A winter checklist for your home and garden

Did Santa get stuck in your creosote-coated chimney? Lose a few loose shingles to Blitzen's hooves? Since the weather outside is frightful, it'd be a really good idea if your nice, warm, sheltering house were in good shape. Here's how:

Home

• Flue precautions: Have a professional clean your flue liners to prevent creosote buildup (and remove any red felt that stuck to it). Consider a chimney cap to keep out water, debris and critters. After a roaring fire, remove the ashes with a flat shovel and dispose of them in a metal bucket.

• Safe in a storm: Make sure your flashlight batteries are fresh for winter power outages. Stock up on storm supplies, too — a good snow shovel, ice melt and scrapers. After a big storm, check around the attic and basement for leaks.

• Stop using so much! Need some extra funds for those scary holiday bills? You can cut energy costs pretty easily by repairing leaky faucets and lowering the temperature on your hot-water heater to 120 degrees. And exchange those gaudy pink slippers for a programmable thermostat, low-flow showerheads and faucet-flow restrictors.

• Up on the rooftop: Check your roof and around vents, skylights and chimneys for leaks.

• Where to put the wood: Store firewood at least 30 feet away from your home to reduce your home's fire load and the chance of attracting bugs.

• Point and squirt: In this season of toasty fireplaces and overloaded outlets, make sure your fire extinguishers are easily accessible — and that everyone in your home knows how to use them.

• Pipe up: Insulate pipes that pass through unheated areas, such as your crawl space, attic and unheated garage, which are most susceptible to freezing.

• Appliance applications: Clean your clothes dryer's exhaust duct and the space under the dryer to prevent lint from accumulating and to decrease the risk of fire. Inspect your washing-machine hoses and replace those that show signs of leaking or bursting.

• Draft dodging: If you're experiencing chilly drafts (and your pants aren't ripped), caulk, seal or weatherstrip to keep cold air outdoors. If you added up all the small cracks where heating escapes from a home, it would be like having a window open.

• Take stock of assets: No matter where you call home, you need a thorough inventory of its contents. Take one at the beginning of each year, after you've hauled in even more stuff, and it can become part of your post-holiday routine. If your home is ever robbed or damaged, you'll be glad you did. Take a pen and camera from room to room — don't forget closets, pantries, attics, basements and garages — and make a written and photographic record of everything you own. Sound overwhelming? You can hire someone to do it, or buy do-it-yourself asset-tracking software to streamline the process.

Garden

• Get scatterbrained: Old ashes from your fireplace can be scattered on your compost pile or in the garden.

• Sow some seeds: In early February, start cool spring crops (broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower) indoors under a fluorescent shop light (but move them into a cold frame at the end of the month).

• Pruned and pretty: Before the new year, prune evergreen trees and shrubs, removing dead branches or tidying from storm damage. Use healthy trimmings for holiday decorations.

• Shake it: If and/or when we get snow, gently shake it free of shrub and tree branches.

• Bring out the bare roots: On mild late-February days, plant bare-root roses and fruit trees. Prune your roses once the forsythia blooms.

Sources: www.homeconnections.com; www.travelers.com; www.DIYNetwork.com; www.statefarm.com; www.bobvila.com; The Tennessean; www.homemaintenanceorg.com; www.about.com; Ask the Expert columnist Darrell Hay; garden expert Mary Robson, retired area horticulture agent for Washington State University/King County Cooperative Extension.