Summertime is here, and it’s time to start up the barbecue and cook up burgers. But if you’ve been away from your summer home for nearly a year, it’s time to start taking on tasks that should have been spread out over the year.
You can decide to call on professionals to help you.
Fire up your Yelp app or the Home Advisor app, and find professionals that can give you a hand today. But if you’re feeling adventurous, there is a lot of work that you can do on your own that will save you money and get your summer home back up to snuff.
1. Start by Performing a Deep Carpet Cleaning
If your nose is stuffy and you find yourself sneezing, chances are that you have allergies. These allergies will hit your summer home during the latter end of the season, too. Furnishings, like your cushy couch, carpets and rugs, have a tendency to attract allergens.
And these allergens are making you sneeze the summer away.
Experts recommend that the carpet be deep cleaned every 6 – 12 months on average. The goal is to use a three-stage HEPA filter vacuum that will trap all of the dust and allergens in your carpet.
These filters are designed to trap 99.7% of all allergens and dust, so they’re very effective.
If you have a steam cleaner, vacuum the floor first followed by a good steam cleaning. The process will remove as much dirt and allergens as possible.
2. Check and Clean Pipes as Necessary
Your plumbing system has been out of operation all year, and if there are no apparent leaks, this is a good thing. But, you’ll also want to make sure that everything is working properly. You’ll want to go through all of the rooms in the home and let the water run for a few minutes.
When you do this, you’ll be clearing out your pipes and any of the sediment that has been allowed to settle in the pipes.
A water heater may have accumulated a lot of sediment, too. You’ll want to run your hot water for a few minutes to start getting the sediment moving out of your system.
If you have any clogs, now is the time to fix them. You can try and snake your own drain or use drain de-clogging liquids from the store. But if nothing seems to work, it’s time to call a professional and have your system serviced.
“Most plumbers will come in with a plunger and a machine called a snake. This machine is inserted into the sewer or drain through a pre-established access point, like a clean out, and pushed deep down to the clog. It then rotates through the clog, clearing the pipe of the blockage. It’s the cheapest way of clearing drains and clogs,” writes The North Ridge Plumber.
3. Clean Out Your Fridge
Did you clean out your fridge before you left? If not, you’ll likely have a few surprises growing in your fridge that need to be thrown out. But, it’s also a good time to perform a deep cleaning of your fridge to ensure that everything is running efficiently.
This means cleaning out those condenser coils to make sure that food, hair and dirt are removed from the unit.
All you need is a coil brush or vacuum to clean off these coils. If you allow the coils to stay dirty, the entire unit needs to work harder to stay cool. A quick and easy cleaning will extend the fridge’s lifespan and help you save on energy bills.
A mild cleaner can be used to wipe the interior of the fridge.
4. Fire Up Your Grill
Your grill needs to be fired up after such a long time remaining stagnant. Gas grills will require you to turn on the grill, turn the heat up and allow the system to remain heated for an hour or so.
Afterwards, you’ll want to turn the unit off and let it cool.
Using a bristle-free brush, you’ll want to clean off the unit, scrubbing the grates well. Charcoal grills should also be brushed to remove all of the gunk and build-up that has formed. Empty out the charcoals while you’re at it, too.
This will allow you to keep the grill up and running all summer long.
