Stress Free Holidays: Clean and Check Your Appliances

Welcome to my Stress Free Holidays series, I will be sharing some tips to reduce the amount of stress this time of year puts on all of us.  Some are ones I have used, some are ones I will be instituting this year, and some I will be using in the future.  If you have any great ways to reduce the amount of stress please feel free to share them with us!

This is a tip that I have never really thought of before but when I read it in the book Christmas Sucks by Joanne Kimes, it was kind of like an ah ha moment for me.  Prior to the holiday and the crunch time of when you need your oven, dishwasher, heaters, etc working at peak performance, give them a little TLC.  No one wants to find out after hours of prep and work that your oven hasn't actually been baking that turkey all day because the thermostat stopped working. Or to have your dishwasher crap out during the first of about 20 loads of Christmas dishes.  So take a bit of time and run a cleaner through the oven and dishwasher and make sure both are working properly before the big day when you won't find anyone to fix them (unless of course you are lucky enough to have a plumber or electrician in the family).  On that note, if you are traveling instead, make sure you aren't over due for an oil change, top off your fluids and check the air pressure in the tires of your car before hitting the road. 

Granted these appliance catastrophes may lead to some very funny and memorable moments down the line, it won't seem that way in the moment, so best to try to avoid it if possible.