Household lapses can cost you money or even your life

By Mary Beth Breckenridge
Knight Ridder News Service

With the help of a few professionals who have to deal regularly with the consequences of our collective boneheadedness, we've compiled a list of some of the worst home habits. Gannett News Service

They're bad home habits, dumb things we do without a second thought. Unlike elbows on the table, though, these bad habits have the potential of harming more than just our images. They could jeopardize our homes, our possessions and even our lives.

With the help of a few professionals who have to deal regularly with the consequences of our collective boneheadedness, we've compiled a list of some of the worst home habits. Some are things you may do, even though you know better. A few are habits you might not have realized were potential problems.

Check appliances

We're so used to automatic dishwashers, clothes washers and clothes dryers doing the work for us that it's all too easy to turn on these appliances and forget about them — even as we're walking out the door.

We almost always get away with letting the appliances finish their cycles after we've left the house, but the sense of security that creates is dangerous. On the rare occasion that something goes wrong, the results can be disastrous.

Hoses can burst. Appliances can overflow. Dryer lint can catch fire. Before you're even aware of a problem, water could be seeping out from under your front door or flames shooting from your windows.

Appliance repairman Rudy Germeister won't even go to bed with the dishwasher running. "It may be hours before you realize there's a leak," said Germeister, who owns Advanced Appliance Service Co. in Akron, Ohio's Chapel Hill area.

While it's not an alternative to vigilance, he recommended reducing the risk of problems wherever you can. Inspect the washing machine's water-supply hoses periodically, and replace them when there's any sign of deterioration, particularly distortion around the coupling. You might even replace the rubber hoses with braided stainless-steel hoses, which are built to withstand higher pressure. The cost may be two to three times higher, "but it's worth it," he said.

Some repair people even recommend turning off the water supply to the washing machine every time you finish doing laundry, but he thinks that's a little extreme. Nevertheless, you should do that whenever you leave for a vacation or other extended time.

Germeister also recommended cleaning the lint filter after every dryer load and dismantling and vacuuming out the dryer vent once a year. If you notice an odor, or if the machine is drying slower than usual, stop using the dryer and call a service person. You probably need to have the accumulated lint cleaned out of the inside.

Stove storage

Lt. Al Bragg sees it all the time: clean pans left on burners, pot holders hanging above stove tops, cooking implements and even napkins stored in ovens.

"People use their stove sort of as a storage area," said Bragg, the Akron Fire Department's public education supervisor.

The problem, he said, is that heating elements can come on accidentally, perhaps because of an electrical problem or because a control was turned on by a child or an unknowing visitor. That can cause the items on the stove or in the oven to melt or ignite. If you're lucky, you might come away with just a ruined pan. If you're not, you might come away without a house.

The common rule, Bragg said, is never put anything that can burn within three feet of something that could cause it to burn. Don't hang your pot holders near the range, where one could fall onto the stove top. Move your plastic spice jars off the shelf over the stove to avoid having one topple onto a heating element. When you're taking a pan off the heat, move it somewhere other than another burner. You never know when you might accidentally turn the wrong knob.

Never leave the kitchen when you have something cooking on the stove. It's just too easy to get distracted and forget.

Neglecting gutters

Nobody likes cleaning the gutters. It's soggy, slimy, nasty work.

But you haven't seen soggy, slimy and nasty till you've seen what can happen to your home if you leave your gutters clogged with leaves and debris.

Water spills over the edge of clogged gutters, seeps into the ground at the foundation and can promote mold growth.

The best course is to clean gutters and downspouts whenever debris accumulates. If you don't want to do the job yourself, hire someone, Starts said.

Eletrical shortcuts

Your brand new DVD player is all hooked up and ready to go, but the nearest electrical outlet is already claimed by the television set and the VCR. So you dig out an extension cord, run it from the DVD to an outlet several feet away and settle in for a night of movie watching.

Bad idea.

Extension cords aren't meant for permanent use, but Canton, Ohio, home inspector Ezra Malernee said he sees them used that way all the time. Often, he said, the wiring is too thin to handle the electrical demand, and the cord can overheat. Or the cord is snaked under furniture and hidden under rugs, where the wire covering eventually gets rubbed raw and the wires short out.

If you must use an extension cord, read the label to make sure it's the proper gauge for the job, Malernee advised. (The lower the gauge, the heavier the wire. Most permanent house wiring is 12 gauge.) Keep the cord off the ground and away from potential wear, perhaps by attaching it to the baseboard with adhesive clips.

If the need for the cord is long-term, though, Malernee strongly suggested adding an outlet. The wiring can be done on the outside of the wall and hidden by a plastic channel mounted fairly inconspicuously along the top of a baseboard, so the job doesn't have to involve opening walls or spending big bucks.

Likewise, you shouldn't rely regularly on adapters that allow more than one appliance to be plugged into a single receptacle or that allow three-prong plugs to be used in ungrounded outlets, Bragg said. (And if you do use the latter, be certain to attach the adapter's pigtail wire to the screw on the outlet plate.)

If you need to use those adapters a lot, you need to update your wiring.

Open-door policy, Part 1

There's no such thing as a crime-proof neighborhood.

Burglars work even in the best areas, so if you think you're safe leaving the door unlocked while you pop in on your neighbor or run to the store, think again, said Detective James Conley, a community relations and crime prevention specialist at the Akron (Ohio) Police Department.

Thieves look for houses that are fast and easy to get into, Conley said, and unlocked doors and windows provide the easiest access. What's more, plenty of burglars work during the day, because they know many homeowners do, too.

Reducing your chance of a break-in is as simple as turning a latch.

Open-door policy, Part 2

Your biggest danger from a fire isn't burning to death. It's breathing the gases that fire produces.

A fire can produce carbon monoxide before a smoke alarm even detects smoke, Bragg said. If you sleep with your bedroom door open, he said, that gas can reach you more easily and put you into such a deep sleep that the alarm might not wake you. "You're probably not going to make it," he said.

Simply sleeping with the bedroom door closed blocks some of the carbon monoxide, which gives you a better chance of escaping, Bragg said. What's more, if the flames are near the room's entrance, the door will protect you from much of the heat until help arrives.

Can disaster happen?

Yeah, you're thinking, but what are the chances of these things really happening?

Bragg likes to use this analogy when he's speaking to groups:

He often asks his audience if they would store matches next to a gasoline can. Oh, no, the audience members invariably say.

Why not? he asks. After all, if the matches aren't lighted, there isn't any problem.

But something could happen, the audience typically replies.

His point exactly.

This list isn't meant to be complete — heaven knows our shortcomings aren't that limited — but rather a way of encouraging you to focus on making a few changes for the better.