Smarter: How to Get Your Home Ready for Summer

By Pang-Chieh Ho
Senior Home & Appliances Writer

May 25, 2023

Goodbye, spring rains and allergies. Hello, beach weather and barbecues. This week I’m featuring suggestions from our experts on how to get your home ready for summer. Also in this issue: Cars that cost the least to maintain in the long run, and what to do if the police ask for your security camera video.

THE BIG STORY

It’s almost June, and to me that means only one thing: Summer is coming, and I need to be prepared.

Some of the things that are top of mind include how to stay cool during the season, which is an imperative because I overheat easily. I’m also looking forward to sharing tips from CR’s experts on how to grill a good burger with my partner because let’s face it, we both know who’s the better cook, and denying this truth will only hurt us.

For those of you who are also ready to launch straight into summer, here’s great advice our experts have on preparing or upgrading your home, outdoor space, and grilling equipment for the season.

Consider this: Should your window fan face in or out?
As someone who tries to use the AC as little as possible, fans—including window fans—are a boon and a half. But in order to use them to the best of their function, should they face inside or outside?

The answer is that they should face out on the warmer side of your home to blow hot air out and face in on the cooler side to draw in cool air.

Another tip: Window fans are most effective at exhausting hot air from your home, so the best time to use them is when the air inside is hotter than the air outside.

And if fans aren’t cutting it, check out the most reliable brands for central air conditioning systems based on our surveys.

For a better outdoor space, these are 10 products garden and lawn experts swear by.
A good tool can go a long way when it comes to gardening. One of them is the Fiskars 4-Claw Weeder, a standing weeder that prevents gardeners from having to kneel.

“This gizmo digs deeper and more surgically than I can,” says Tobie Stanger, a CR senior editor who has reported on, among many other things, the best lawn mowers (available to CR members).

Every gardener also needs a good pair of gloves. Pine Tree Tools Bamboo Gardening Gloves are a favorite of Matilda Noble, a floral designer who frequently has to wrangle branches in her work. “They are thick enough to avoid spike stabs but thin enough to do intricate work,” she says.

How to make the best burger ever.
Paul Hope, a CR home writer, is a classically trained chef and more importantly, a burger lover. In his pursuit of making the perfect burger, he cooked patties three ways: in a cast-iron skillet, under a broiler, and on a gas grill.

The verdict? While the skillet provided very good control and the broiler was less messy, the grill won out by a mile because of the burger’s tastiness.

If you’re eager to elevate your grill game, here are the grilling tools and other equipment that will turn your cooking skills from average to amazing. And if you’re in the market for a new grill, these are the best gas grills of 2023 (available to CR members).

MUST-READS OF THE WEEK

🧐 What to Do If the Police Ask for Your Security Camera or Video Doorbell Recordings
Here are your rights, explained.

⚕️ Why Pulse Oximeters Don’t Work as Well for People With Dark Skin
It’s a concerning issue that desperately needs to be fixed.

💰 Cars That Cost the Least to Maintain in the Long Run (available to CR members)
We’ve crunched 10 years’ worth of data to recommend the cars that have the lowest routine maintenance and repair costs.

TIP OF THE WEEK

Illustration of credit score numbers stacked on top of each other with a ladder leaning against them.

Denied a mortgage because of your credit score? Here are a few things you can do to improve it.

Get on-time rent and utility payments counted on your report.
You can sign up for this via Experian’s Boost, but you must pay your bills electronically from your bank account or by credit card (not by PayPal or Venmo) for the payments to count.

Pay off credit cards with the lowest balances.
While the conventional wisdom is that it’s best to pay off cards with the highest interest rates first, if you’re aiming to improve your score as fast as possible, you should zero out the balances on as many cards as you can.

Check out more tips to raise your score as you prepare for a mortgage loan application.

SOMETHING I DIDN'T KNOW

Apples are something to cut back on if you suffer from bloating.

"A for apple, B for bloat."

Pang-Chieh Ho

Pang-Chieh Ho is a senior content creator at Consumer Reports who writes about the intersections of home products and health. She has been working in the media industry for almost 10 years. Books are her first love, but movies come a close second. You can send tips to her at [email protected].