Home for the holidays? When your home becomes the hub for gatherings, your house sees more activity than usual. A bigger household and more traffic in your kitchen and bathrooms put added strain on your drains, water heater, and plumbing system. And with Minnesota temperatures dropping below freezing, your heating system has to work even harder to keep your family and guests warm.
If your home isn’t ready to handle this demand, small issues can quickly turn into holiday headaches—like lukewarm showers, clogged sinks, and chilly rooms. Luckily, you can get ahead of these problems with a few simple steps. This home maintenance checklist shows you four ways to protect the comfort and safety of your home all season long.
1. Keep Your Garbage Disposal Out of Trouble
Holiday meals create more food scraps than usual. Because you’re preparing larger meals and cooking more often, your disposal has to work harder than normal. With cold winter temperatures also making grease harden faster, your pipes and drains are at more risk of clogs. Older or dull disposals are especially likely to jam under this extra workload.
To keep your disposal running smoothly, adopt these habits:
- Skip fibrous foods like celery or onion skins so the blades don’t get tangled.
- Toss hard items—such as bones, pits, and shells—in the trash to protect the motor.
- Avoid starchy foods that can thicken into a paste and clog the drain.
- Pour grease into a container for disposal in the trash, instead of rinsing it down the sink.
- Keep extra trash bins nearby so guests have an easy alternative.
Using these habits regularly helps your disposal handle heavier holiday use. For minor, shallow clogs that can often be fixed with simple DIY methods, see our blog, “How to Unclog a Drain.”
However, if your disposal hums without spinning, repeatedly trips the reset button, or water backs up, the problem is likely more serious. In those cases, calling a professional to clear your drains is the safest way to prevent injury and protect your pipes.
2. Make Sure Your Tanked or Tankless Water Heater Can Keep Up
Cold winter water makes your water heater work harder to supply hot water for showers, cooking, and laundry. With kids home for holiday break and guests visiting, your household needs even more hot water than usual. Long, back-to-back showers and extra dishwashing can push a water heater to its limits, leaving you with weak taps or chilly baths. Older, smaller, or less efficient systems are especially likely to struggle with delivering consistent hot water.
To help your water heater handle the holiday demand, follow these steps:
- Set the temperature to 120°F to balance comfort, safety, and efficiency.
- Space showers about 20 minutes apart so that the tank has time to reheat.
- Run laundry and dishwashers at off-peak times to reduce strain on the system.
- Save energy with “vacation mode” or by lowering the temperature on tanked units if you’ll be traveling away from home.
- Schedule a pre-holiday water heater tune-up for your tanked or tankless water heater. Our trained plumbers will check for wear and corrosion, remove sediment, and ensure that your system can keep the hot water flowing.
Following these steps eases the load and makes it easier to spot minor problems before they turn into major headaches. If your tank rumbles, heats slowly, or is more than 8–10 years old, call a professional. Fixing minor issues now can prevent leaks or a complete failure during the coldest days of the season.
3. Prepare Bathrooms for Heavy Holiday Use
Holiday visitors can put your bathrooms to the test. When more people use the sinks, tubs, and toilets throughout the day, any plumbing issues can become more evident—or even worsen.
For example, your bathroom drains collect hair, soap residue, and other debris over time. Extra bathroom use over the holidays could worsen this drain buildup and lead to blockages and clogs. Plus, older pipes are especially prone to clogging, increasing the chances of slow drains or backups.
It’s also important to keep certain items out of the toilet to prevent clogs and backups. Common culprits include feminine hygiene products, paper towels, dental floss, cotton swabs, and baby wipes. Even those labeled “flushable,” like baby or personal wipes, shouldn’t be flushed. These materials don’t break down easily and can quickly cause blockages, especially in older plumbing. Keeping these items out of your toilets helps prevent unexpected problems in your drains and sewer line.
Use these steps to help your bathrooms handle additional holiday traffic and flow smoothly:
- Install drain screens to catch hair and debris before they enter the pipes.
- Place plungers in every bathroom so guests have quick access for DIY fixes.
- Remind guests about what items are not safe to flush, either directly or with a friendly note.
- Make wastebaskets easy to see to discourage flushing items that shouldn’t go down drains or toilets.
- Schedule a professional drain cleaning if slow drains persist or affect multiple fixtures, as this often means the blockage is deeper than a simple clog
- Avoid forcing a DIY fix, since pushing against a deep clog can damage pipes or cause a messy backup.
