What the house needs in May, south of the equator
18 jobs, in five groups.
May is the beginning of the cold season across most of the country, and the jobs are the ones that keep water and cold where they belong. Lag the outside taps and any exposed pipe, drain the hose and bring it in, and turn the outside tap off at the isolating valve. Feel round the doors and windows for draughts on a windy day with the back of your hand, because draught strip is the cheapest heating improvement there is. Clean and store the garden furniture properly rather than leaving cushions in a damp box until spring. Indoors the heating season list starts: air the house for a few minutes a day even in the cold, and watch the cold corners for the first spotting of mould. Clean and oil the garden tools. On the Highveld the first frosts usually come in May and the nights turn cold quickly, while the Lowveld and the KwaZulu-Natal coast stay mild. The grass that dries off from now is fuel for the veld fire season that follows, which is why the growth against the walls comes down next month.
Safety
- Test every smoke alarm
- Every month. See January for how.
- Clear the lint from the dryer and its vent
- Through the winter months, when the washing cannot go out on the line and the dryer runs most. Empty the filter after every load and clear the vent duct every few weeks, because the duct is where lint gathers out of sight.
- Have the chimney swept before the first fire
- Book it in March or April, ahead of the first cold evenings in May rather than after them. The sweep can look at the cowl and the flashing round the stack on the same visit.
Water and heating
- Bleed the radiators
- Where a house has radiators, bleed them in April or May, before the heating goes on for winter. A radiator that is cold at the top and warm at the bottom has air in it, and the first cold week is the worst time to find that out.
- Lag the outside taps and any exposed pipe
- Lag any pipe that runs through an unheated space or up an outside wall before June. On the Highveld and in the cold interior, where frost is common on winter nights, that matters; a house on the coast seldom needs more than the outside tap covered.
- Find the stopcock and turn it
- Find the main stopcock in May and turn it off and on again, so you know it still moves. A burst on a frosty night is the wrong moment to be searching for it with a torch.
- Drain the hose and bring it in
- Drain it and bring it in before the frosts of June and July. On the Highveld a hose left full on a frosty night can split, and the split only shows when you next water in spring.
Inside
- Watch the cold corners for condensation
- Through the southern winter, check behind wardrobes, in the window reveals and on the south facing walls, which get no winter sun in this hemisphere. Mould begins as water on the glass and on cold plaster.
- Air the house for a few minutes a day
- Even on cold days from May to August, open the windows for ten minutes. The moisture a household breathes and cooks into the air overnight has to go somewhere, and a sealed winter house puts it on the coldest walls.
- Feel round the doors and windows for draughts
- Feel round the doors and windows on a windy day in April or May, using the back of your hand. Draught strip is cheap, and it is the first thing to fit before the winter heating bills arrive.
Outside
- Check the tyres, the screenwash and the antifreeze
- In April or May, before the cold mornings: tyre tread and pressures, the screenwash, and the coolant, which does the antifreeze work wherever winter nights drop below freezing.
- Clean and put the garden furniture away
- Clean it, dry it and get it under cover in April or May. Cushions packed away damp in May are mouldy by September.
The garden edge
- Clean, sharpen and oil the garden tools
- In the quiet winter months: knock the mud off, sharpen the spade and the shears, and wipe the metal with oil. Rust starts on tools that are put away dirty.
- Last cut, then clean and store the mower
- After the last cut of autumn, in April or May: run the fuel out or add a stabiliser, clean under the deck and store it dry. Stale fuel is a common reason a mower refuses to start in spring.
- Clean the feeders and keep them filled
- Through the lean winter months from May to July, when natural food is scarce. Scrub them properly every time you refill them, because a dirty feeder spreads disease among the birds that use it.
- Get the grit or the salt in
- Only needed on high ground and in the cold interior, where frost lies on the paths on winter mornings; most coastal houses can skip it. Where it is needed, buy it in April or May, before the first icy morning empties the shops.
- Rake the leaves off the lawn and the paths
- Rake them off in April and May, as the deciduous trees drop. Grass left under a layer of leaves yellows within a couple of weeks, and the leaves make good leaf mould in a bag.
- Turn off and drain the outside tap
- Where winter nights freeze, turn the outside tap off at its isolating valve in May or June and open it to drain. A frozen outside tap is a common cause of winter bursts.
Tick them off as you go
This page is the plain list for May. The same list is tickable on the 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 for May, which covers what to sow, what to plant out and what is ready to pick.