We’ve teamed up with Consumer Reports and are proud to be two of their paid brand ambassadors; our personal opinions do not necessarily reflect those of Consumer Reports and now it’s time to get ready for the holidays.
This means many things to many people. While many (most?) think about toys and fun and family, I think about that Christmas the water heater blew up and the morning was spent calling for plumbers whose typical $100 per hour surely doubled.
Yes, we think about toys and fun too. And remembering this is about family and new beginnings and longer days with more sunshine. Yes, even Spring flowers pop to mind when we think about the waning days of Fall.
And, we think about Consumer Reports, with whom we’ve teamed up for this blog post. Consumer Reports nonprofit organization makes what’s already challenging—you know there is a blogger already planning ‘9 Last Second Holiday Gifts She’ll Love’—less so. Now branded CR, they break down everything from tips to getting your house ready for holiday visitors to getting the best deal on tech gifts. CR is a bastion of information with integrity.
We hold Consumer Reports’ mission in the highest regard. We’ve seen the place behind the curtain, and if you want an honest, data-driven, review on anything from mattresses to tech to snow throwers (they test them in the warmer months using huge piles of wet sawdust…awesome), you’ll find it at CR.
CR has asked us to help them share their mission, wonderfully intact for decades, of helping us all. Yes, they bought—bought—the Tesla they showed us. And everything else we saw. To be part of the CR mission, you can donate year round. If you donate before Giving Tuesday your contribution with be doubled
We love that the reviewers are more scientists and craftspeople than magazine people. In other words, it’s about the gauntlets they put things through to get a real sense of how they’ll work in your home—or on the road. Want to know if you should get an iPhone or an Android? Or a curved-screen TV? They’ve spent weeks and months with the products in a test facility that’d make even the least geeky person on Planet E swoon—both from gear to the yawning silence of no outside influence on the ratings.
But back to the holidays and tips for getting the house ready. What do we think about? Theresa and I are different. She’s concerned with how family will feel when they walk through the door and her focus turns from table, craft and DIY projects to elevating the pallet to an art form. The ‘seen things’ that make people smile and feel home.
Me…I think about the toilet.
Because I—in a different way—also care about how family feels.
So here’s a painfully practical checklist to get ready for the holidays, and find those sneaky places where easily avoidable problems may lurk. Note: I don’t, technically, know how to lurk.
1 – Toilet check. If the toilet feels wobbly or it’s been a few years, before the holiday-hurry of decoration and travel planning consumes all, I set aside time to replace the wax ring. A wobbly toilet or a faint odor is a good sign the wax ring needs some love. Replacing it is a fairly easy project and, while slightly-to-somewhat gross, is 100% less annoying than having it go bad when family is over.
2 – Hose bibs. Make sure all the exterior hose bibs are turned off. I have seen the fountain and resulting ice sculpture from burst water pipes. It literally takes seconds to close them. Shut them off on the inside. Outdoors, remove the hose, if there is one, and open the spigot so it can drain.
3 – Snow prep. While CR is awash in sawdust hurling snow-throwers, my main concern is NOT being the guy in line at a store trying to buy their last snow shovel. Also, snow shovels, ironically, stink for shoveling snow. They’re awful. I use a grain scoop instead.
4 – HVAC Filter. This is by no means a get ready for the holidays emergency, but I like to whip it on a list like this because it is one of those little things I put off until I’m doing 80 other little things in a little things rampage, like this list. If it’s been a few months, replacing the HVAC filter in the furnace is both simple and good for the furnace and fuel bills. I like the fiber filters; in theory anyway. They can be cleaned and re-used sometimes. However, I rarely clean them and they can get hung up inside the unit.
5 – Cold-weather color and the Spring garden. As the MyFixitUpLife landscaping crew, I like to think about cold-weather color in the landscape. First, I dead-head all the later bloomers—which I usually avoid until they’re bloomed and boring.
Winter is blah enough with no color to surprise me on the way to the mailbox or in from the car with armloads of groceries. I love planting cabbage and kale. Sure, it’s a bit inert, but it gives the brown some bling I love when it gets cold.
And while I’m digging—this is a great kid and family project too—if I’m thinking ahead to new flowers in the garden bed, I drop bulbs in the ground and let them rest there all winter. It’s the best place for them to pop up on their own time table next year.
