I have three grown sons, and I tried to teach them many things in their upbringing that would serve them and their future families well as adults. I wish I had paid more attention to my own dad! My dad was one of the most resourceful men I have ever known. He loved the tools he had accumulated and the workshop he had built in our garage. I would get the nod often from my dad that it was time for me to clean and straighten the garage … that was my job. When my dad passed away five years ago, I honored him and built a new workshop out of my dad’s old hardwood floor workbench top and had a small plaque made that reads, “In memory of my dad – Sandy S. Rushing, Jr.” I wish my dad was here to see it.
I laughed out loud not too long ago when my middle son told me how cool his new shop-vac was that he had just bought! That made my day! Do you have a good shop-vac? In addition to cleaning up messes, broken glass slivers you can’t see, and so many things, it can help you get longer life out of your refrigerator and prevent leaks from being worse from your air conditioner and water heater in the attic. How so? Use your shop vac! Here are two simple do-it-yourself things that you can do in your house.
The coils under your refrigerator get dirty from dust and need to be cleaned routinely. Take the front and back cover off the bottom of your frig and use your shop-vac to clean out as much of the accumulated dust. Your refrigerator will work better and last longer if you’ll keep your coils clean. If you clean them even once in the life of the frig, it will be more than the average person. I recommend that you clean it once a year.
Secondly, the overflow pans under your evaporator coil(s) and water heater in the attic need to stay clean of insulation and debris. If a leak occurs and water is in your pan, the insulation / debris can clog up the drain port and render the overflow pan useless. Trust me, you do not want an overflow pan to have water overflowing in your attic. Take your shop-vac up into the attic (carefully up the stairs), and vacuum out all the dirt, insulation, and debris that’s in the overflow pans. Now you can sleep better at night knowing that your pans are clean!
Once you get started with your shop-vac, you may keep going and get on a roll by cleaning a lot of other things … under and behind the range, washer and dryer, cleaning the dryer vent, behind furniture, even the entire attic! I hope you’re encouraged to have a good shop-vac and use it occasionally to keep your house, garage, attic, vehicles, and overflow pans cleaner. A shop-vac is a great gift idea for a birthday or Christmas! Your shop-vac will be one of the most useful tools in your garage. Have a great shop-vac day my friends.
