The Professional Expert

Outside Home Maintenance

Now that the weather has turned nice, let’s head outside. 

First, you will want to take a look at the air conditioner unit. Have the bushes grown up around it?  You will want to trim them back 6-12” from the sides of the unit so they don’t block airflow. 

Take a look at the fins on the a/c unit, too.  If there is a lot of crud built up there, you can rinse them off with a stream from the hose. Also get any leaves out of there.

If you didn’t have you’re a/c serviced in the fall, go ahead and make an appointment for someone to come out and check out/clean out the unit so it is ready for air conditioning season.

If you have storm windows, you can replace them with screens. If you didn’t clean the screens in the fall, go ahead and clean them now.

While you are accessing the windows, bring out the cleaning supplies and give them a quick cleaning.

Also check to see if they open smoothly.  If they stick, you can rub a little beeswax (or any candle) on it to provide a lubricant. 

Check for peeling paint or dry rot. While you are there, you can fix it before it gets too hot outside. A dry rot filler kit from the local home improvement store contains a stabilizer, which keeps the rot from spreading and putty that will fill in the hole.  Apply per the instructions on the package. Then paint it with exterior grade paint.  It is a good idea to paint the whole surface, not just the repair. That way it will match. The surrounding area probably needed paint anyway.

Tomorrow we’ll stay outside, but we will look at the yard…

Spring Cleaning!

The purpose of spring cleaning is to get rid of all the grime that has accumulated all winter because everything was so closed up. I don’t think everything stays as closed up as it did in the “olden” days, but it is still a good idea to give your home a through cleaning every once in a while…

Here are some areas that may get missed during the general upkeep, so this would be a good time to give them some attention.

Dusting

Ceiling
Corners of the walls
Artwork and photographs
Ceiling fan
On top of everything

Cleaning

 Dirty spots on the wall
 Air vents
 Doors
 Doorknobs
 Switch Plates
 Light fixtures
 Draperies, curtains, and blinds according to instructions
 Coils of the refrigerator (vacuum them)
 Refrigerator drain pan
 Inside of refrigerator
 Oven
 Dryer hose (vacuum)
 Lawn Furniture

Packing winter clothes away for the summer

Make sure all clothes are clean. Stains can set or actually damage the fabric after several months of storage.

Use plastic storage containers since critters don’t like plastic as much as cardboard.

If you want to use something that will repel the insects, go for the cedar blocks instead of mothballs. Mothballs are full of deadly chemicals and smell nasty. Cedar blocks are just wood and smell pretty good.

Pack items loosely to allow the air to circulate.

Store the clothes in a cool, dark, dry, clean place.

Clearing the Clutter

Spring is a great time for yard sales. While you are giving the place an extra sprucing up, decide whether things need to be kept, sold, given away, or trashed.

You can also get rid of paper clutter. Go through the magazines, coupons, and the filing cabinet (or the “to be filed” pile!). Decide what you can keep and what can go.

Don’t forget the garage!

Well, that is enough for today.  Tomorrow, we’ll head outside…

Spring Maintenance

Spring is springing up all around, so it is time to do the seasonal household maintenance again (New season, new stuff to do).

Here are some things that need to be replaced or checked around the house:

Furnace filter – This needs to be changed once a quarter. If you don’t know what size your need, check before you go to the store. There are several grades of filters and a lot of discussion about what is best. I use the best filters available, the “1250” merv rating.  I won’t go into the rating system. Just know that a higher number is better and gets smaller stuff out of the air.

Check your outside lighting – Also do this once a quarter. Make sure any motion detectors work the way you thought they did, as well as any photocells.

Change the smoke detector and batteries. They recommend changing the batteries when the time changes (if that applies to you), so now is the time if you haven’t changed them already.

Change the thermostat batteries if you have a programmable thermostat.

This is also a good time to check the “emergency” flashlight.  You may have decided that camping trip was an emergency, and now the batteries are dead. If so, you can replace them now.

Tomorrow we’ll discuss what’s involved in that annual favorite…Spring Cleaning!…