The weather is now really starting to change from the glorious days of summer to the cooler autumn days and nights and that means when you have hired home care services for a loved one, you’re going to need to think about helping them transition to winter. Of course, few people really want to think about winter being right around the corner, but if you’ve been out and about during the past week, you would have undoubtedly overheard at least a few people talking about the winter cold that has finally arrived across much of the country.
So what can you do to help home care services with the transition? One of the first things to do is make sure that the heating system is fully operational and if it’s an oil based furnace, make sure that your loved one has a full tank to start off the season. With the price of oil hovering around the same high that it’s been at for the past couple of years, you still might be reluctant to spend a great deal of money getting oil for anyone, let alone yourself. However, when it comes to seniors, it’s essential that they don’t run out of heat. So make sure that you have them order more oil, or you do it for them.
You should also schedule a cleaning and inspection of the heating system in their home. Right now is still the ideal time to schedule these appointments because now is the time of the year when heating and air conditioning specialists are the least busy, so you should be able to get someone out to your loved one’s home relatively quickly.
Also, you should make sure to install and storm windows that there may be, if they are the type of windows that have them. If the storm windows are already in place, you want to check to make sure that they slide up and down easily. If they don’t move, then you want to make sure that this is addressed and repaired as soon as possible. If may mean that you hire a professional to come out and fix them, or even replace the windows that are causing problems. A lot of heat can be lost during the winter months through windows that are not sealed properly.
With winter just around the corner now, it’s important that you sit down with home care services and make a plan on how to transition to winter and don’t procrastinate on getting everything ready for your loved one.