All parents when kids go back to school…
It’s Happy Dance Day for all the parents in Pearland, Friendswood, League City and beyond. It’s Back to School time! Just about all of the agents at Stanfield Properties have children either heading back to school or college (or both!) and we, like you, are ready to reclaim our homes from the monsters we created (ahem … we mean our sweet, precious children).
After you’ve taken a day or two to relish in the quietness of your home and picked up all the empty snack wrappers, soda cans, dirty socks, and wet swimsuits off the floor (“How long has THAT been there?!?”), it’s time to do a quick home care check-up. Take a stroll around your now-peaceful walls and have a look at the following:
Your Thermostat – remember all those summer days of walking by your thermostat and seeing that SOMEONE set the temp to 60 degrees? Well good news, you can turn that thing back to 74 degrees, and no one will touch it all day! For every one-degree difference in your thermostat setting, you can save up to $1 per day on your electric bill. So congrats, you just made some money by sending your kids back to school!
Your Air Filters – speaking of saving money, those AC’s have been running since Memorial Day (and the August electric bill is coming y’all, get ready). Now’s a good time to replace all the filters and dust/vacuum those return air vents. Who knows what you may find behind that grate – tiny plastic Barbie shoes, and entire dog’s worth of hair, that missing Lego piece that induced a 30 minute temper tantrum? Too much debris in the filter can overstress your entire HVAC system, so take a deep breath, crack that vent open, and start cleaning!
Your Refrigerator – despite all your deepest hopes, the soda that spilled in the back corner of your fridge did not, in fact, clean itself up. Though you may have already stocked up on those beginning-of-the-year healthy snacks, and already cut all your cheese into cute little star shapes for their lunches, a good fridge cleanout is probably in order. Simple Dawn soap, water, and a washcloth is all you need, with a dab of baking soda to pick up that syrupy soda residue.
Your Water Heater – despite the 95+ degree heat this summer, your kids have still managed to take multiple 30+ minute hot showers daily. Why? How? Well, that’s for another discussion … BUT that means that your water heater probably needs a check-up too. Wait til approximately 2am when your attic/garage is less than one thousand degrees, then go test your water heaters’ pressure relief valve – usually located at the top of the unit. Test by opening and closing the valve a couple times to make sure hot water is released from the heater via the drainline (click here for pics and info). FYI – a faulty/stuck TPR valve is the #1 most common deficient item that we see on property inspection reports!
Your Clutter – we all know about spring cleaning, but when you live in Texas you want to do all the INDOOR activities in August. Now’s the time to pack up all the toys, clothes, and shoes that your loved ones no longer wear – they aren’t there to whine when you give away their ‘favorite’ shirt they haven’t worn in a year! Donation centers are always in need of school clothing this time of year, or you could put them on Facebook Marketplace – remember, you’re about to spend a car payment’s worth of cash on spirit shirts, yearbooks, $7 school lunches, cookie dough fundraisers, PTA memberships, those extra school supplies that were definitely NOT on the list, and fall pictures (sidenote: whose idea was it to have 3 sets of individual pics per kid per year? Definitely not a parent!).
Alright, hopefully you got a good kick out of this, and maybe even an actual helpful tip! As always, we appreciate your support of The Stanfield Team at Stanfield Properties – look for our blog post next week: ‘Your Home’s Foundation: To Water or Not to Water?”
In the meantime, feel free to give us a call for any of your real estate needs at 281-482-7100.
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