9 annual household chores to do when changing your clocks

It's that time again, for us to Spring back and enjoy the extra hour of daylight.

Most of us are aware of the campaign "change your clocks, change your batteries".  If you take this a step further and develop a semi-annual "to-do" list for important household tasks that we routinely forget about or ignore, these important chores can be completed twice a year.  

Sometimes the most difficult thing to do each year is to find the time for those little annual chores.  

If you develop a semi-annual chores chart, these tasks can be checked off and you can get back to your daily routines.

1.  Change your batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors - This is one of the most important tasks you can do, keeping your family and home safe.  

2. Clean your dryer vent - Did you know that there are 12,000 dryer fires annually in the U.S?  This can easily be stopped with dryer vents being cleaned more thoroughly.  Dryer lint is highly flammable, a deep cleaning using a suction vacuum to clean the dryer vent and behind the dryer can help stop a dryer fire.

3. Change your AC & Furnace filters - It is recommended these filters be changed more than twice a year, but if you keep this on your semi-annual "to do" list, you can make sure that they are at least being changed twice.  

4. Clean out your medicine cabinets - This is a great time to check your medicine cabinets and get rid of expired medication.  In November, it helps to stock up on cold/flu medication and Spring to make sure you have plenty of allergy medication.  

5. Flip your mattress - Most mattress brands recommend rotating mattresses every three months.  Sleeping in the same spot, night after night will cause your bed to wear unevenly.  By rotating your mattress by 180 degrees, you will get better lifespan of your mattress and healthier performance.

6. Wipe down ceiling fans - This is one of those chores that most of us hate doing, especially if you have allergies.  One of the best tricks to cleaning the blades is using a pillowcase.  This is a life changer - if you have never tried it before.  Slide a pillowcase over each fan blade individually, and use your hands to press the fabric against the top and bottom of the blade. Pull the pillowcase toward you along the blade. All the dusty gunk stays inside, and all you have to do is shake out the pillowcase outside and toss it in the wash!

7. Clean underneath and behind your refrigerator - The fridge may be the hardest-working appliance in the kitchen, making this chore a very important one if you want to have your fridge last a long time.  Every refrigerator has a condenser, the unit that releases heat through those squiggly-looking coils located at the back of the fridge or across the bottom front.  Over time these coils can accumulate dust, dirt, and grime, which cases the compressor to have to double is energy usage to keep up the work.  By not cleaning these coils, your fridge will eventually not be able to keep up and will eventually break down.

   
   

8. Clean out Rain Gutters - Get ready for winter and spring showers by cleaning out your gutters during daylight savings.  This is a great time to prepare for winter and make sure your gutters are cleared for those spring showers you werent expecting.

9. Clean out your garage - Sometimes our garages become a dumping station for all the things we don't know what to do with.  Setting up times to clean out the garages can help with keeping them free of hazards but also keeping them tidy.  

By keeping a semi-annual checklist, you can make sure that those important tasks that we sometimes forget or ignore get taken care of.  

Most importantly though, make sure you change your clocks back!