Do you have company coming in for Thanksgiving dinner? Will friends and family be visiting around Christmas time? Do you host parties or entertain guests this time of year? If so, you might worry that something will go wrong and create a colossal holiday home disaster.
I get it. We all worry that the unexpected will jump up and bite us in the butt because we all know that it has happened to us before.
But this year, you can rest easier.
Here are SEVEN easy ways to avoid a home emergency that may seem like an apocalyptic event if you’re entertaining at home.
#1. Change the air filter
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. You can prevent heating and air conditioning problems by simply changing your air filter on a regular basis. How often you change it depends on a number of factors, but you need to know that putting a filter into your system is not a “once and done” proposition. For maximum efficiency and protection of your system, change it every 30-45 days.
(When was the last time you changed yours?)
Keeping your filters clean guarantees that air flows freely, your system doesn’t have to work too hard, and your home will be at your desired temperature without the worry of a breakdown.
#2. Check your vents
Walk around the house and make sure that your vents aren’t covered by a piece of furniture or draperies. (You wouldn’t believe how many times furniture gets moved and the cosmetic appearance of a room is changed without someone noticing that a vent gets covered.)
If the air isn’t circulating, your system is working overtime to try to keep the temperature where you want it. The harder your system has to work, the more wear-and-tear it gets. The more wear-and-tear, the sooner your system has a breakdown.
Checking your vents is a fast and easy way to avoid holiday home heating and cooling disasters.
#3. Install a REME Halo
Can you think of anything worse than having company and then finding out that they all get sick after visiting your home?
Me neither.
In this strange new world of COVID, don’t overlook the fact that a safe and efficient method for removing COVID and other germs exists. Every single day, a simple device can make your home healthier. The REME Halo is proven to eliminate 99.9% of COVID germs.
It's a simple system that infuses a mist of hydrogen peroxide into your air, disinfecting it and killing harmful germs.
You and your guests will be healthier than ever.
#4. Pay attention to what you put down your garbage disposal
Thanksgiving and Christmas are the holidays when we cook the most. All kinds of foodstuffs get crammed down a garbage disposal when well-meaning relatives help you do the dishes and clear the table.
Pasta, coffee grounds, potato peelings, eggshells. All those everyday remnants of cooking can clog up your drain. And cook a whole turkey or roast and just look at how much grease you could pour down the drain.
Don’t do it. Those things are bad, bad, bad for your plumbing.
If you don’t want a holiday disaster with clogged drains and stinky sinks, be careful what you put down them.
#5. Use sink strainers to help prevent clogged drains
This is so simple. Just keep your sink strainer over the drain. When it collects bits of food, put them in the trashcan and keep that much extra waste from getting into the drain line.
Anything you can do to keep those bad things from going into your drain will help prevent problems in the future.
#6. Don’t flush “flushable” wipes
No matter how the labels are worded, “flushable” wipes are a plumber’s nightmare. They may dissolve….eventually, but in the meantime, they may hang around the elbow joints of your plumbing before finally, (if you’re lucky), sludging their way to sewers, mounting into “fatbergs,” and slowing everything up.
Really, I’ve got nothing against flushable wipes. But if you use them, throw them in the garbage can, not into the toilet.
This one step can drastically eliminate the possibility of a home holiday disaster when you’ve got the most people using your facilities.
#7. Know where your main water shut-off valve is located
If the worst should happen, and you’d have a pipe burst, or a toilet clog while running, or a sudden leak that spews water, you need to know where your main water shut-off valve is located so that you can stop the flow and minimize the damage.
Knowing what to do in case of an emergency is part of disaster preparedness and holiday happiness!
#8. Call ServiceOne for Precision Tune-Ups, Preventative Maintenance, Repairs, and Emergency Service
There’s an old phrase that says an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It’s so much easier to avoid a disaster than to recover from one.
Call ServiceOne for routine maintenance and check-ups BEFORE the holidays. Consider a maintenance agreement, so you never forget to have service done. Get a small problem fixed before it becomes bigger. If the worst should happen, we’ll be there to handle any emergency.
Let us take care of your heating, air conditioning, plumbing, and drain cleaning needs and avoid colossal holiday home disasters before they happen.