Every home deserves proper care. Many homeowners, however, find it difficult to fit home maintenance and repairs into their busy life schedules. Fortunately, though, keeping your home in good condition does not have to be a hassle. Here is a quick look at a few tips for winterizing your home.

Clean Out the Gutters

During the wintertime it is especially important that water be able to flow freely through your gutters. If it can’t, it will set in your gutters and likely freeze. This is why you should clean your gutters on a regular basis, especially during the colder months of the year. Fortunately, cleaning them out toward the end of fall is an excellent way to help guarantee they stay as clean as possible during winter. 

Flush the Water Heater

To ensure your water heater is performing at its optimal level of performance, it needs to be flushed once to twice a year. Just like cleaning out your gutters, performing this winterizing task is absolutely free. 

Turn Ceiling Fans to Spin Clockwise

To keep the heat flowing in your home and to improve heating expenses, make sure to turn your ceiling fans to spin clockwise; this helps to ensure the heat is being pushed from the ceiling down toward the floor and throughout your home. 

Replace Filters

Lastly, you will want to make sure your home is winterized by making sure all HVAC filters are cleaned or replaced. The cleaner the filters, the better the air flow in your home, which helps reduce heating expenses.

To learn more about winterizing your home and home insurance, contact San Marcos Insurance Group serving the Chandler, AZ area. 

Nothing is better than a home-cooked meal. But all that activity in the kitchen during cooking time can spell trouble unless a few precautions are taken into consideration. Avoid kitchen fires with these tips.

Don’t Leave the Kitchen

Food that is being sautéed, steamed, or boiled can easily burn once the cooling liquid has evaporated. Once that food is left to cook on a dry skillet or pot, it can easily catch on fire.

Whoever is cooking should never leave the kitchen while anything is on the stovetop. If food is in the oven, be sure to set a timer so that the oven either turns off automatically, or the cook can return to the kitchen to remove the food from oven before it burns.

Don’t Multitask Activities

When the cook is trying to do too many things at once, it’s too easy to forget about what’s cooking on the stove or baking in the oven. This can quickly lead to burned food and worse – a kitchen fire.

San Marcos Insurance Group in Chandler, AZ recommends planning family activities so they don’t interfere with meal preparation. For instance, don’t expect the family cook to keep tabs on dinner while playing a family game in the living room at the same time.

Keep Kids Out of the Kitchen

The kitchen is the heart of the home, but kids can get rambunctious and out of control, and there are a lot of dangers in the kitchen during cooking time.

To be on the safe side, keep kids away from hot stoves and pots sitting on the range or countertops. Keep children out of the kitchen as much as possible, or at least on the other side of the kitchen island, where they will be far away from dangerous stovetops and sharp implements. San Marcos Insurance Group in Chandler, AZ suggests distracting kids with another activity in other room, to occupy them while you’re cooking.

Control Consumption

If you’re preparing a particularly involved meal or cooking in the midst of a party, you may be sipping alcohol as you cook. This is a common behavior during cooking that many consider makes meal preparation more enjoyable. However, indulging in too much alcohol consumption can lead to neglecting kitchen safety.

Control your alcohol consumption so it doesn’t interfere with your ability to monitor safety precautions and food preparation. A good idea for doing this is to alternate having a glass of water in between each alcoholic beverage.

With these cooking safety tips in mind, your holiday meal preparation should go smoothly and without any fire emergencies.