Summer Checklist

Summertime, and the livin’ is easy— or at least it can be. You can have it made in the shade if you tackle these get-set-for-summer tasks now. Then enjoy the fruits of your labor for the rest of the season. Here’s how:

Inside the house:

• Store paper plates, cups, napkins, plastic utensils, unbreakable salt and pepper shakers, and a tray near the back door for quick table-setting outside.
• Keep a bag of ice in the freezer ready for company, outings, or a sudden urge for homemade ice cream.
• Stock your picnic basket with disposable dishes and utensils for impromptu picnics and outings.

Outside the house:

• Clean leaves and debris from gutters.
• Fertilize and mulch garden beds (with old leaves or lawn clippings as free mulch).
• Set up a porch swing or hammock, and use it.
• Use a wire brush and oven cleaner to prepare your grill for summer cooking.

Bugs begone

• Keep flies away from trash by gluing a pest strip to the lid of the garbage can.
• To cure a wasp problem, put 2 inches of vinegar in a long-necked bottle. Wasps will be attracted to the smell and crawl in, but they won’t be able to exit.
• Eliminate even small pools of stagnant water — mosquito breeding grounds. These include backed-up gutters, the tire swing, flower vases, unused wading pools, and so forth.
• Put a layer of baking soda under sink-pipe openings to ward off roaches. They will eat the baking soda, dehydrate, then die.

Kathy Peel, president of Family Manager Inc., is the author of 15 books, including her latest, Be Your Best: The Family Manager’s Guide to Personal Success (Ballantine, 2000).

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