Summer is such a busy season, as is the spring that leads up to it. In all the madness of the end of the school year and the going and coming that baseball games, church camps, and family vacations bring, it be difficult to do everything we need to do to get our homes ready for summer. Sometimes we miss a trick and forget all about a few key elements that can help keep our homes cool in the heat of the summer!
And, they can help keep our energy bills lower, too.
It’s almost the height of the summer season, and the weather’s been getting warmer every day. If you’re like me (and everyone else I know in south Mississippi), you’re looking for ways to cool off. Below you’ll find a few simple suggestions to help keep your home cool.
Add More Exterior Sun Shade
Exterior sun shade is essential to preventing the sun from reaching your home in the first place. That’s what curb appeal greenery is best for! It looks good, for one, but it keeps an overdose of UV from reaching the bricks and warming them up to an ungodly temperature.
You can use a lot of different plants here, but consider getting some taller trees in place around the windows. You don’t need a massive tree or anything like that, but if you can get some smaller saplings jutting outwards, accompanied by mini hedgerows or bushes, you’re going to deflect the rays and allow the sun to soak up before it splashes into your rooms.
Get Your AC Serviced!
If you’re running your AC day and night, it might need a tune-up. How do you know? If you’ve been using it a lot lately, how has the temperature been inside your house? If it hasn’t been as good as it should be, that’s a sign that your AC is in need of a tune-up!
Make sure you get on the phone with reliable AC Repair Services sometime soon. You don’t want to let AC troubles go on for long, as not only does this make your house less comfortable, it could result in expensive repairs later.
If you can, try to take a look at the filters and see if they’ve been clogged up – they might just need a wipe down or a replacement.
Get Thicker Curtains
Curtains have to be thick to be able to prevent the worst of the summer sun from getting through. They need to verge on blackout territory (if a little bit thinner, to ensure no hot air gets trapped inside instead), and they certainly need to cover the entirety of your windows.
They need to be heavier, too, to ensure they don’t let the little side slits of light come through. If they collect on the floor in a gathered heap, but still hang well on either side of the glass, you’ve got just the right curtains for the job!
They also help prevent cool air from escaping so be sure to keep that in mind when you plan your window treatments.
Disclosure: This is a collaborative post and may contain affiliate links.