Preparing Your Home for Thanksgiving Festivities

November 16, 2018

While Thanksgiving is one of the best times of the year, it can sneak up on you if you’re not careful. Once Halloween passes, it seems like turkey day is upon us faster than we realize – and there’s a lot of planning that goes into Thanksgiving! What you don’t want to do is wait until the last minute to double-check everything.

In addition to food preparation, you need to make sure the space you’re providing for everyone is able to handle the influx of people. There’s more that goes into this than you might think, so we’ve got a few tips to help your Thanksgiving go smoothly!

Guest Accommodations are Key

If you’re a household that will have guests coming over a day or two in advance, you’ll need to make sure their stay at your house will be comfortable and enjoyable. There are plenty of things to keep in mind when getting it ready for them, but here are a few important ones:

• Make sure your appliances work. Before everyone gets there, test things like your microwave, sinks, oven, bathtubs and others to ensure your guests won’t be stuck with an annoying inconvenience.
• Prepare places for them to charge their phones, and lay out some bathroom essentials in case they forgot to bring them. It also doesn’t hurt to provide some snacks to curb appetites until the big day.

Schedule a Plumbing Inspection

Your plumbing system is going to take a hit on Thanksgiving. Grease, broth, uneaten food – who knows what’s going to end up going down the drain. All it takes is one faulty garbage disposal, and the whole day could get thrown for a loop.

Avoid this potential problem altogether by having a plumber come take a look at your system ahead of time. They’ll inspect it to make sure your plumbing system can handle whatever you’re about to throw at it!

Keep Energy Consumption in Mind

It’s impossible to totally avoid a spike in energy usage on Thanksgiving, unless you’re extremely committed to 18^th century-style food preparation and exclusively use a fire pit.

Otherwise, you’re going to be using a stove, microwave and oven. You can still take a couple of steps to ensure you don’t waste any unnecessary energy throughout the day.

• Can you wash the dishes by hand, or should you put them all through the dishwasher? Obviously the appliances would be more efficient, but you need to take into account how many loads it will take to clean everything.
• Avoid opening the oven door when you’re cooking something. That actually wastes a significant amount of energy because the heat escapes, which means your oven has to go into overdrive to return the temperature to what it was.

American Air & Heat: Keeping Your Home Comfortable This Holiday Season

Thanksgiving is a time meant for memories made with friends and family – don’t let an appliance hiccup or heating issue cause a problem. American Air & Heat is here to help you cross your T’s and dot your I’s before the day arrives.

For those last-minute adjustments and checks, give us a call at 800-421-2665!