Tips To Prepare Your Home and Car for The Fall
Posted on Sep 28, 2021
As you prepare to change your wardrobe from summer swimsuits and sandals to turtleneck sweaters and boots for the fall season, don’t forget your car and home. Fall brings beautiful foliage along with its shorter daylight, light rain, and cooler weather. For this reason, it’s always advisable to be prepared well in advance.
Here are tips to prepare your home and car for fall to ensure that you remain safer on the road and cozy at home the entire season.
Unclog Your Gutters
Rain and fallen leaves are a part of the autumn season. If you have deciduous trees near your home, the rainwater could wash the fallen leaves into the gutters, causing clogging in the process.
Because of blocked drainage, water will be redirected to the wrong channels, damaging your roof, walls, or lawn. To avoid this, keep your drains clear or replace old gutters with newer and stronger ones that will function correctly during the fall season.
Protect Your Outdoor Furniture
Instead of leaving your outdoor furniture to rot in the cold and dampness of the fall season, consider investing in waterproof furniture covers for protection. Alternatively, moving your outdoor furniture indoors during fall is also a great idea, provided you have sufficient storage space.
Disconnect Water Sprinklers and Outdoor Faucets
Your lawns and garden won’t need a lot of water during fall like you would in the summer. Therefore, this would be the best time to disconnect your outdoor water supply and keep the sprinklers and pipes in the storage unit to save on water bills.
Check Your Chimney and Fireplace
Before lighting a fire during fall, ensure that the chimney is clear and can effectively let out smoke to avoid fire-related accidents at home. It is a good idea to have a professional chimney sweep to prevent chimney fires.
Reinforce Your Windows and Doors
Consider installing storm windows and doors to keep you warm and safe inside the house during heavy storms. These structures usually restrict air movement in and out of existing windows, significantly reducing heating and cooling costs while improving comfort levels. Additionally, check for all the caulking and seals for any spaces to be fixed.
Trim Loose Twigs and Tree Branches
If you have overgrown trees around your house, trimming their loose branches helps avoid accidents and destruction during heavy storms. Better still, consider updating your homeowner’s insurance to protect you and your property from such natural disasters.
How to Prepare Your Car for the Fall Season
Now that you know what you need to do to prepare your home for the fall, now let’s shift focus to your care.
Check the Tire Pressure
The pressure in your car’s tires may drop because of extremely low temperatures in the fall. As a result, they become under-inflated and can cause a blowout due to overheating and friction while on the road.
For this reason, it’s advisable to perform a routine check on your car tires before driving during fall. Additionally, replace worn-out tires to avoid losing control of the car on a slippery road.
Check the Lights
Given that darkness comes early during fall, it’s advisable to ensure your car’s lights function properly before driving. Check all lights, especially fog, tail, signal, and hazard lights, and have them fixed beforehand if need be.
Check the Wiper Blades
When driving during fall, the last thing you want is to lose sight of the road because of a broken wiper blade. Given that most people rarely use their windshield wipers during summer, it’s always a great idea to check them before driving in the fall.
Change Your Car’s Oil and Fluids
The fluids and oil of a car engine become thicker in areas that experience an extreme drop in temperature levels during fall. As a result, such fluids fail to move easily, leading to an overheated engine.
However, to fix this problem, consider replacing these fluids during the fall season. Additionally, it’s advisable to consider the recommended oil to water ratio during fall as it differs from warmer weather.
Fall Safe Driving Tips
While safe driving practices are essential throughout the year, driving in the fall season has its own set of risks. Fall presents higher chances of road accidents due to various factors. For instance, unlike driving on the freeway in hot summers, you’ll need to drive slower and be more careful due to the fog and darkness in the fall.
Roads become slippery during this season primarily because of the short rains, fallen leaves, and black ice.
Driving on wet leaves
When leaves get wet and accumulate on the roadways in the fall, they can become extremely slippery, making the driving conditions similar to driving on ice. If the temperature drops below 32 degrees Fahrenheit, the wet leaves will freeze and become dangerous icy leaves on the roadway.
In addition, leaves can cover obstacles on the road, such as potholes. Lastly, children love jumping and sometimes hiding in a pile of leaves that have been swept to the side of the road, so never drive through a leaf pile and use caution when driving near them.
When driving on wet leaves, it’s a good idea to reduce your speed and maintain a healthy distance between your vehicle and the vehicle ahead of you. Just like in the winter, having good tire treads in the fall is helpful for traction.
Watching for Deer While Driving
Fall is the active breeding season for deer, making them more apt to run into the road, especially at dusk and dawn. If you see a deer crossing the roadway, proceed slowly because deer often travel in groups.
Busier Roads
Roads also tend to be busier around fall, with school buses ferrying students between school and home after the summer holidays. It’s essential to be vigilant in driving near school zones and school bus pickup and dropoff spots.
The Bottom Line
Preparing your car and home for the fall season should be on your checklist for this year. Such a simple yet effective gesture can save you hundreds of dollars you would have otherwise spent on repairs or replacements.
Also, updating your homeowners’ insurance and auto insurance to cover your valuable property, including you and your family, is one of the best ways to protect yourself financially in case of injury or damage during the fall season.
