It's a tradition in my house

If it hasn’t been done already, Thanksgiving weekend is the time when I get around to getting the house ready for winter. This year, it’s a little late, since we have already had a hard freeze.

When I was a kid, this was the weekend that the storm windows went up and the heavy curtains came out. My parent’s bed moved to the other wall (farther from the window) and the couch and chairs in the living room flipped position (I never knew why.) The hoses came in; the spigot got turned off. The bicycles were hung up and the junk got moved to the back of the garage to make room for the car. We all had to chip in for one last raking of the yard. It was tradition.

As an adult, I lived in apartments for a long time and never thought about those things. That was the landlord’s problem, not mine. Then I bought a home. Boy, this is a lot of work. Especially when it was cold. It is predicted to be fairly warm this year.

What did I miss on the list of things to get done this weekend? What things did I list that you think are a waste of time?

Inside:
Pull down storm windows if you have them. Put storms into screen doors, too.
Remove window air conditioners. Cover wall units on the inside. (Inspectors tell me that covering the outside doesn’t help.)
Install programmable thermostats. Program them!
Put up thermal curtains. Close them at night, open them in the daytime.
Insulate outside doors.
Insulate your heating pipes in the basement (unless you want your basement warmed by them.) Insulate your hot water pipes, too. Insulate any pipe the runs near an outside wall – in the basement, under sinks, in the laundry room.
Did you notice cold spots during the recent cold snap? Insulate there!

Outside:
Bring in everything that will get damaged by freezing. That includes hoses, plastic furniture, garden tools and bicycles.
Turn off your outside spigot inside. Open it outside.
Direct the downspout away from your rain barrel (if you have one.) Open the spigot to let it drain; leave it open. If you can, bring it inside – that’s better.
Make room for the car in the garage. (If you have a garage and if you have a car.)
Rake the leaves one more time.
Take a picture of the kids covered in the leaves. (If you have kids and if you have leaves.)

It’s tradition.

Did your family do these things together? Does your family do them together now?