The first flakes of snow fell last week! Yay! That means winter is nearly here! Boo! But winter isn’t so bad as long as you prepare, especially when it comes to where you live. Here’s some tips to make sure your home is prepared for the snow, the ice, and the cold.
Stay Warm
Schedule a furnace tune-up as soon as possible to make sure everything is in working order – don’t wait until you have to turn the furnace on to find out there’s an issue. Check the caulk and weather stripping to see if they need any upkeep.
If your house has an attic, make sure that it’s properly insulated so that the heat you generate downstairs stays trapped in the house.
Stay Safe
Make sure you have working smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors in your home, and test the batteries in those devices.
Have a home emergency kit that includes extra clothes, medications, first aid kit, and batteries (Mercury Stardust even recommends putting a backup credit card in there). Check to make sure you have enough of all these provisions and that the food and medications aren’t expired.
Stay Powered Up
Power outages can be a fact of life during a winter storm, and if you rely on electric-powered devices, such as medical devices, make sure you have an alternate power source available, like batteries, a power bank, or a gas-powered generator. Generators should always be kept outdoors and situated at least 20 feet away from windows, doors, and attached garages.
Stay Dry
Make sure those pipes don’t freeze up! Unscrew your hoses, turn off the water lines that connect to external spigots, and make sure your pipes are properly insulated. For an additional layer of protection, install foam insulation covers on the outside spigots.
If you live in an apartment and don’t know whether the lines are insulated or not, it’s a good idea to keep a little bit of water running at all times.
Also, if you haven’t cleaned out the gutters yet, now’s the time! If the gutters aren’t cleaned out when the freeze comes, ice dams can form, which can get underneath the shingles and cause them to crack and rot.
