Saving you time and money with everyday things you can do each week to keep your home healthy and maintained.
Home Interior
Check your home’s smoke alarms.
Inspect your home’s smoke alarms. It could be a matter of life and death. Fire Administration reports more than 3,500 people die in fires each year, and more than 66 percent of residential, fire-related deaths occur in homes without a working smoke alarm. These devices can malfunction for a number of reasons, and they should be inspected at least once a month to ensure they are operating properly. If your smoke alarm is powered by batteries, be sure to replace them once a year. Having a smoke alarm with a dead battery is like not having an alarm at all.
Home Exterior
Dispose of old paint.
When your garage starts to look more like a Sherwin Williams than a place to park a car, then it’s time to discard some old cans of paint. Keeping leftover paint for minor touchups is a good idea, but paint does not last forever. The lifespan of paint will vary by type and storage conditions, but if it’s more than a few years old, it should probably go. Some paints can be thrown away in the trash, but check the label and with your local government for disposal instructions before pitching any cans of paint in the garbage. Some communities have paint recycling programs and specific guidelines for disposing of paint.
Outdoors
Remove fading summer annuals.
Calm down, and take a deep breath. You didn’t kill your petunias. It’s normal for them and other summer annuals to begin withering this time of year. True to their name, annuals last only one season, and then they’re gone. To stay in contention for yard of the month, remove your annuals as they start to fade and consider replacing them with cool-season plants such as chrysanthemums, marigolds or ornamental cabbages. These plants are better adapted to cooler weather and will be the perfect fall accent for your home.
