Home Maintenance Tasks for Spring

Unless you are in Arizona or Hawaii, it’s time to move the clocks forward one hour and gain a bit more daylight in the evening. The start of Daylight Saving time is also a great time to perform simple yet important home maintenance tasks and safety inspections.

1. Test your smoke alarm and carbon monoxide (CO) detector and replace batteries if needed. Replace smoke alarms every 10 years and CO detectors every 5 years.
2. Clean out your dryer venting to reduce the risk of dryer fires and help keep your dryer working at maximum efficiency.
3. Inspect your fire extinguisher to ensure it is fully charged and recharge or replace as needed.
4. Vacuum dust from your refrigerator coils to help keep it running efficiently. Condenser coils are either located at the back of your refrigerator or across the bottom, behind a grille.
5. Replace filters as needed – It’s important to inspect and replace the filters in your central heat and air unit often, but are you overlooking other filters? Other items that need regular maintenance include water filters (including refrigerator water and ice dispensers), front-loading washing machine drain pump filters, air humidifier/dehumidifiers, air purifies, vacuum, and HEPA filters. Check manufacturer instructions for suggested maintenance.
6. Flip your mattress to help it wear more evenly. If you have a pillow top mattress you can rotate it instead of flipping it.

Daylight Saving Tip

The downside of the transition to Daylight Saving time is that we lose an hour of sleep. To make the transition a little easier, make an extra effort to be well-rested the week before. Try going to bed and putting your children to bed 15 minutes earlier each night, starting several days before the change.