Maintenance Tips

I've got a few more interesting tips for all of you residents (or future residents) out there!

I know you know you're supposed to clean your garbage disposal on a regular basis (we talked about it in the last tips, just put citrus peels or ice cubes down there), but you should also clean the splash guard! If you've got a funky smell coming out of the drain, don't just assume that it's down in the drain, it could be the cover.

These are super easy to remove. Make sure that the disposal is not on, because we'd like you to have all of your fingers, and then grab hold of the splash guard and pull it out. You can toss it in the dishwasher or clean it with a scrub brush.

Now if your other sink drain (the one in your bathroom) is clogged, a lot of people's first reaction is to use drano, or some other chemical to unclog it. This can be rough on your pipes and cause them to wear out easier. Plus it's not so good for the environment either. Our lovely Assistant Community Manager, Laura, was telling me about Zip-It*.

Zip-it looks like a plastic zip tie but it has plastic tines on it. You just shove it down your drain, and when you pull it out, all of the hair (or whatever was clogging your drain), is attached and you can just throw it away. It doesn't look very pretty coming out, but it works wonders, and then you don't have to have the maintenance people come out and judge you (not that they would, but you would think that they were).

Now that the weather is getting warmer, you might turn on your AC just to check and make sure that it works. A lot of people tend to turn theirs on all at the same time, and if your apartment doesn't have the best maintenance people (unlike our apartment complex), you might have to wait a little while for it to get fixed. If you check it out now then the maintenance staff will have some time to come get it fixed right away.

When you're doing your deep spring cleaning make sure to pull your refrigerator out from the wall to clean underneath and behind it. This is going to save you a lot of time in the long run, because you don't want an extra cleaning charge after you move out to have the apartment clean it. Just be careful, they usually pull out pretty easy, but you don't want a rip in your vinyl!

While it is nice outside, unfortunately it means it's also nice for bugs as well. If you see any inside your home just contact the office and we can put your apartment on the list for OPC to come out and spray.

If you have any other tips, or would like to write a guest blog post, e-mail me at blankenbaker5@yahoo.com!

*This is not a product placement for them, it's just a really cool product, all opinions are my own and I wasn't asked to write this post by them

Maintenance Tips

Here are some tips from our maintenance staff:

-Rinse off dishes before placing them into the dishwasher. This will prevent your dishwasher from getting clogged.

-To freshen up your garbage disposal and sharpen the blades, you can use ice and the peels of citrus fruits. Just make sure you're not over doing it so as not to clog the drain.

-Always make sure that you're running water while running your garbage disposal and feed it gradually so as not to clog the drain. Egg shells and potato peels are never a good idea in the disposal, but if they do happen to fall in, make sure that you're running water when you turn on the disposal.

-Change your air filter monthly to keep your air clean and save on your electric bill.

-Instead of turning off the air conditioner while you are away turn it down a few degrees. The air conditioner actually has to work harder to cool down a hot apartment which will increase your bill and decrease the life of the air conditioner. Using the ceiling fans especially in warm weather also aids the air conditioner to cool the apartment.  You can also purchase a programmable thermostat to help regulate the temperature.

-There are several things you can do to help insulate your apartment and help decrease your electric bill. Although blinds are provided for every apartment home unfortunately they are not good insulators. Curtains or some other kind of additional window coverings are recommended.

-If you do not have a washing machine in your apartment or you do not use your washer on a regular basis, you may notice an odor coming from your laundry room. Simply pour water down the washer drain to refill the evaporated water in the drain. This will keep the sewer gases from coming back through the drain. This is also a good idea for any drain in the apartment that is not used on a regular basis.

-Privacy door locks such as bathroom locks and bedroom locks sometimes get locked by accident. Simply straighten the end of a coat hanger or use a bobby pin to push in the whole in the center of the knob and this will unlock the knob.

-It is always a good idea to have a few tools handy. Some commonly used tools are: flat head screwdriver, Philips heads screwdriver, hammer, channel lock pliers, needle nose pliers, flashlight and a utility knife