season is unfinished paperwork in February.

Arrange the winter

• Who is responsible for the house between now and springNamed, with a backup, and told rather than assumed.
• How often somebody will be inside itAnd what they will look at in the months where nothing much happens — which is when things are found.
• The freeze plan settledWho goes, whether they can get in, what they may do, up to what figure, and which plumber. The freeze sheet covers this in full.
• Which providers pause, and which continueLandscape, pool, pest, housekeeping. Write down which, so a lapse is a decision rather than a surprise.
• Mail, parcels and deliveriesHeld, forwarded, or collected each visit. Anything piling up at the door shows the house is empty.
• Anything scheduled to arrive while nobody is hereCancelled, rescheduled, or somebody nominated to meet it.

Put the house into its away state

• Water in its winter position, and the decision recordedOn, off at the main, or off with the pressure released. This is the winter’s most consequential single line.
• Heat set and confirmed runningNot set and hoped for.
• Humidity target set, the reading taken, and both written downFebruary’s figure means nothing without November’s beside it.
• Refrigeration decidedRunning and empty of perishables, or off, dry and propped open. Either is fine; drifting between them is not.
• Everything outside secured for the seasonFurniture in, cushions stored, umbrellas down, anything that can move in a winter blow.
• Irrigation set for winter, or shut downWhichever this house needs, and written down as the decision it is.

Leave an account of it

• Photographs of every elevation and every room, datedThe set that next year’s spring, or next year’s claim, gets compared to.
• The record updated with everything that changed this seasonNew equipment, repairs, a provider swapped, a setting altered, a recurring condition observed again.
• A written closing noteWhat state the house was left in, by whom, on what date, and what is outstanding. You should be able to read it in February and know exactly how the house stands.
• Your rough return date, given to whoever holds the houseEven a month is enough to plan against. The return sheet handles the rest.

The closing note — state the house was left in, by whom, and what is outstanding