What the house needs in October, north of the equator
32 jobs, in five groups.
October is the fullest month in the year for the house, and it is worth writing a list rather than trusting your memory. It is the second hinge month, so the twice yearly jobs come round again: turn the mattress, swap the wardrobe, oil the hinges and locks, lift the drain covers. It is also the month everything gets put away and shut down. Lag the outside taps and any exposed pipe, drain the hose and bring it in, clean and store the garden furniture properly rather than leaving the cushions in a damp box, net the pond before the leaves go in, and take the last cut before cleaning and storing the mower with the fuel run out. Change the smoke alarm batteries. Get the grit in before it sells out.
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.
- Change the smoke alarm batteries
- Once a year whether they have chirped or not. Pick a date you will remember, such as the weekend the clocks change.
- Test the carbon monoxide alarm
- Before the heating season and again in the middle of it. A carbon monoxide alarm has a sealed life of about seven years, printed on the back.
- Have the chimney swept before the first fire
- Book it before everyone else does, which means late summer. A sweep will also tell you whether the cowl and the flashing are sound.
- Check the heater flexes and plugs
- Before the heaters come out of the cupboard. Look for cracked flex, scorched pins and anything that has been run under a rug.
Water and heating
- Bleed the radiators
- Cold at the top and warm at the bottom means air. Bleed them before the heating season rather than in the first cold week.
- Lag the outside taps and any exposed pipe
- Anywhere a pipe runs through an unheated space. Foam lagging costs very little against the price of a burst.
- Check the water heater valve and its drip tray
- The pressure relief valve should be dry and the tray should be empty. A wet tray is the first sign of something worth calling about.
- 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.
- Drain the hose and bring it in
- Water left in a hose over a hard frost splits it, and a split hose is not obvious until the first hot day of the next year.
Inside
- Turn or rotate the mattress
- Twice a year, at the same time as the wardrobe change. Most modern mattresses rotate rather than flip, which the label will say.
- Put the heavy curtains up
- A lined curtain over a single glazed window is worth a surprising amount, and it costs nothing once you own them.
- Look at the loft insulation before the cold
- Check it is not squashed, that it reaches the eaves without blocking the ventilation, and that nothing has been storing itself in it.
- Feel round the doors and windows for draughts
- Do it on a windy day with the back of your hand. Draught strip is the cheapest heating improvement there is.
- Replace the bulbs that have gone
- Before the dark months rather than during them, and check the outside ones at the same time.
- Swap the wardrobe over
- Twice a year. Anything you did not wear at all last season is not going to be worn next season either.
- Wash the cooker extractor filters
- Three times a year, in the dishwasher or in very hot water with soda crystals. A greasy filter moves almost no air at all.
Outside
- Look the roof over from the ground
- Binoculars from the garden, twice a year. Slipped tiles, lifted ridge, a bird nesting in the flashing. Never from the ladder if you can avoid it.
- 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.
- Oil the gate hinges and the locks
- A drop of oil twice a year keeps a gate closing properly. A lock that has gone stiff outdoors is usually water rather than wear.
- Clear the moss off the paths
- Twice a year, and always before the wet months. A mossy path is the commonest way people fall over at home.
- Check the shed roof and door
- Before the wet months. Roofing felt fails at the edges first, and a shed that leaks in June has been leaking since March.
- Check the outside lights work
- Before the evenings get dark. Clean the lens while you are there, because most outside lights lose more to dirt than to the bulb.
- Check the tyres, the screenwash and the antifreeze
- Before the cold weather rather than in it. Tread and pressures take five minutes on a forecourt.
- Clean and put the garden furniture away
- Dry, clean and under cover. Cushions left in a damp box in October are mouldy cushions in April.
- Lift the drain covers and look
- Twice a year. Standing water in a gulley means a blockage somewhere, and it is a great deal cheaper than a flood.
The garden edge
- Check the water butt and its diverter
- Before the rains. Clean out the leaves, check the tap, and make sure the diverter is set to fill rather than to bypass.
- Last cut, then clean and store the mower
- Run the fuel out or add a stabiliser, clean the deck properly and store it dry. Old petrol left in over winter is the commonest reason it will not start.
- Net the pond before the leaves fall
- Leaves rotting in a pond over winter take the oxygen out of it. A net for six weeks saves clearing it out in spring.
- Wash the greenhouse glass down
- Before the low light months. Dirty glass in midwinter is the difference between a plant that holds and a plant that stretches.
- Get the grit or the salt in
- Before you need it, because the shops sell out on the first icy morning. A bucket by the door is enough for most paths.
- Rake the leaves off the lawn and the paths
- Grass under leaves goes yellow within a fortnight. Put them in a bag with a few holes and you have leaf mould in a year.
Tick them off as you go
This page is the plain list for October. 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 forOctober, which covers what to sow, what to plant out and what is ready to pick.