The gray stripe along the edge of a carpet looks like someone missed a spot with the vacuum. Nobody did.
It's the air in your house, leaving a trail. Once you know how it gets there, you'll spot it in every house you walk into.
Below: why carpet gets dark lines, the battery that shouldn't sit loose in a drawer, why garden beds want their leaves, a sprinkler job before the freeze, flannel sheets, and the candy to keep from the dog.
Reply and tell us: what's the one thing in your house you've never been able to explain? We read every one.
This Is the Reason Your Carpet Has Dark Lines
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Those dark, grayish lines along baseboards, under doors and down the edges of stairs have a name. The Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI) calls it filtration soiling.
Your carpet is working as an air filter. Air slipping through tiny gaps under a baseboard, or squeezing under a closed door, passes through the carpet fibers on its way, and the fibers catch whatever the air is carrying.
Per CRI, what the air carries can be fireplace or car exhaust, residue from furniture polish, fine sand or clay, or cooking oils. The oily bits then grab more dry dirt, which is why the line keeps getting darker.
TLDR: CRI says filtration soiling isn't a carpet defect, and it shows up no matter how good the carpet is. A pricier carpet won't stop it.
CRI says the air usually flows from an upper level of a house to a lower one, so the lines often show up downstairs and along the stairs. The lines can also appear out in the middle of a room, where sheets of plywood subfloor meet.
How fast the lines form depends on how much air moves and how dirty that air is. CRI says the lines can show up quickly or build over months or years, and are easiest to see on lighter carpet.
CRI admits the lines are hard to prevent completely, but it names a few steps that may help:
Keep interior doors open while the heat or AC is running. CRI says closed doors can grow a line underneath.
Seal gaps under baseboards and along stair edges, so less air moves through the carpet edge.
Use high-efficiency HVAC filters, and replace them on schedule.
Cut indoor smoke and fumes, like cigarette smoke and cleaning chemicals.
Use high-efficiency vacuum bags.
Lines that are already there can be stubborn, because the particles are so fine and oily. For the best results, CRI suggests a cleaner from its Seal of Approval provider list.
Renters can do the first step tonight. It costs nothing, and a closed door is probably why the line under the bedroom door showed up in the first place.
The 9-Volt Battery in Your Junk Drawer
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Most of us keep a spare 9-volt rolling around a kitchen drawer for the smoke alarm. Left loose, it can start a fire in that drawer.
Per the NFPA's 9-volt battery safety tips, the two posts sit close together on top. If a metal object touches both at once, like a key, a coin, a paper clip or steel wool, it can short out and make enough heat to start a fire.
NFPA says even a weak, used battery can have enough charge to start a fire. Some fires have started in trash cans, when a 9-volt was thrown out with other bits of metal.
9-volts run smoke alarms, toys and plenty of household gadgets, so most homes have a few lying around. Here's how NFPA says to keep them:
Keep new ones in the package until you need them.
Tape over the posts of any loose one with masking, duct or electrical tape.
Store them standing up, somewhere they won't get tossed around, and not loose with other batteries.
Don't throw them in the trash. Tape the posts and take them to a household hazardous waste collection site. Your town can tell you where.
It takes about a minute and a roll of tape.
Why Your Garden Beds Want Their Leaves
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If you've been mowing leaves into the lawn, keep at it. The garden beds are a different story.
Per the Xerces Society, most butterflies and moths don't migrate. They spend the winter as eggs, caterpillars, chrysalises or adults, and many of them use fallen leaves for cover. Luna moths and swallowtails even disguise their cocoons and chrysalises as dead leaves.
Bag or shred those leaves and the insects go with them. Xerces also says about 70 percent of bee species nest in the ground, often in yards and garden beds.
Rake leaves into beds and around the base of trees instead of bagging them.
Keep them whole. Move leaves for the beds with a rake or a blower, not the mower.
Leave perennial stems standing, and save the big cleanup for late spring.
Pile up the extras and let them break down on their own, or add them to the compost a little at a time.
A thin layer on the lawn is fine, Xerces says.
