We want to give you some useful info on fall and winter home prep. Much of this information is just practical and logical but also something that many people do not think about until there is a problem.

Knowing How to Prep Your Home for the Fall and Winter is a very important issue when it comes to personal and home safety.

How to Prep Your Home for the Fall and Winter Now

1. Take care of your heaters

2. Check and test fire extinguishers

3. Change batteries in the smoke detector

4. Check door and window seals

5. Replace burnt-out light bulbs

6. Wrap water pipes

7. Keep Your Fans Clean

1. Take Care of Your Heaters whatever kind you use

1. Electric Heaters

Have your electric heaters blown out. Dirty or clogged-up heaters can cause fires. Or just not work right and an improperly working heater will not heat your house and will make your electric bill go up.

2. Gas Heaters

The chance of fire during the fall and winter actually goes up. With many homes using gas heaters, sparks can start a house fire if not properly cleaned and tended.

Houses that are closed up, and using a gas heater need to take care to prevent gas leaks. A gas leak can cause real health issues, not to mention a house fire. Or even an explosion can occur if your gas heater is not properly maintained.

3. Fire Places

Open fireplaces are cozy and fun but if your fireplace is dirty or clogged with soot, a chimney fire can start. A chimney fire is not easy to detect or stop once it starts. Prevention is always best. Get your chimney cleaned every year before you start up your first fire. Yes, chimney sweeping is still a thing, if you have a fireplace.

Or even if you have wood-burning stoves, you will still need to clean the stove and the chimney pipes.

2. Check and test fire extinguishers

Be sure to test your fire extinguishers regularly. It is recommended that this be done twice a year at least. If you are not comfortable doing this yourself, you can take it to a tester. But testing is very simple, go outside, pull the trigger and see what happens. If you get a rush of foam, it works. If there is no foam, it does not work. A non-working fire extinguisher is nothing more than a fake safe.

The only use a dead fire extinguisher is good for in the case of a fire is to throw it through the window to break the glass so you can escape.

3. Change batteries in the smoke detector

Making sure your batteries are fresh and charged is important for most electrical equipment. But this is double true for safety equipment. Dead batteries mean dead equipment. If a fire should start and the smoke detector goes off, it gives a warning in time to avoid most of the danger. Or at least to get a handle on a starting fire. But if the smoke detector that you are relying on is dead, there is no warning to be had. And fire can very quickly become too large and out of control to be stopped. Always be sure to test your smoke detector regularly, twice a year is recommended. And be sure you put in fresh batteries regularly.

4. Check door and window seals

When the doors and windows do not properly seal, it lets air in and out. This will not only allow the cold air from outside to come in but the warm air from inside to go out. You will be wasting heat as well as electricity. As the old saying goes, you are not trying to heat the outside. This will put a strain on your heater, wasting money and resource.

5. Replace burnt-out light bulbs

Be sure you keep old, burnt-out light bulbs changed out. A dead light bulb still in an electric socket will still draw electricity but not actually put out any light. Again, this wastes electricity, money, and resources. Make sure you replace dead bulbs as soon as they happen. Speedy attending will let you see better and save money.

6. Wrap water pipes

Before the first freeze comes in, make sure to check the winter wraps on your outside water pipes. You need a good thick wrap on pipes to keep them from bursting in a hard freeze. If there are any tearing or thin places, either reinforce those spots or replace the wrap. No one wants to wake up on a freezing morning to no water inside and a gushing flood outside. Or worse, no water at all.

Here on the farm, if the water pipes burst, the well can run dry, and then there will be no water at all. Forget having hot water for washing.

7. Keep Your Fans Clean

Many people are accustomed to using electric fans in their homes. A fan can help circulate both warm airs in the winter and cool air in the summer. It can also improve heat and cool distribution and make it easier to heat or cool your house. But a dirty fan is a drag on the electric bill and unhealthy for your family. If you have never looked at the grate on your fan, do sometimes. If your fan’s grate has dirt built up, dust, pet hair, or spider webs all over it. That is creating unhealthy air and circulating it around your house.

Keep all the gunk off your fan. This will not only improve the fans working but it will save electricity and help keep your home air clean.

Every home comes with its own individual issues. Think about your home and the special things that you need to do to keep it in good shape.

Do you have solar panels that need to be checked, cleaned, and maintained? Or do you have a pool that needs to be closed down for the winter? Does your attic fan need servicing?

Keep these things in mind as well as the ones that we have given you for How to Prep Your Home for the Fall and Winter Now.

Here is a quick checklist you can screenshot and print out.  You can add other items as you need to.

We hope you have enjoyed this talk on How to Prep Your Home for the Fall and Winter Now and that this information will be useful to you.

For your family and home safety, please keep these very important things in mind. As the saying goes preventative is better than repair.

Thank you for visiting and please come again for another edition of Out Standing in the Field.