Spring ahead by changing batteries, among other things
I’m still not accustom to Daylight Savings coming so early in March. It took me off guard to find out that in the wee hours of the morning tomorrow is when I need to turn the clocks ahead. In addition to springing forward, daylight savings also is a great opportunity to get a few household chores out of the way.
Change your batteries: First you should replace all of your batteries in your home’s smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors. You may also want to vacuum the dust that may have collected on the sensors over the past year. If your smoke detector is older than 10 years you should replace it with a new detector (The linked detector has a lithium battery that lasts for 10 years.) Sensors can lose their detection ability after a decade of use. And remember, batteries can be recycled at any Best Buy in the US.
Clean out your medicine cabinet: This is also a good time to take stock of your medicine cabinet. If you have expired products discard them and make a list of what you need to replace for your next shopping trip. Don’t flush medicines down the toilet or a sink drain. Drop them off at your local pharmacy or hospital to be incinerated with other medical waste.
Prep your yard for spring: For those of us in the colder half of the world, take advantage of the first spring-like day to go through your yard and prep it for a big spring cleaning. Remove late falling leaves, branches, and other miscellaneous debris. It has been a hard winter this year, and I’m really looking forward to this.
Are there other chores that our readers partake in during daylight savings? Tell us about your chores in the comments.
(Image is an AP file photo)
15 comments posted
Posted by Stacy - 03/07/2009
At my Best Buy, it is only rechargeable batteries. I still have a box of other batteries rolling around in my car from when I tried to take them last weekend.
Posted by josephine - 03/07/2009
Batteries Plus is a chain store that recycles all sorts of batteries…cell phones, electric toothbrushes and such. At the one I go to, there’s a bin for the regular non-rechargeable batterie outside their door where one can drop those off.
Posted by josephine - 03/07/2009
Besides smoke detectors, I also check the emergency kits. I check the food in there to see if it’s still good (some items do have a “best by” date) and see if there’s anything else I need to put in or take out of there.
Posted by Lori Paximadis - 03/07/2009
In many places (like here in Northeastern Ohio), it’s too early to start doing heavy spring cleanup. That was a great guideline when Daylight Savings was later, but if you start tromping around on your yard and garden this early, you’ll compact the soil and do more damage than good. Do your landscaping a favor and wait another month to do anything you can’t reach from a walkway.
Posted by Dave - 03/07/2009
I still have two feet of snow on my yard, Should I replace the hard-wired detectors in my house too, they are about 15 years old? May want to add go though the pantry, make sure nothing is open for summer bugs to get into. I had ants one summer, found a half missing candy cane from christmas on the back shelf.
Posted by kim3timemom - 03/07/2009
Thanks for the great reminders. I’m not looking forward to the clocks springing ahead…We’ve got to go to church early tomorrow to serve…so it will be extra extra early..At lease our family will all sleep well Sunday night
Posted by Sherri (Serene Journey) - 03/07/2009
We do replace batteries in the smoke detectors when we spring ahead (even if the alarm is working). I like the idea of going through the medicine cabinet at this time as well. I usually do it once a year but tying it to daylights savings will make it unmissable.
I like Dave’s idea of going through the pantry looking for open or expired packs of food. I’ve already set a bit of time aside tomorrow to purge the pantry so we’ll soon see what’s lurking in the shadows.
I too have heaps of snow in the yard still so that spring clean up will have to wait for another month or two I’m afraid…
Have a great weekend!
Posted by Paula - 03/07/2009
We live in Chicago and Walgreens & our library take batteries for recycling.
Posted by momofthree - 03/07/2009
I agree about the yard clean up. Here is the northwest burbs of Chicago, we could still get some more snow (perish the thought!!) and right now both my front and back yards are just quagmires. One step into them and you will sink in mud up to your knees. The last 6 feet of my backyard (aka easement) is a downhill slope that usually dries out by July 4.
But yes, change the batteries in the alarms. Hubby does that while I change all the clocks.
We also use the last day of every month to change the furnace filter. That is very close to a garbage pick up day, so it’s easy to remember.
Not having a pantry, being a small house, I use Tupperware ™ to hold just about every food item that does not come in a resealable sturdy container, just to keep bugs away. I don’t have room to keep much more than the usual staples on hand, and only have room to store foods that I know we will be using for meals in the coming week.
Meds–on going Rx’s are only for 3 month periods of time, so no problems there. It’s the pain relievers and such that we make sure we buy in small amounts since we don’t need them very often. We seem to manage not to have need for much of that, so we consider ourselves lucky.
All of you in nice warm climates, have fun working in your yards–I envy you right now. Skies are gloomy and drizzle most of the weekend here!
Posted by Barry - 03/07/2009
I take this time to pull out the cooking range, (if I had one), washer, dryer and refrigerator then proceed with cleaning out behind those items. If I am feeling overly zealous I take the dryer outside and blow it out with the air compressor.
A heavy task but found to be valuable and definitely keeps the embarrassment to a minimum if you must have a repair person out to repair one of those appliances.
Also, this is the time I take to pull out any furniture, fixtures or heavy movable items that need to be removed and vacuumed underneath or around and behind. Like the couch, beds, wardrobes, television closets, everything except the fish aquarium.
Doing this seems to really help keep the dust and pet (dog) dander to a minimum. In turn keeps my allergies and sneezing to a bare minimum.
Posted by Tony - 03/08/2009
Yay! Bring on the Daylight Savings Time. That’s change I can believe in.
Daylight Savings Time has an interesting way of re-charging my own internal battery. No pun intended.
Posted by lexie - 03/08/2009
I like to clean out my closets around this time, a bit of pre-spring cleaning.
Posted by Weekend Update/Linkage! | Balanced Eating and Exercise. - 03/09/2009
[...] Unclutterer reminds us it’s daylight savings, and that means it’s spring cleaning. Do these quick and easy things to help make it a more efficient Spring/Summer! [...]
Posted by Peter Katt - 03/11/2009
Since they changed the daylight saving time rules so that it’s 7 months on / 5 months off, now I change the smoke detector batteries at Christmas and my birthday (which happens to be June 25). I suppose others could use another six-month interval, such as New Year’s/Independence Day, Memorial Day/Thanksgiving, dental cleaning appointments, etc.
Posted by Claire - 03/12/2009
Yes, you definitely should change all fire safety products in your home if they exceed the following life expectancies:
Smoke Alarms (all): 10 years
Carbon Monoxide Alarms: 7 years
Fire Extinguishers: 12 years
I work for Kidde fire safety company & we are all well-versed in this subject. If your fire safety equipment is older, you will find that replacing it is very easy. There are a lot of options now…wireless smoke alarms, interconnected alarms,…there are a lot of options out there. Please follow the recommended product life expectancies & replace accordingly…it could SAVE YOUR LIFE!!!
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