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Change Your Smoke Alarm Batteries

February 15, 2008 on 12:09 am | In Homeownership | No Comments

Do you remember to change your smoke alarm batteries when Daylight Savings Time ended in November and March every year? It’s easy to forget or overlook mundane, but important home tasks like these, as I was recently reminded.

The other night, after everyone else was asleep; I went to check on my 5-year-old twins. They had coughs and sore throats earlier this fall, so I’m very concerned about air quality and the temperature in their bedroom. And their room was incredibly warm and humid, even with the air-conditioning on!

Something inspired me to look at the air-conditioning filter. I took the cover off and found the culprit immediately — a thick coating of gray lint and dust. I decided to check the master bedroom, and found the same thing — our air conditioner filter was totally caked with gray lint.

I took both air-conditioning filters, which are plastic and made to be washable, and washed them thoroughly. (Plain soap and water works great on these filters!) I dried them off and put them back in the air conditioners.

Problem solved. But it could have been avoided. And maybe my girls’ air-quality would have been better, potentially avoiding illness. These days all of us live very busy lives, and yet it’s unavoidable — owning a home involves lots of simple routines and maintenance cycles you shouldn’t avoid.

That’s why I want to remind you about AHA’s email Home Reminders. They’re free.
AHA reminders help you organize your life and your home. Count on them to help you stay on top of 58 different home and personal tasks. You choose the reminders you want, how often you want them, and where they go. They’ll even recommend how often you need to do some tasks. Ordinary home maintenance jobs (like cleaning air filters) and personal routines (such as a haircut or visit to the dentist) become simply part of an orderly life.

So do yourself a favor, as I have: go to http://www.ahahome.com/enroll and spend under 10 minutes setting up a year’s worth of free home reminders. They can save you many hours and countless aggravation in the coming year — I guarantee it.