13. Baby your garbage disposal.
Forget caustic and poisonous drain cleaners,
Carey says. His remedy is cheaper, gentler on your pipes and safer for the
environment: Two or three times a year, pour a cup of vinegar into an ice cube
tray. Fill the tray up with water and freeze it. Pop all the vinegar ice cubes into the
disposal and turn it on. The cubes scrub the disposal and the vinegar removes
the build-up of grease and gunk. Keep fibrous stuff (like potato peels and corn
husks) and eggshells out of disposals. The lug nuts that chew up waste are
easily choked. To coax long life out of your disposal, here's the best way to
operate it, according to Carey: Run cold water into the disposal, then turn it on
and finally put waste into the cavity, a little at a time. Don't jam the disposal with
stuff. Cold water keeps the motor from overheating. It also congeals grease. Hot
water melts grease and it coats the pipes and disposal walls. Also, treat every
drain to this freshening treatment two or three times a year: Pour in equal parts
salt, baking soda and vinegar, followed about 30 seconds later by two quarts of
boiling water. It'll foam a little, Carey warns, but that's OK — it's harmless.
Monthly
14. Check furnace filters.
Check your furnace's instruction manual to locate and
remove its fiberglass filter. Hold it up to the light: If it's dark and dirty-looking,
replace it. Filters trap dust, pollen, spores and airborne debris, keeping your
home's air clean and extending the life of your furnace. "If you're not changing
the filter, you will pump those spores back through the house," Juneau says.
"People with allergies really notice if you've got clogged or dirty filters." Plain
fiberglass filters cost a couple of dollars each. Pleated, fine-mesh filters that trap
allergens and other irritants and keep the furnace cleaner cost a few dollars
more. Or, for $700 to $1,500 (installed) you can replace the furnace filter with an
electronic air cleaner. Professionally installed next to the furnace, these may
scrub the air best of all. "People who have allergies absolutely swear by them,"
Juneau says. (Examples are the
and
.) Carey, who uses one in his home, also is
enthusiastic about the health benefits.
From time to time, when you are tempted to slack off on your home-maintenance
routine, remember another cautionary tale from home inspector Juneau. This
one's about some people who forgot to clean the gutters one winter at their
million-dollar summer home near a lake. By the time Juneau saw the place,
cascading water had jumped the plugged gutters, filling the concrete patio
beneath. The water poured from the patio, which was flush with the dining room,
into the house where it warped and rotted the hardwood floors. "It probably cost
him about $15,000 to redo all the wood floors," Juneau says.
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