Winterizing My Stuff (part 2)

Last week we offered some tips to help you avoid unexpected disasters that can come from the unpredictable onset of Winter in our area. Today, Brian “MacGyver” Vander Weide and I have some tips for you on things you can do to make things easier as we move from warm to cold weather.

Winterizing to make things easier:

1. Run your lawnmower dry (let it run out of gas) on the last cut of the year and store it without fuel over the winter. This will help prevent the carburetor from getting gummed up and ensure an easier start with fresh gas in the Spring. If you have extra gas but you don’t need to mow your grass you can push your lawn mower around to help blow your leaves into piles to make raking easier to it runs out of fuel.

2. Get your snow blower and mower serviced. November is the best time to get these things done. A good repair shop can replace the plugs, sharpen the mower blade, grease your snow blower and replace the oil in both. That way you will be ready for that big winter storm and your mower will cut grass like a carpet in the spring.

3. If you have window AC units, turn off and cover your air conditioner. You don’t need an expensive cover. A small 3x5 tarp will do the trick. Use a length of rope with two loops tied on the ends and a bungee cord to secure the tarp over your air conditioner. Make sure your air conditioning vents, if they are different from those your heater uses, are closed for the winter.

4. If you have central heat and want to conserve a little, shut off some of your vents on your second floor. Warm air from the first floor should rise and help keep things warm. Also, if you don’t have a programmable thermostat – its worth getting one just to tailor your heat use to your lifestyle.

5. Replace the screen in your screen door with the window. On a windy day, walk around the house and see if there is air coming in anywhere. If there is you can be sure that cold air coming in means warm air is going out. Weather stripping, calk, shrink plastic are all inexpensive and helpful solutions to draftiness.

6. If you burn wood – look at the location and condition of your wood pile and ask yourself, ‘what kind of hassle would it be to get wood if it were raining or snowing?.’ Consider a ‘staging area’ for wood where you could keep a stock of dry, easily accessible wood. You can fill it on good weather days throughout the winter.

7. As soon as we get the first sub-freezing night, look to do a quickie garage reorganization (less buggy after a freeze). Just move the warm weather stuff (lawn chairs, bikes, boogie boards, etc.) to the back of the garage, and make snow cleaning stuff, sleds, etc. easily accessible. If you have a full garage, make paths to stuff you might need for the winter.

Winter – bring it on!