Household Tips

It is that time of year. Time to carve pumpkins. Or if you’re like me, time to take the kids to buy pumpkins, then lock them and your husband outside on the porch until the deed is done. I HATE pumpkin carving! If you’re smart, you’ll talk yourself into painting a pumpkin or putting stickers on one INSTEAD of carving. You can always oooooh and aaaaah over the neighbor’s carved pumpkin, right? But you’re likely not going to do that. You’re going to carve one. And if you’re like millions of Americans, you’ll use your garbage disposal for all the pumpkin-y goo.

Bad call.

Halloween drives lots of business to your local plumbers. Lots. That ooey, gooey, pumpkin-y goodness wrecks disposals and clogs plumbing. According to our friends at Mr. Rooter, all that pulp hardens and clogs your drain.

“A pumpkin’s stringy, slimy substance is too much for the garbage disposal to handle,” said Mary Kennedy Thompson, president of the Mr. Rooter Corporation. “Your thoughts should be on Halloween costumes, trick-or-treaters and giving out candy — not calling a plumber to clear your drain.”

Mr. Rooter(R) offers these tips to keep pumpkins from haunting the plumbing system:
– Carve pumpkin on a newspaper instead of over the kitchen sink.
– Do not dump pulp and seeds into the disposal or toilet.
– Instead, throw all pumpkin-related material and newspaper in the garbage.

Better yet, use the seeds! I actually buy roasted pumpkin seeds in little packets during the “down-time” of the year. Roasting them yourself at home is easy and healthy. Check out the recipe at Elementary Chef here

It is that time at my house. Time to paint. I have promised my daughter that her room will come first. But then I want to move on to the major rooms of my house. I learned this tip when painting with a friend:

When you finish painting for the day (or night!), why bother cleaning a brush you plan to start back with the next day? Just wrap it in aluminum foil (well!) and place in the refrigerator. The next day, just take it out and start painting!

painting, cleaning

Have you ever tried to unscrew a burned out light bulb and found it stuck in the socket?

This happens mostly outside with a porch light or in a bathroom or basement where moisture is present. Over time, the moisture gets in there and corrodes the metal just enough to cause a bit of rust to build up and before you know it, the light bulb seems permanently fixed in that socket. Occasionally, a light bulb breaks off in the socket leaving a mess of glass and an even more difficult situation.

To avoid this corrosion in the future, put a thin layer of Vaseline on the metal threads before screwing it into the socket. This will create a barrier and you will avoid moisture-induced corrosion of a light bulb in a socket.

I came home the other night to find my lower level smoke detector beeping in that incessant every-thirty-seconds-beep-thing it does when it needs a new diaper or wants to be burped, or maybe just have its battery changed.

As I am the husband in my marriage (please note: I am female. All female. Born, raised and practicing.) I dutifully got the step ladder and began my inspection.

I managed to remove the alarm from the ceiling but soon found that it only dangled about one inch from because it is hard-wired into the house power.

I totally swore there was no battery in the damn alarm. But? NOTHING made the beeping stop. And, poor Gromit the cat had began to walk into wall every ten steps.

Then I did what any bride-to-be would do if her fiancée was standing right there while she was struggling with the smoke detector. I called my Daddy. He told me that if there really isn’t a battery back-up then I would need to find the breaker that controls that specific smoke detector and turn off the power and then disconnect the wires. Urgh!

I squeezed the plugs on the wire connector and on my last tug, it came free. It wasn’t until after thorough examination of the alarm and planning my trip to Home Depot did I find that there was a small little battery door.

Battery back-up!

Battery back-up!

The battery inside was most likely the original battery used upon installation. FIVE years ago.

We just bought the house in December, and, I haven’t gotten around to all those details quite yet. It is recommended that you change the batteries in your smoke detector each time you turn the clocks ahead or back for Daylight Savings Time.

I had one extra 9 volt battery and was able to change it and reinstall the fixture in a matter of minutes. It was a simple maintenance issue and I’m glad it happened. Now, I have to replace three other batteries as well in other detectors.

Safety Reminder: Change the batteries in your smoke detector! If you can’t remember the last time you did it, or if you just bought a home, DO IT NOW. It could totally save your life.

smoke detector, batteries, 9 volt, household safety, house fire, smoke alarm