I wait until the winter to do a thorough household cleaning.
Because of the severe cold and snow in my local area, we’re trapped in the house for months at a time.
I certainly don’t want to spend my free time outdoors when the temperature is down to negative twenty. It’s not a lot of fun to go for a walk when there’s three feet of snow piled up. The only time I devote outdoors is when I’m forced to shovel out the driveway or brush off my car. Since I’m stuck indoors, I figure it’s the perfect time to clean everything. I launder the curtains and bed linens and wash down everything from light fixtures and windows to walls and ceilings. I even move furniture to vacuum and scrub every square inch. This past January, I set up the ladder in the living room in order to wash the overhead light. As soon as I climbed to the top of the ladder, I started to sweat. I realized that the temperature near the ceiling was considerably higher than down by the floor. This meant I was setting a much higher thermostat setting than necessary. The furnace was working extra hard because the heat was trapped at the ceiling. I needed to figure out a way to push it downward. I did some research and came across ceiling fans. There is an impressive selection of styles, sizes and prices of ceiling fans available. Considering the savings on my heating bills, the cost of a new ceiling fan isn’t overly high. Plus, I was able to handle the installation with a little help from my husband. We use the ceiling fans to push the heat toward the floor in the winter. In the summer, we reverse the direction of the blades to encourage the heat upward. Having the new overhead fixtures had definitely improved the comfort of the home and reduced the workload of the furnace and air conditioner.