The weather is cooler, and the nights are shorter. It’s official: summer has ended and autumn is finally here.
As the long summer days slowly turn into short, chilly autumn nights, it is time to stop and consider the changes you will have to make in your personal routine and in your household. The changing weather and the colder temperatures can bring about certain risks for you, your family, and your home, so you must adjust accordingly.
Things to Remember This Fall Season
What used to work during the summer will not be effective anymore during the fall. The temperatures are different, the weather is different, and the risks you will be facing are a lot different.
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But you shouldn’t let this dampen your excitement for the coming fall season. If you prepare yourself fully for anything that might happen, you will have an enjoyable, comfortable, and safe autumn. With the following tips, you can have a fun yet safe time this coming fall season.
Health Tips
- Flu is a common illness during fall, so you must take care that you don’t get infected by the virus. Make it a habit to wash your hands frequently, especially before and after meals and right after you’ve used the washroom. Avoid intimate contact with people who are sick with the flu. And always wear season-appropriate clothes such as jackets, coats, gloves, scarves, etc. especially when you are outdoors.
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- Autumn is a poetic season when the leaves turn golden brown and fall gracefully on lawns and sidewalks. What’s not so poetic about it is that someone has to rake off all those leaves on your lawn. If that someone is you, then such a chore can be hard on your back. Protect your back by doing some warm-up exercises before you start doing this particular chore.
- Your well-being and that of your family is not the only thing you’d have to look out for as you also need to look after the health and safety of your pets. If you have dogs or cats at home, you should remember that there are dangers that are also likely to threaten them during the fall. For instance, if they happen to ingest rotten stems, leaves, and seeds, this could cause health problems in them. You should also watch out for poisonous mushrooms that often spring up during the fall. This fall season is also the season when a lot of wildlife are out and about because they’re preparing for the winter season. Take care that your pets don’t wander too far from your home and risk being the prey of some dangerous wildlife. You can make them wear GPS pet trackers that can monitor and trace their exact whereabouts so they don’t get lost.
Driving Tips
In autumn, you’ll have to deal with fewer daylight hours and unpredictable weather. This particular combination can make it riskier for you as a driver.
- Watch your speed, especially when you are driving in areas filled with leaves or where the roads are wet and slippery from rain and frost. Rain can be dangerous because it can pool on top of oil and dust and thus make the pavement slippery. Ditto for frost, which can create unexpected ice spots on certain areas of the road, increasing your risk of slipping. Even leaves can be dangerous too as it can litter and obstruct roads, disguising potholes and road markings. They can also be very slippery. When there is a thick fog, something that can greatly affect your visibility, simply avoid going places, if you can.
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- Fall is also the time when school is back in session, so expect greater traffic at this time as there are more cars and school buses. There is also a lot of pedestrian traffic, with kids and parents walking to and from school, so be extra careful with your driving. You don’t want to accidentally hit or run over other people, especially school children. And although this might seem redundant, this still needs to be said: obey all traffic laws.
- There is a saying that goes “Don’t veer for deer.” This is a driving safety precaution that you would do well to remember when a deer suddenly crosses your way. When this happens, don’t swerve as you could end up losing control of the vehicle, especially if you are on a narrow road with minimal shoulder. What you should do instead is to brake firmly and completely stop your vehicle.
- Sun glare is also another inconvenient thing that you will have to deal with during autumn. But it’s not just inconvenient, though, as it can also be dangerous. Sun glare can affect your sight and temporarily obstruct your vision for a few seconds. But those few seconds are very critical when you’re driving. Even in those seconds, you can easily lose sight of the oncoming traffic, pedestrians crossing the road, and even the vehicle that is right in front of you. To counter sun glare, you can use polarized sunglasses while you’re driving and make it a habit to regularly clean your windshield. You can also simply slow down and give your vehicle a greater gap; this way, you’ll have more time to react in case something untoward does happen.
- Invest in a GPS tracker for your vehicle. This device improves your safety levels when driving as it doesn’t just provide navigation advice when getting from one destination to another. It also helps to monitor your driving habits, and you can even use its SOS button feature to send for help if ever you get involved in an accident in a remote place. Among the ones available on the market, the Trackimo Universal GPS tracker is recognized as one of the best as it offers a wide variety of features at low monthly costs.
Home Maintenance Tips
Hazards abound during this fall season, so take these measures to protect your home and prepare it against the changing weather and external dangers.
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- Check your home’s safety devices and make sure that they all function properly, like your smoke alarms. Make sure their batteries are fully charged. Also, replace any expired or used fire extinguishers. Although the weather is cooler, fire can still be a possible risk especially if your appliances and lighting fixtures malfunction. Speaking of such, you should also check your lighting, your appliances, and the electrical wirings in your home to ensure you are not running the risk of catching fire.
- Turn on your heater to confirm that they really work. Do this before the temperature gets really cold so you’ll have time to address the things that need fixing. If you do notice that it’s not functioning up to its optimum condition, call in a handyman to fix it for you. You don’t want to wait until it’s too late. Also, if you have a space heater, make sure you give it lots of space and keep it away from bedding, clothing, and furniture with fabric upholstery. Again, you don’t want anything in your home to catch fire.
- Inspect your home’s insulation to ensure that it doesn’t let in cold drafts, which can force your heater to work double time and lead to higher energy bills. Like how you did with your heater, call in a handyman to fix the problems that you notice.
- Before you decide to light your fireplace so you can snuggle in front of the warm fire and enjoy that hot cup of pumpkin spice latte that’s always so popular during this fall season, you must check your chimney first to ensure that it has proper ventilation and is free from debris. Check the bricks, liner, and mortar to ensure their good condition. Also, you might want to consider using a fireplace screen to prevent sparks from your fire from flying all over and alighting on things like fabric-covered furniture, which can be a potential fire hazard.
- When you’re doing laundry, make sure you clean the filters after each load and that you remove the lint that often collects in your dryer’s vents. To prevent dryer fires, you should never leave a load of your clothes unattended while they’re in the dryer.
- Plants and trees begin to die during this fall season, and they can shed leaves and dead branches on your lawn, driveway, or even your house, To avoid injuring people and harming your property, hire a landscaping service that can clean all that up for you.
- Fall season is also the time when you should be decluttering your gutters and remove all kinds of debris from them like dead leaves, fallen branches and stems, and even dead rodents, the latter of which can end up harming your pets if they happen to come across their bodies.
Fall is a picturesque time of year, but the changing weather can bring about many hazards. So we must do our part in ensuring the safety of our home, our loved ones, and ourselves by using the right technology and following the right tips.
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