What the house needs in July, south of the equator
12 jobs, in five groups.
July is the coldest month and the one where the house is under the most strain. Everything indoors is about heat and damp working against each other, so the list is short and it is the same list every week: air the rooms for a few minutes, watch the cold corners, keep the dryer vent clear. Outside, this is the month to push on the fence posts before the winter winds and to finish cutting the dry growth back from the walls. Keep an eye on the drains after any hard rain. Check the extinguisher gauge and find the fire blanket, and walk the escape route with whoever lives with you so that everyone knows where the window keys are kept. Clean and sharpen the tools while the garden asks nothing.
Safety
- Test every smoke alarm
- Press the button on each one until it sounds. It takes two minutes and it is the single most useful thing on this list.
- Check the extinguisher gauge and the fire blanket
- The needle should sit in the green. Make sure the blanket is still where it was and not behind something.
- Clear the lint from the dryer and its vent
- Every few weeks in the months you use it most. Lint is what turns a dryer fault into a fire, and the vent matters as much as the filter.
- Cut dry growth back from the walls
- Before your own dry season, which is summer in most of the north and winter across the summer rainfall south. Two metres of clear ground is the usual advice.
Water and heating
- Descale the kettle and the shower head
- Quarterly in a hard water area, less often in a soft one. A furred shower head sprays sideways long before it stops working.
Inside
- Watch the cold corners for condensation
- Behind wardrobes, in window reveals, on the north or south facing wall. Black spotting is mould and it starts as water on the glass.
- Air the house for a few minutes a day
- Even in the cold. Ten minutes of open windows costs very little heat and takes out the moisture four people breathe out overnight.
- Clean the oven properly
- Do it in the season you use it most, which is when the spills happen. Cold oven, proper cleaner, an hour of waiting.
Outside
- Push on the fence posts
- Before the windy months. A post that rocks will be flat by the spring, and it is a much easier job standing up than lying down.
The garden edge
- Clean, sharpen and oil the garden tools
- In the quiet months. A sharp spade is half the work of a blunt one and rust starts in the week they go away dirty.
- Clean the feeders and keep them filled
- Through the hard months, when it matters most. Clean them properly each time, because a dirty feeder spreads disease among the birds it feeds.
- Keep a hole open in the pond ice
- Stand a pan of hot water on it rather than breaking it, which sends a shock wave through the water that fish do not survive well.
Tick them off as you go
This page is the plain list for July. The same list is tickable onthe house through the year, where the ticks are kept on your own device and cleared at the start of each year. Nothing is sent anywhere.
The garden half of the month is on the almanac page forJuly, which covers what to sow, what to plant out and what is ready to pick.