If you find bee nests in the soil while you work, Xerces suggests marking the spot and keeping any digging shallow. Leaving the leaves is less work than bagging them, and it's free mulch.
Drain the Sprinklers Before a Hard Freeze
If your yard has an in-ground sprinkler system, the water sitting in its pipes is the risk this time of year.
Per Salt Lake City Public Utilities' winterizing guide, most sprinkler piping isn't buried below the frost line. Water left inside can freeze, expand and crack PVC pipe, and water that freezes in the backflow preventer (the valve assembly that keeps sprinkler water from flowing back into your drinking water) can crack it, too. Even flexible polyethylene pipe can rupture if water is left inside.
Models differ, so check your backflow preventer's manual before you start.
Shut off the water to the system at its main valve.
Let the lines drain. Some systems drain on their own once the water is off. Others have manual drain valves at the low points that you open.
Drain the backflow preventer by opening its small test cocks a quarter turn.
Set its shut-off valves at a 45-degree angle, halfway open, so no water gets trapped inside them.
Wrap the backflow preventer in old towels or insulation, if you like.
If the backflow preventer was installed with unions (threaded fittings that let it come apart), you can also take it off and store it inside for the winter.
Blowing the lines out with an air compressor is the most thorough method. Salt Lake City Public Utilities recommends a licensed contractor for that one, since forcing air through the backflow preventer can damage it.
The Flannel Sheet Set Worth a Look This Month
A cold bedroom doesn't always need a warmer thermostat. Sometimes it needs different sheets.
Most flannel sheets are cotton that's been brushed to raise a soft, fuzzy surface. They're usually sold by weight, often in grams per square meter (GSM), rather than by thread count.
The one we'd point you to is Brooklinen's Brushed Flannel Core Sheet Set, at $229 for a queen. It's 100 percent cotton, woven in Portugal and OEKO-TEX certified for chemical safety.
The set is a flat sheet, a fitted sheet and two pillowcases, in Speckled Midnight, Speckled Moss or Speckled Oat.
Two small things make it easier to live with: envelope closures on the pillowcases, and "Long" and "Short" tags on the fitted sheet so it goes on right the first time. That's all on Brooklinen's listing.
Brooklinen says the set is lighter than you'd expect at 140 GSM, built to keep people who sleep cold warm without overheating. If you want a heavy, toasty flannel, look for a higher weight.
And $229 is real money for sheets. A full set is $199.
We haven't slept on these ourselves. The details and prices come from Brooklinen's own listing.
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The Halloween Candy to Keep From the Dog
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The candy bowl comes out in a little over two weeks, and the FDA has two warnings worth knowing first.
Per the FDA, xylitol, a sugar substitute in some sugar-free gum, candy and mints, is safe for people but can be deadly to dogs. Xylitol can drop a dog's blood sugar within 10 to 60 minutes.
Vomiting usually comes first, then weakness, staggering, collapse or seizures. Some serious effects may not show up for 12 to 24 hours, so don't wait for symptoms.
Xylitol also turns up in places you might not expect, like breath mints, baked goods, toothpaste and some nut butters.
Chocolate is the other one. The FDA's holiday guidance says unsweetened and baking chocolate are the most dangerous, because they carry the most of the ingredient that's toxic to pets. In some pets, the FDA says chocolate can lead to liver failure, bleeding disorders or death.
Keep the bowl and the trick-or-treat bags up high, out of reach.
Check the labels on sugar-free candy and gum for xylitol.
Mind guests' bags and coat pockets, a common place for gum and mints.
Call your vet or an animal poison control line right away if your dog gets into any of it.
Cats seem less affected by xylitol, the FDA says, but chocolate is still dangerous for them.
One quick tap
That's Wednesday: the carpet that works as a filter, a battery and a roll of tape, leaves for the beds, a sprinkler shutoff, flannel, and the candy bowl.
If you only do one thing this week, open the bedroom doors before the heat comes on tonight.
Forward this to whoever in your house keeps vacuuming that line.
See you tomorrow.
The Home Wire
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