Before Raya or CNY
Home Repair & Refresh Checklist (2026)

Why the festive run-up needs a plan

Hari Raya and Chinese New Year put more pressure on a house than any other week of the year. There are guests in every room, the kitchen runs for days, the aircon works harder, and everyone notices the stained ceiling or the dripping tap that the family has stopped seeing. At the same time, contractors, cleaners and aircon teams are busiest in the same few weeks, so the jobs left late are the ones that do not get done.

The fix is simple: make a list early, split it into repairs, servicing and cleaning, and book them in that order. Repairs make dust and mess, so they go first; cleaning goes last so the house is fresh on the day.

Work backwards from the festival

If the list includes anything bigger, such as a kitchen or bathroom refresh, start it well before the festival or leave it until after. A half-finished bathroom at open house is worse than an old one.

Repairs first: what guests will notice

• Water stains on ceilings, and the leak behind them. Fix the cause before painting over it.
• Dripping taps, running toilets, slow drains and a smelly floor trap in the guest bathroom.
• Dead lights, flickering downlights, loose sockets and fans that wobble.
• Doors that stick, broken handles and hinges, and the main gate or autogate that is slow to open.
• Mouldy silicone and dirty grout in bathrooms and the kitchen.
• Cracked or loose floor tiles in the hall and on the porch, where guests leave their shoes.

ClickBina's home maintenance checklist is a useful companion: the festive list is the same routine, brought forward and done in one go.

Aircon: service before the crowd

An aircon that cools a family of four struggles with a living room full of guests and the kitchen door open. A dirty filter and coil make that worse and can start the indoor unit dripping. A regular service cleans the filter, wipes the coil, checks the drainage and tests for water leaks; a chemical wash strips the unit down for a deeper clean. ClickBina's aircon servicing cost guide lists both.

Book it a few weeks ahead, run each unit afterwards, and check the indoor units for drips before the first visitors arrive.

Walls: touch up, do not repaint the whole house

A full repaint is rarely needed for a festival. What guests see are the marked walls in the hall, the stairs and the dining area, the scuffed skirting and the old nail holes from last year's decorations. A targeted touch-up of those walls, with holes filled and stains sealed first, does most of the work. ClickBina's guide to patching walls before repainting explains why a patch shows through new paint when the preparation is skipped.

Paint a week or more before the festival where you can, so the smell has gone and the walls are fully dry before furniture is pushed back against them.

Bathrooms and the kitchen

The guest bathroom works harder over a festival than at any other time. Strip and redo mouldy silicone around the basin, the shower and the bathtub; ClickBina's silicone resealing guide explains how it is done. Clean or regrout stained grout, fix any leak under the basin, and make sure the floor trap drains and does not smell.

For the kitchen, clean the hood filters and the wall behind the stove before the cooking starts, fix any leak under the sink, and check that there are enough working sockets, so nobody runs a rice cooker, an oven and a kettle off one extension lead.

Outside: gutters, porch and gate

The porch and the gate are the first things guests see. Clear the gutters and downpipes, especially if the festival falls in a rainy month; ClickBina's gutter cleaning guide explains why an overflowing gutter becomes a wall stain later. Wash the porch, clear the drains, fix loose porch tiles, and oil the gate and grilles.

If you plan to hang festive lights outside, plug them into a proper outdoor socket, not an extension lead trailing through a window, and keep plugs off the wet porch floor.

Cleaning last: deep clean, sofa and curtains

Once the repairs and the painting are done, the deep clean pulls everything together: kitchen, bathrooms, windows, fans, cabinets and floors. Soft furnishings are the other half: sofas that guests sit on for days, and curtains that have not been washed since last year. ClickBina's sofa cleaning guide and curtain cleaning guide explain the options, including steam cleaning curtains in place so they do not have to come down.

If the house will be empty over the holiday

Many families balik kampung or travel over the festival, and the house sits empty for days. Before leaving, switch off the water heater and non-essential circuits, turn off the main water valve if you are away for long, clear the fridge, check the gutters and the roof drains, and ask a neighbour to keep an eye on the gate. A slow leak found after a week away is far more expensive than one found the same evening.

What the usual festive jobs cost

These are ClickBina's published ranges (indicative 2026, Klang Valley). Your total depends on the size of the house and how long the list is.

How ClickBina can help

WhatsApp us your job details for a quote: your list, the property type, your area and the date you need it done by. ClickBina is an experienced KL & Selangor contractor for whole-house refurbishment and trade coordination, so repairs, painting touch-ups and bathroom resealing can be run as one job ahead of the festival, with servicing and cleaning quoted on the same list. We reply within the hour, and the price we agree is a flat price with no hidden charges. A site visit is RM150, waived if you go ahead.

Sources & methodology

• ClickBina aircon servicing cost guide — regular service and chemical wash prices.
• ClickBina move-in / move-out cleaning, sofa cleaning and curtain cleaning guides — cleaning prices.
• ClickBina gutter cleaning, patching walls and silicone resealing guides — prices for those jobs.

How we estimated prices: every RM figure on this page is quoted unchanged from the ClickBina guides named above; they are indicative Klang Valley ranges for 2026. The timing advice is general planning guidance, not a promise of availability.