The holidays are a joyous, wonderful time of year… but they can also be pretty taxing. Face it: with people coming in and out of your home non-stop, using your plumbing, putting things they shouldn’t down your garbage disposal, the holiday season can end up being pretty rough on your home. Just like you probably needed a nice, long nap after the last cousin went back home, your plumbing needs to recover too.
Here are six tips for refreshing your home plumbing after the holidays:
Give everything a visual inspection
Give everything a visual once-over. Check for any new leaks, cracks, or stains that weren’t there before your entire extended family stomped through your home. Take a look at the hardware in your bathroom, kitchen, and garbage.
Run your garbage disposal and listen for any weird sounds. Run water in all the drains to make sure it’s disappearing properly. If you notice anything amiss, feel good knowing you caught it before it became a bigger problem.
Refill the salt in your in-home water softener
You use more water than usual when you have a lot of visitors, which is especially common during the holiday season. This means that you’ve likely done a number on your in-home water softener and it’s in need of some additional salt.
Whether or not it needs more depends on the size of the brine tank and the way your water is feeling in addition to how much has been used, but all you’ll need to do is take a look.
Treat your plumbing to a professional drain cleaning
Everybody needs a spa day once in a while, and that includes your home’s plumbing. A professional drain cleaning will clear things out, leave your drains looking and feeling their best, and save you money in the long run by helping you avoid future problems like emergency clogs and leaks.
Clean out your garbage disposal
You probably told everyone who visited to follow garbage disposal best practices. They probably didn’t all listen. Thoroughly cleaning a garbage disposal is easy. First, disconnect the power by unplugging it so it doesn’t accidentally go off while you clean it. Look inside with a flashlight and spot objects that don’t belong in a disposal. Use a set of tongs to remove them. Never stick your hand in the disposal even if it’s unplugged!
Next, throw some ice cubes in the disposal. Reconnect the unit and turn it on to let it chop up the ice cubes. Run water down the drain at the same time. This will help clean and clear grime from the blades. Finally, take a cup of vinegar combined with a half-cup of baking soda and toss it down. Let it sit for 15 minutes, and then rinse it out with another few minutes of water. The combination of the two creates an acidic solution that kills bacteria without the need of harmful chemical cleaners.
Give all your hardware a nice, thorough bath
Keeping hardware like your shower heads, faucets, drain openings clean will help them last longer and feel better.
Happy holidays – and happy recovery from the holidays – from your trusted friends at Mike Diamond.