Taking these steps lowers the chance of clogs during busy holiday weeks. When it comes to slow or clogged drains, calling a professional is always the safest choice. Attempting a DIY fix can damage pipes, and leaving the problem untreated can lead to leaks, bursts, or more extensive plumbing issues.
If you notice several fixtures draining slowly or gurgling at the same time, the problem may be deeper in the main line. Want to learn more? See our guide, “7 Signs Your Main Drain Needs Professional Clearing in MN.”
4. Give Your Heating System Some Seasonal TLC
December brings some of the coldest days of the year, which means your furnace has to run longer and work harder to keep your home warm. When a system hasn’t had its yearly checkup, small issues like a worn belt or dust buildup can strain the furnace and reduce airflow. Over time, this can cause more wear, costly repairs, or even system damage.
Furnace filters play a key role in protecting your furnace from overheating and strain. They keep dust, pet dander, pollen, and other particles out of your furnace and ductwork. They also prevent these particles from circulating in your home, supporting better indoor air quality. Filters range from basic fiberglass to higher-MERV or pleated designs, and each behaves differently under heavy winter use.
MERV (Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value) ratings indicate how effectively a filter traps particles. The higher the MERV rating, the smaller and more varied the particles it can capture—including fine dust, pollen, allergens, mold spores, and other airborne contaminants. Higher-MERV filters clean the air more thoroughly but clog faster, so they need more frequent replacement.
With this context in mind, there are a few simple steps you can take to help your furnace stay reliable and efficient:
- Replace or clean your furnace air filter regularly to improve airflow and reduce strain on the system. Homes with pets, smokers, or high activity levels also accumulate more dust, further shortening filter life. Check the filter monthly. Even filters that normally last 1–3 months should be checked monthly during Minnesota winters, with many homeowners replacing them every 4–6 weeks at peak usage.
- Open all vents. Make sure every vent in your home is fully open to allow proper airflow throughout the space.
- Keep vents unobstructed. Check that furniture, rugs, curtains, or holiday decorations aren’t blocking airflow. This helps your furnace work efficiently and reduces the risk of overheating or contact with flammable items.
- Lower the thermostat a little when hosting large gatherings, since extra body heat naturally warms a space.
- Use a programmable or smart thermostat to keep your home steady without wasting energy.
- Schedule your annual furnace tune-up. Our trained HVAC technicians will clear dust buildup, inspect for worn parts, and recalibrate its components. They’ll also check for safety risks like dangerous gas or carbon monoxide leaks.
- Protect the air you breathe with an indoor air quality assessment. Consult with our expert team about the best filter options for your HVAC system and other indoor air quality solutions.
Following these steps makes it easier for your furnace to handle Minnesota’s coldest weeks. If you notice uneven heating, frequent cycling, slow warm-up times, or new noises, your system may already be working too hard. Addressing issues early can prevent a no-heat emergency when you need warmth the most.
What to Do in Winter Emergencies
Even with a strong home maintenance checklist, winter can bring surprises. Extra stress from cold weather and holiday activity can turn small problems into big emergencies. Frozen pipes, clogged drains, or a sudden furnace failure aren’t safe to fix on your own, so having a professional ready is the safest choice.
Here’s a quick-reference plan for winter emergencies:
- Call a service provider right away if you lose heat or hot water during extreme cold. At McQuillan Home Services, we offer 24/7 emergency support, so help is always available—day or night.
- Choose a company with fully stocked trucks so repairs can happen faster without further trips.
- Work with technicians who offer upfront pricing to avoid last-minute surprises.
- Rely on trained professionals for issues that could harm you or your home, such as frozen pipes, furnace failures, and main line clogs.
With a trusted team ready, you can relax knowing help is just a call away during the busiest and coldest weeks of winter. Quick, professional intervention not only fixes problems faster but also prevents minor issues from turning into costly repairs or safety hazards.
Your Trusted Home Maintenance Partner
For more than four generations, McQuillan Home Services has helped families across the Minneapolis and St. Paul areas stay warm and safe. Whether it’s a pre-holiday furnace tune-up, drain cleaning, or emergency repairs, our expert team is here to help. We’ll prepare your home for the season with the same honest, reliable service homeowners have counted on since 1883.
Ensure holiday comfort and year-round peace of mind—call or schedule online today!
