Ways to deal with common household issues

The Fridge Goes Out

It seems inevitable. The weather outside has hit sweltering levels and your refrigerator goes out. According to LifeHacker.com, your pet or more specifically, your pet’s hair could be the likely culprit. Over time, small hairs can get trapped in the coils of the refrigerator, causing the compressor to heat up. As a fail-safe, the overload switch will then get triggered and shut the appliance off.

Keeping the coils on your unit clean will get rid of this problem. As an added bonus, your utility bills could go way down: Your fridge isn’t working as hard. This translates into lower bills and a better-working fridge to boot.

Keep Track of Air Filters

This is related to the entry above, but a bit more specific. Basically, if you have dirty air filters, your home won’t be as clean. The culprits could be pet danders, dust, hair, and other particles. However, your pets can make this problem worse. According to Filter Connection, pet owners deal with a lot more in terms of dust and allergens than do homeowners without pets.

Aside from changing your home’s filters often, you can take steps that will ensure that your filters will stay cleaner longer. This includes getting pets that shed less often like Border Terriers or Toy Poodles. You can also vacuum to keep the flying dander and hair under control. Finally, you should groom and bathe your pets at least twice a week to keep the excess hair and danders out of your home’s filters.

Yucky Household Trash Cans

The bottom of your trash can get pretty gross. Although you take your trash out regularly, you may still deal with bottom-of-the-can slim and gunk. There is a simple fix for this, according to the Birch Box website. You can line the bottom of the can with another garbage bag or put a layer of newspaper down. This catches the spills that may drip from the bottom of a broken bag. If you do this, be sure to set up the newspaper or garbage bag so that it doesn’t just cover the bottom of the can. You want it to “climb” a little ways up the insides sides of the can as well. Finally, a double garbage bag setup with help eliminate at least some of those spills and punctures that cause the mess in the first place.

Rooms Too Hot/ Cold

There’s always that one room in your house. It’s either the Sahara Desert or the Arctic. Whatever it is, its temperature is noticeably different than the rest of the house and even the rooms right next to it. According to Energy Star, a couple of possible culprits are to blame. You might have a bad heating and cooling system. Your air ducts could not be distributing the air in them properly or you could even have leaks in the ducts. Finally, the direct sun could be beaming into a room, making it very hot.

To correct the first two problems, you should probably talk directly to a professional, who can diagnose and fix these problems. In the latter case, you’ll want to screen off the windows in those rooms.

Although any room can experience a dramatic temperature difference from the rest of the house, there are some rooms in which you’ll find that this problem is more common. These include any additions you’ve made to your home as well as the basement, the attic, or the apartment over the garage.

Plenty of problems exist that can make your home feel a little less comfortable. These range dirty trash cans to air duct issues. Taking care of this challenges not only helps you to have a cleaner house but in many cases, these fixes will help to cut down on your energy bills. The final results are a healthier wallet and a healthier you.