Will lack of garage door maintenance spoil your New Year’s Eve?

And Have a Happy 2022

You and your spouse are dressed and ready to go. Then the doorbell rings. The babysitter is here, at last. It’s time to go – time to go to the last party of the year. After the lockdown version of New Year’s Even last year, you figure you’re due for a chance to let your hair down and enjoy yourselves.

You go over the list of emergency phone numbers with the babysitter, wish her a Happy New Year and promise you’ll be back not too long after the stroke of midnight. Then you head out to the garage. 

As you slide into your seats, close the doors and start the car, you both take a deep sigh of relief. All your responsibilities are handled. Now, it’s your time. It’s time to enjoy yourselves. It’s time to enjoy New Year’s Eve.

After a smiling glance shared between you, you hit the button to open the garage door. The door goes up, the same as it has done a thousand times before. But then, and suddenly, something goes wrong.

The rollers on each side of the top panel of the garage door fall out of the track. The garage door starts falling onto the hood of your car – your new car, the car you take so much pride in, that you clean and shine so regularly.

You’re still trying to come to terms with what is happening when you realize the door is continuing to fall, one panel after another, onto your car. You hit the button to stop the door. At first, nothing happens. You hit it again and, at last, it stops.

Looking out beyond the fallen garage door and the damaged hood of your car, you see the promise of a relaxed New Year’s Eve fading into the shadows of the night. Your plans have changed.

The odds that this story describes what will happen to you this New Year’s Eve are slim. The point is that, whomever this does happen to, could have avoided the problem and the havoc it wrought. All they needed was some timely garage door maintenance.

Here’s hoping you’ve had timely garage door maintenance performed on your garage door and garage door opener. And here’s hoping you have a Happy New Year and a wonderful 2022.

Garage offers versatility for Christmas

Christmas is a hectic time of year. So much to do and so little time to do it. It helps to devise a plan to help you survive the holiday without losing your cool. You can start by making a list of all the tasks you need to complete. Also, consider all of your resources. And don’t forget the garage as one of those.

The garage can help you survive the holiday mayhem of Christmas in several ways. Consider these possible ways to use your garage to its full potential:

1. Use your garage as a storage area: Just think of all the things you can store in the garage at Christmas time. You can store the boxes from the Christmas decorations and lights in the garage. You can hide gifts in the garage until Christmas morning. You can move furniture out to the garage when you’ll need more space in the house for entertaining. You can put some of the foods prepared in advance out in the garage (assuming you protect them from hungry uninvited guests that find their way into the garage).
2. If your garage is heated, and reasonably clean, you can expand your house while entertaining. Think of it as another room for guests to mingle. It might even work as the room for those who want to smoke a cigarette or cigar (you can air it out later).
3. Decorate your garage for that Christmas party you’re holding for the kids. They can do crafts and games without messing up the house.
4. Keep the pets out in the garage while you’re entertaining.

Of course, you’ll want to ensure that the garage door is working properly. Imagine if you get the garage all setup for that kid’s party and, on a cold December day, the garage door rollers fall out of their tracks.

At Christmas time, you want to think about the holiday not your garage door. And you certainly don’t need any additional expense on the garage door when your shopping for Christmas gifts and holiday dinners.

You may want to have some timely garage door maintenance performed before the holiday. Even if you won’t use your garage for anything special, you don’t need garage door problems spoiling your holiday.

In any case, here at Garage Doors and More, we would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas.