When temperatures drop below freezing, your home needs a little extra care, and a few smart choices can help prevent fires, frozen pipes, and emergency maintenance calls. As cold weather settles in, take a moment to review these freezing weather safety tips to keep things warm, safe, and drama-free.

Give Heaters Some Personal Space: Space heaters like their space. Keep anything that can burn like furniture, baskets, paper, curtains, clothing at least three feet away from heating equipment. Crowding heaters is a fast track to a fire hazard, and nobody wants that.

Space Heaters: Use Them Wisely
If you’re using a portable space heater, remember:

• Turn it off when you leave the room or go to bed. Cozy naps are great; unattended heaters are not.
• Plug heaters directly into a wall outlet.
  Power strips and extension cords are a hard no—they can overheat and create serious fire risks.
• Only use portable heaters approved for indoor use. Outdoor heaters belong outdoors.

Your Oven Is for Cooking, Not Heating: It might feel tempting when it’s cold, but never use an oven or stovetop to heat your home. This is extremely dangerous and can lead to fires or carbon monoxide poisoning. Let’s keep the heat where it belongs.

Carbon Monoxide: Invisible, Dangerous, Preventable: Carbon monoxide is odorless, invisible, and very real. Make sure carbon monoxide detectors are installed and working properly in your home. It’s a small step that makes a big difference.

Cold Weather + Common Sense = Fewer Problems: Freezing temperatures put extra strain on heating systems and utilities. Following these tips helps protect your home, your neighbors, and the property, and helps everyone avoid unnecessary emergencies.

If you experience a heating-related emergency during freezing conditions and are a tenant or resident of Greater Greenville, please contact our after-hours emergency line.
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Stay warm. Stay safe. And let’s all get through winter without calling the fire department. ❄️🔥

When temperatures drop, space heaters can be a lifesaver but only when they’re used correctly. Each winter, improper heater use leads to fires, injuries, and emergency calls that could have been avoided with a few simple precautions. Before you plug one in and crank up the cozy, take a minute to review these space heater safety tips to help keep your home warm and safe.

Choose the Right Spot: Always place space heaters on a solid, flat surface, well away from high-traffic areas, doorways, and anything flammable like curtains, furniture, or bedding. If it can burn, it needs space. Give heaters plenty of breathing room.

Plug Directly Into the Wall (No Exceptions): Space heaters should always be plugged directly into a wall outlet. Power strips and extension cords are not designed to handle the electrical load and can overheat quickly, creating a serious fire hazard. If the heater won’t reach an outlet safely, it doesn’t belong there.

Look for Built-In Safety Features: Use space heaters equipped with an automatic shut-off feature that turns the unit off if it’s tipped over. This added layer of protection can make a big difference, especially in busy or shared living spaces.

Check Cords and Plugs Regularly: Before using a space heater, inspect the cord and plug. If you notice cracks, fraying, or damage, stop using it immediately and replace the unit. A damaged cord is a warning sign, not a suggestion.

Use Heaters Designed for Indoor Use Only: Not all heaters are created equal. Make sure the heater you’re using is approved for indoor use. Outdoor heaters should stay outdoors, no matter how cold it gets inside.

A Little Caution Goes a Long Way! Space heaters can provide comfort during cold weather, but they require responsible use. Following these safety tips helps protect your home, your neighbors, and the entire community while keeping emergency calls to a minimum.

Stay warm, stay safe, and remember: cozy should never come with a side of risk.

Do you live in an apartment or home with a garbage disposal? While they may be amazing, garbage disposals are not the cookie monsters of the sink, devouring everything in sight. Putting the wrong thing down the garbage disposal will lead to odors at best, and major repairs at worst. So be careful what you feed it, and listen to your favorite maintenance man when he tells you "that thing don't need no grease."

Big time no-no's:
grease, fat, oil, butter
chicken bones, fish bones, eggshells
coffee grounds
expandable foods like pasta and rice
non-food items

So what do you do with the items listed above? Two words: trash can. Obviously, something like hot grease will melt a trash bag so you will need to let that cool before discarding, but all of those things listed above? They need to go in the garbage, not the sink. 

Items that CAN go in the garbage disposal:
​small bits of soft food
dish soap
cool water

One more quick and helpful tip: use the blue stuff. I'm not trying to tell you what brands to buy, but my plumber once told me, the wrong dish soap will gunk up your sink. Dish soap should be bought to clean dishes, break down food particles, and disinfect spaces, not soften your hands. The dish soaps with moisturizing and nourishing properties build up in the pipes below. Using a good, old fashioned, regular dish soap like Dawn will help break up any SMALL tidbits of grease and grime that escape down the drain occasionally.