Spring-Ahead Reminder: Annual “check & change” chores
- RENAISSANCE ALLIANCE
- Mar 14, 2019
- 2 min read
Last weekend, was time to spring forward with your clocks. We offer suggestions for some other spring safety chores to put on your weekend home maintenance list, too!
In the Fall, there’s a collective groan when we set our clocks back and the world gets darker, but most people welcome gaining that hour of daylight back in the Spring – it’s a harbinger of better weather, more sunlight and greenery and leaving winter behind. But what we gain in daylight we lose in sleep and even though it’s only one hour, the change can have bigger impact on us than we would think on first glance. The one-hour loss of sleep can wreak havoc without body clocks. Some studies even say that the time change is killing us – incidents of heart attacks, strokes, and fatal car accidents all spike around the start of daylight-savings time each year. Employers have long noted that right after the time change, there is also a jump in on-the-job injuries and accidents.
Yikes. If it is so risky, why do we keep doing it? We’ve been observing Daylight Savings since 1918, but there is a lot of controversy about whether it is something we should continue observing. John Oliver has an amusing segment on how this ritual started.
Your check & change weekend to-do list
Whether we like it or hate it, as long as the time change is something we observe twice a year, it’s a handy reminder for household safety checks. For years, fire safety professionals have urged us to use the biannual ritual as a good time to remember to update batteries in our smoke and CO2 detectors. Here’s a list of other maintenance things that should be checked periodically for safety — you may want to put them on your weekend “to-do” list:
Change smoke alarm and CO2 alarm batteries
Check pressure / expiration date on any fire extinguishers
Replace furnace filters
Clean your dryer filter, hoses and vents
Throw away any expired medications
Reverse your ceiling fan direction
By RENAISSANCE ALLIANCE taken from https://www.insureinfoblog.com/