Around The House

Fall is here.  We definitely enjoy the cooler weather.  We’ve already had a great cider mill experience.  We have a fridge drawer full of apples from picking.  It’s a great time of year.  Although summer is my favorite season, fall is a great time. But, it’s not all fun and relaxing.  There is work to be done!  Here are some items on our fall to-do list.

Paint Swing Set

It’s been at least seven years since I last painted the kids swing set.  It definitely needs it.  This will honestly probably be the last time it gets painted.  It’s a wood set and water always breaks down wood.  Still, maybe this will get at least a few more years until they naturally grow out of the set.

Till The Flower Bed

We have a flower bed in front of the house that needs work.  There are nearby trees.  The roots from the trees have made the soil pretty hard.  After pulling the flower, I need to till the soil.  This should help for spring.  The flowers haven’t done as well as they used to.  I am hoping that some loosened soil will help next spring.

Fill In Grass Seed

I went through and put seed over some spots where the grass has gone down to bare soil.  I need to check if there are any remaining areas.

Fertilize The Grass

The pre-winter application helps keep the weeds down in the spring.  I have the fertilizer.  I’m just waiting until the new grass gets established before I apply it.

Sell Strollers

We have several strollers in the garage.  They are perfectly good, but we have no more need for them.  It’s time to clean them off and list them on Facebook Marketplace.

Organize Our Camper Stuff

As I mentioned, we sold our camper.  All of the inside stuff is neatly organized and in bins.  But, the outside stuff is in a big pile inside the garage.  Now, I need to get some additional shelving and store it properly.

Put Away Patio Stuff

Our glass table can’t sit out as is during the winter.  I tried it once and the snow was too heavy, and the glue that holds the glass to the frame became fatigued and had to be completely re-done.  So, I have to store it either in the basement or under the deck.

Trim Down The Perennials

We have quite a few perennials that need to be trimmed back.  So, some of them may need to eventually be removed.  We have some rose bushes that, no matter what I do, just look worse and worse every year.  It might be time to try something different.

Get Rid Of Old Computers

This really isn’t tied to fall but just something I want to do.  I have several old laptop and desktop machines.  But, I don’t use them. They are way too old to be sold.  I need to make sure to get any data from them and dispose of them properly.  I am just tired of things like that taking up space unnecessarily.

Start Planning For Christmas

It’d be nice to get a jump on the holidays.  They always seem to sneak up.  I’ve already encouraged the kids to start writing down items they might want for their lists.  Ideally, it’d be nice to go through our stuff and identify anything we might need.  Additionally, setting early shopping plans and budgets will only make things easier when the busy season hits.

That’s our list, though I’m sure it will get bigger.  What’s on your fall to-do list for the year?

The switch to Daylight Savings Time was about a month ago.  This is the traditional time to change smoke alarm batteries. Though I’m a little late, I thought it’d be a change to talk about a few questions that have come to mind.  Yes, I actually think of such things.

And since this is a few weeks past the switch, maybe it’ll remind some stragglers!

Do You Change Your Batteries Twice Per Year?

The traditional advice is that you change your batteries around the time switch.  This would mean changing them twice per year.  I’m curious how many actually do that.  And, given that they changed the dates a few years back, the times are no longer even at all.   Daylight Savings Time lasts almost eight months now.  That’s hardly even.

However, I personally don’t change ours twice per year.  I change them only once, around spring time.  All of our smoke alarms are hard wired, so the battery is a backup. Even if a battery did go bad, it would start chirping.  So far, the once per year schedule has never yielded a run down battery.  In fact, I’ve taken the batteries from smoke detectors and used them for other things, and they’ve lasted a long time.

My guess is that I could go much longer than a year on hard wired devices.  I’m not going to chance that. I’m curious how many change their batteries twice per year?

What About When There’s No Daylight Savings Time

Some places don’t observe Daylight Savings Time.  They simply don’t change their clocks in the spring or in the fall.  I guess there’s enough hype that people probably hear about it anyway.  But, I’ve also heard that there are more and more places that want to get rid of it.  What if it went away altogether? Would our built-in reminder to change batteries be put at risk?

Is Battery Changing A Business Opportunity?

It crossed my mind that there are probably many people that can’t change their batteries.  Older people or disabled people might not be comfortable or even able to change batteries. The enteprenuer in me wondered if this could be a business opportunity.

I did a few Google searches and it looks like some people do offer this, but typically alongside other services.  This makes sense, because I guess it’s pretty hard to build an entire buisness model around something that would see peak demand for only a few days per year.

Still, interesting concept.

What About Changing Smoke Alarms?

This year, I changed out most of the smoke alarms.  They say you’re supposed to change them out every ten years.  I’m guessing ours were much older than that.  We’ve lived in the house 10 years and the house was 8 years old when we moved in.  So we probably should have done this sooner.

It was a little more involved of a process. We have eight smoke alarms.  Technically, we didn’t replace all of them, as I only replaced six.  One smoke alarm was added a couple of years ago when we finished off a basement room.  Another had recently been replaced because it did go bad.  But I replaced the other six.  It has a sticker where you’re supposed to write the year it was installed.  So that’ll be a reminder for when it’s time to replace them again.

When was the last time you replaced your alarms?

Sometimes You Tear Your Hair Out

This story goes back a ways but it’s still worth sharing. My previous residence did not have smoke alarms in the bedrooms as it wasn’t code when my condo was built.  So, I’d purchased battery only alarms and kept them in the bedrooms.  I didn’t install them, they just sat around.  When I moved, I threw them into a box and forgot about them.

Fast forward several years and I could hear a smoke alarm chirping somewhere in the house.  I never took the battery out and had stashed it away in some drawer.  It took me a few days to figure that out (it was in the basement) but maybe that helps answer the question on how long a battery really lasts!

Important

Smoke alarms might not seem like the most exciting thing, but they’re so important.  Many people die every year in house fires.  So many stories that I’ve read talk about how it was discovered that there were no working smoke alarms.   I don’t want me or anyone I know to be a victim.

If you haven’t spent the few minutes to make sure your smoke alarms work and have working batteries, please do so.  It could be the difference between life and death!