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The guides

Home maintenance, state by state

A national maintenance checklist is wrong somewhere for everyone. Freeze dates swing by weeks within a single state, soil changes what a basement needs, and the age of the housing stock decides half the work. So we write these guides one state at a time — real freeze normals, the local quirks, and the tasks that genuinely differ.

Every guide is written and approved by a person, never generated in bulk. Our rule before publishing: if a page would read just as true with another state's name swapped in, it doesn't ship.

How these guides work

  1. A reviewed task library

    Every task starts in an editorial queue and is checked by a person before it can appear in anyone's schedule — what it is, why it matters, how long it takes, and how hard it is.

  2. Climate zones set the timing

    Each task carries zone-specific timing, because “before the first freeze” means mid-October in Youngstown and Halloween in Cleveland. Your zip code decides your zone.

  3. Your state adds the rest

    The guide layers on what's genuinely different where you live — freeze normals, soil, housing stock — and then the generator turns it into a schedule for your actual house, free, in about 90 seconds.

The climate zones

Cold/Snow

Long freezing winters with sustained snow cover — Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, upstate New York, and similar.

Mixed Four-Season

Four real seasons with freeze-thaw winters — Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, downstate New York, and similar. Cleveland is the baseline.

More states publish as their guides pass review. If yours isn't here yet, the generator may already cover it — the schedule works zip code by zip code, guides or not.

Skip ahead to your own schedule

Three questions — when your house was built, what kind it is, and your zip — and Lillypad builds the maintenance schedule for your actual house. Free, no login, about 90 seconds.

Get your schedule