OK, I know that is far to general of a question, but we have had our first fall frosts here and I was thinking again about the season changing yesterday.
(partly because of Desperado's thread about Ontario)

There is a bunch of stuff to do with vehicles and around the house to be winter ready again.
everything from ice scrapers, furnace cleaning, snow shovels, road sand, and winter clothing to picking up and putting away the summer toys.

So what kind of things do you guys need to do before winter is here full force?

I moved 2 months ago to southern Virginia. Moved from Michigan, before that northern Missouri.

I ain't doing a darn thing (and loving it!)





That's cuz I already have more winter clothes than necessary, a bunch of gear in my truck (appropriate for midwest winter storms), don't need to prep the car or house for an onslaught of the white stuff, and frankly, am working too much to care anyway.

The big thing for me is mainly related to hunting season starting. In my truck I add my insulated coveralls (camo) and my hunting fanny pack which is equipped enough to see me through a couple of nights in the woods if needs be. Everything else is already there.

I live in a condo so there really isn't much to do with the house other than the fall furnace check up. Someone else shovels my snow and rakes my leaves.

Will replace the windbreaker in my car with fleece clothes, long underwear, warm gloves, neck gaiter, etc., and a fleece blanket.

Have to get my car serviced -- a pre-winter ritual.

It's been so long since we had a big snow (2003) that my snow shovel still looks brand new.

Winter prep starts with my truck, I get out the box that has the tire chains, the extra tow straps and winter gear, and put it in the bed of the truck. pull out the rain gear bag and add a complet change of warm cloths. add fleece clothing, add L.L. Bean sleeping bag and thow in show shovels. When winter gets closer I will, hopefully, swap tires and thow sand in the bed of my truck.

I live in an apartment building so all I have to do is winterize the motorcycle,, and whimper at the passing of another awsome riding season.

Winters here are the best season of the year. It much more like a PNW or Canadian summer. High's ~75%, Low's ~45. I can actually put a case of bottled water in my car and it won't be 160* by lunch.

not much really,i'm retired and my wife walks a few blocks to work.we don't do a lot of travel outside the Metro area so a cell phone and a old sleeping bag is all we need but our SUV is new so a break down is not in the works and we just stay home in bad weather.if we are going up north it would be to winter camp so the car would be filled with gear and food.we are putting in new windows so just a couple storms have to be put in on the ground floor.i fire up the show blower just to make sure it runs,it's also new so no sweat there..winter in Minnesota is such a "normal" thing with a summer so short that a lot of things are not really put away but just set aside.when you look at other people yards it looks like they don't do much more than turn the bird bath over and lean the deck chairs over to keep the snow from piling up on them.

For car prep I throw in my army issue sleeping bag (the newer kind with the goretex cover), snowshovel, and ice scraper. Thats it. I have a cool little seat cover that has MOLLE attachments all over the back, and allows me to keep an alcohol stove, food, some clothing, and necessary survival gear there all year long. Other than changing out the fuel in the stove every few months, and rotating the food, nothing else really needs to be done.
I also live in an apartment complex, so I usually keep a few gallons of water that I store in 1 quart jugs, handy, just in case the pipes freeze. I also put plastic on the windows-thats about it!

Retape all hockey sticks.
Inventory pucks - buy more if needed.
Sharpen skates.
Smell pads - apply baking soda if needed.
Inspect broomball shoes for wear - evaluate - purchase new shoes as needed.
Inflate broomballs.
Get kids' sleds out of storage - inspect tow ropes for wear - replace if needed.

We love winter.

What do I do about winter? Laugh, and go for a swim. Okay, sorry, Floridian attitude there. Seriously, though, this part of Florida does get cold, with hard freezes and even occasional risks of very slight dustings of snow.

Sleeping bag gets added to BOB, thin long underwear goes into emergency clothing/uniforms bag, and spare fleece jacket stays in car. That's about it for me.

The real danger here is that nobody respects or knows how to drive on icy roads. I once stopped at at least a half dozen wrecks on the way to work one winter morning, including one with serious injuries.