Eight tasks for your December to-do list

It’s cold, and the holiday rush is here. Don’t add to the bustle by trying to tackle complicated home-maintenance tasks, especially ones that need to be done outside, in December. Instead, focus on essentials and steps that can make the even darker, colder days ahead more pleasant and the holidays less stressful.

Prep for winter power outages

Make sure you have ready-to-use flashlights in key places: by the bed, by the front door and at the tops of stairways. Also check batteries in lanterns you might use to light up the dinner table or get you and your family through a long evening of playing games or reading when electronic devices aren’t an option.

For holiday gifts, consider giving — or asking for — lights that charge when the power is on, so you aren’t left in the dark when it fails. The Energizer plug-in rechargeable LED flashlight ($10.97 at Home Depot) plugs tidily into an outlet and automatically lights up when the power goes out, making it easy to find in the dark. It should run for three hours. What then? You should also have a supply of ready-to-use rechargeable lightbulbs that can work in any light fixture or that can hang on their own. EcoSmart’s rechargeable bulb is $9.97 at Home Depot.

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. Get ready for holiday cooking

Range hoods, whether they exhaust to the outdoors (the best option by far) or run air through a filter, eventually clog with trapped grease, which can drip down when the buildup is heavy (not a seasoning you want in your gravy). Before guests arrive, clean the hood above your stove and replace the filter, if you have the type that should be replaced periodically. Some filters can go into the dishwasher; to clean others, fill a basin with hot, soapy water, let it soak, then scrub with