Our previous article gave you some tips on how you can save money when you move. Here, our experts have a few more tips on how you can cut expenses after you buy your first home. The Tulsa local movers have some great tips in store for you—read along and learn how to save today.
Hang a clothes rack in your laundry room. A clothes dryer can really eat up your energy costs, but it’s convenient for many people. Battle that convenience (and save money) by hanging a clothes rack from the wall in the laundry room and use it for some items – t-shirts and underwear dry great on clothes racks. If you have the yard space, hanging a clothesline for drying clothes is an even better option.
Inspect plumbing for constant running. Do a survey of the plumbing in your home before you settle in. If you find a toilet is running constantly, it’s going to cost you money, so it’s best to take care of it as soon as you can. You should also peek under the basin of all sinks in your home, just to make sure there aren’t any leaks. Got a leaky faucet? You should repair or replace any of those, because the drip-drip-drip of water is also a drip-drip-drip of money; not to mention the terrible effects these plumbing woes can have on mold and on your home insurance.
Consistently change your air filter. When you first move in, you almost always need to replace the air filter, and it should be changed out once a month for optimum HVAC performance. Go to your HVAC unit, find where the filter is (it’s almost always a large rectangle), and mark down the measurements (printed around the edges). Then, go to the hardware store and pick up a few of these, then go home and install one of them, replacing the old one. An outdated filter not only doesn’t filter as well, it also has a negative impact on air flow, meaning your air handling system has to work harder to pump out lower quality air.
Clean the vents in your home. None of the vents in your home should be covered or blocked by anything – doing that makes your heating and cooling work overtime. You should also peek into all of your vents and make sure they’re as dust-free as possible, and brush them out if you see any dust bunnies. This improves air flow into the room, reducing the amount of blowing that needs to happen.