It’s getting chilly (and windy) out there. Her are a few tips for things you can do to prepare your home before the wintery chill really sets in:
1. Have your furnace serviced once a year. You don’t want your furnace to fail in the middle of the night or during a big snow storm.
2. Clean and Vacuum your baseboards. The heat need to be able to get through. Dust bunnies really take a liking to the baseboards heaters. You will be surprised what a difference a quick vacuum will make.
3. Remove or cover your air conditioners.
4. Say bye bye to window screens and put in the storm windows. This will help keep out the draft. Also replace any weather stripping, where necessary.
5. Clean out all those pesky leaves from the gutters and make sure the gutters are leak free and in good working condition.
6. Have your chimney cleaned. It should be cleaned before ¼” of soot builds up. You want to make sure you are not putting yourself in danger when you light that fire.
7. Keep the damper closed on the fireplace when you are not using it.
8. Drain and turn off the water to outdoor faucets, hoses and sprinkler systems. You don’t want them to freeze and burst.
9. Think about installing a programmable thermostat in your home. This way you can keep the temperature lower when you are not home and have it turn up the temperature before you get home.
10. Install or change the batteries on your fire/smoke detector and carbon monoxide detectors. Both are very good to have but if the batteries are low, it’s not going to help you.
11. Drain the gas from your lawn mover. I forgot to do that last year. BIG mistake.
12. And lastly, get your snow blower ready. I’m hoping for a white winter. We hardly received any snow last year, so with the little ones around I’m hoping for some good days to make snowmen and go sledding.
