12 Things I Checked in Every Home Before Winter (41 Years, 400 Units)

12 Things I Checked in Every Home Before Winter (41 Years, 400 Units) Donna's Home Book, sixty ways to a smaller bill and a house that's easier after 60 (your support keeps my small channel going), and a free chapter: https://donnafixes.com A cold January night is a bad time to learn your furnace won't start, your water shutoff is buried, or your front door leaks like an open window. After forty-one years and four hundred Chicago apartments, I boiled my fall walk-through down to twelve checks you can do on a mild afternoon, each one a look, a touch, or a phone call. You'll learn how to test a door with a strip of paper, read a furnace filter against the light, test the heating for fifteen minutes, find your main water shutoff, and check smoke alarms, space heaters, window latches, registers, and outside vents. You'll also get the questions to ask before booking a heating check-up and a one-page dated sheet to tape inside a cabinet door. Anything up a ladder or inside the furnace goes to somebody licensed, and the rest costs little or nothing. 0:00 The Paper Strip Test 0:29 Smoke and CO Alarms 1:48 The Power-Out Shelf 2:49 Main Water Shutoff 4:14 Space Heater Check 5:40 Registers and Radiators 7:14 Window Latches 8:49 The Outside Walk 10:22 Paper Strip on the Door 11:50 Furnace Filter Against the Light 13:31 Book the Check-Up Now 15:15 Test the Heating on a Mild Day 16:59 Last Winter's Bill and the Sheet 18:30 One Job for This Week