Winter's arriving in a few days, and if you're a homeowner in the Roaring Fork or Colorado River Valley, there are a handful of things worth doing now while the weather still cooperates. None of these take more than an afternoon, and skipping them tends to mean a bigger, more expensive problem in January.

Start outside. Disconnect and drain your garden hoses, then shut off the exterior water valve if your house has one. A hose left connected can cause the pipe behind it to freeze and crack even if the valve itself is shut off. While you're out there, clear leaves and debris out of the gutters. Clogged gutters are one of the most common causes of ice dams, which can force water back up under your roofline and into the house.

Inside, check your furnace filter and swap it if it's been more than three months. A clogged filter makes your system work harder and drives up your heating bill all winter. If you have a wood-burning stove or fireplace you haven't used since last season, get the chimney inspected before the first fire. Creosote buildup is a real fire risk, and it's a quick appointment now versus a much bigger issue later.

Find your main water shutoff valve if you don't already know where it is, and make sure everyone in the house does too. If a pipe does freeze and burst, the first sixty seconds matter more than anything else you do afterward.

Last one: if you have exposed pipes in a crawlspace, garage, or under a sink against an exterior wall, a few dollars of foam pipe insulation from any hardware store can prevent a frozen pipe altogether. It's the cheapest fix on this list and the one people skip the most.

None of this requires a contractor. Most of it is done in a single Saturday.