Editor’s Note: This article is featured in the September issue of Glo Magazine, a sister publication of InkFreeNews, serving the greater Fort Wayne area.

By Bethany Beebe
Guest Author

This time of year can be especially busy. Kids back to school, a garden producing flowers and vegetables, and projects around the house keep us on our toes. Some of those domestic projects keep the day-to-day operations of life clean and running. Others do not need to be done as frequently, but are important, especially with winter on the horizon, a time that can make these necessities more challenging or impossible. As we enjoy this glowing dusk of the warm season, you might consider these tasks:

Outdoor Lighting

Given the shorter days and increased cloudiness of the season to come, installation of outdoor lighting is an option. Whether solar or hard-wired, the gentle glow of these lights can make entering and exiting your house safer and easier for you and your visitors.

Cleaning Gutters

Cleaning gutters keeps water flowing through its proper channels.

Autumn brings falling leaves and rain. Gutters seem to be a magnet for the vessels of color and cleaning them from the gutters keeps water flowing through its proper channels. To clean the gutters, one can do it from the ground with a special attachment on the end of a garden hose. If the ladder option is selected, manually pull the leaves from the gutter and then spray the space with a hose. There is also the option of hiring someone to complete the task. You could con-sider taking it a step further by installing gutter guards.

Heating System Check

By the time Fall is finished, you will be ready for the heating system to operate. There is no time like the present to do maintenance on the system. Changing furnace filters and cleaning vents is an easy enough task. There is also some maintenance that can be left to the professionals; having an expert look at your system can ensure its safety now and keep it operating well into the future.

Closet Organizing

Using discard, donate, and keep boxes can help organize closets and dressers effectively.

Tightly jammed closets can be remedied with a Fall purging of these spaces. Permanently removing items that have not been worn in a while, are damaged, or simply are not our style any longer can make room for sweaters and winter gear that are naturally larger. Donating holds the added benefit of helping the new wearer and maybe even the middleman at re-sale. Goodwill, the Salvation Army, and other non-profit organizations resell goods and/or assure they get to a source that could benefit. In the process, sales dollars aid programs that sup-port pro-social programming.

Garage and Basement Cleaning

Cleaning out the basement and garage leaves a great sense of accomplishment. The process is more comfortable and more pleasant when the weather is not blistering hot or freezing cold. Leaving the floor clean, getting rid of things that are broken, properly disposing of old cleaners or yard chemicals, and straightening shelves has many benefits. You might also find items you could sell in a garage sale, another activity that might be ideal in Fall weather. Furthermore, when the season for mowers and leaf blowers has passed, storage space will be at the ready.

Cleaning Extras

Many jobs are easy to forget, but nice to have done. A good cleaning of the refrigerator, microwave, and stove, washing the windows, cleaning out dryer vents, and dusting off and reversing ceiling fans are all good tasks to have done. Floor rugs can be freshened up with a good cleaning and perhaps a protectant.

With tasks like these done, you can rest assured that your physical space and sense of wellness will be protected into the season to come.