Friday, December 16, 2016

Cold-Weather Chores List

Maybe you're like me and homeowner chores sometimes sneak up on you with the changing seasons. If that's the case, I thought I'd share with you the 5 things that I try to take care of before the end of the year around the house/yard.



1. Wrangle my leaves into submission. If I don't do something with them before winter truly sets in, they create a soggy mess that not only looks bad but also ends up being tracked inside by my dog for the next four months. This year, I paid my son-in-law to do this rather big job, and it was worth every penny.

2. Change out the filter in my heat/air system with a high-end allergy approved one. It gets dusty in my house. And dog hair is a problem too. Changing out my filter makes my system work more efficiently and might even save me a bit of money. Using a high-end allergy-approved filter seems to be even more important in the winter because my house is closed-up so tightly. Maybe it's all in my head, but using that kind of filter makes me think the air in my house truly is cleaner.

3. Put away warm weather gear. I do things like unscrew the hoses from the house faucets outside and take in my lawn furniture cushions and stack flowerpots in the garage, etc.  It's not good for these products to freeze and thaw repeatedly over winter, and it creates both eyesores and potential hazards if you leave them out all winter.

4. Clean out from under the kitchen and bathroom sinks. I like to leave cabinets open when it's going to be below 20 degrees outside; I think that helps keep the pipes warm and reduces the chances of my pipes freezing inside. For that approach to work, there has to be room for airflow around the pipes. So, yeah, the 1000 Kroger bags around my kitchen sink piping needs to be dealt with asap.

5. Auto-clean your oven. What better time to run the auto-clean function on your oven than when it's freezing outside? I should probably do it more than once a year, I know, but I figure right after the holidays is a great time to take care of this 'chore' and enjoy the benefit of a burning hot oven to heat up your kitchen in the process.

What other items are on your cold-weather chores list?  So far, I've accomplished #1-2 on my list; looks like #3-4 will happen this weekend and #5 will occur right after Christmas. I've got a plan, man; do you?

4 comments:

  1. Living in the north means thinking about winter chores a little earlier. :) We have a maple tree in the front yard that takes forever to drop its leaves (and we had a mild fall, so it was really not dropping them.) We raked a ton of leaves on Halloween and there were still more to come down. My spouse took the pool pump inside after we closed the above-ground pool for the season and covered the air conditioner. My oven definitely needs cleaning, but that might wait until after all the busyness of the holidays. Switching seasons of clothes has already happened. After a magical El Nino winter last year (hardly any snow), the kids have already had a snow day from school, yesterday featured lake effect snow and whiteout conditions, and this morning it was below zero. Gosh, I sound whiny. I'm going to get slapped by an Elf on the Shelf. hahahahaha

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  2. Our list looks very much the same - the retired fella that mows our property does the leaves, but he prefers to wait until they have all fallen (they have now) and then needs to find a couple of days of dry weather so they aren't a globby mess and can be mulched up by the mower. Hopefully he can get to them this week. Hubby has taken care of 2 and 3, and I always clean the oven (and all the appliances)as well as purging from cabinets and drawers in January. I am running a little ahead on Christmas this year, so I might tackle some of that this weekend between other activities.

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  3. Thank you for sharing your life on your blog this past year. Happy Holidays, TIffany!

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  4. Oh I need to make a list like yours. Living in the California Bay Area we don't get many nights that freeze, but if you knew the last time I cleaned my self-cleaning oven you would cringe. Making a list right now! :)

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