Tips to Protect Your Home from the Extreme Minnesota Cold

This morning, I got an email from my insurance company reminding their clients how to protect their homes for the extreme cold that's about to hit us in Minnesota (shout out Country Financial).

Let's be honest, they just really don't want to have to pay out insurance claims if someone's pipe bursts, so they wanted to try and prevent that by sending out this email. I get it! But also, that would cause such a headache for you as the homeowner.

I wanted to share some of these tips to keep your home protected during these cold days ahead. But also, there was one tip in the email that made me very confused. I had to do some Googling, and now I need to know if anyone actually does this or not.

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Protecting Your Home from Minnesota's Cold Winter Weather

Some of the tips include:

• Make sure your thermostat is at a consistent temperature. They also mention that if you turn your thermostat down when you aren't home, set it no lower than 65 degrees.
• Open doors throughout your home to get air flowing and allow the warm air to circulate around the whole house.
• Know how to shut off your utilities safely in case of an emergency.

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And then we come to the tip that confused me: "cover the hose bibb with a foam cover." Huh??

Do You Have to Cover Your Outdoor Spigot in the Winter?

First of all, I had to look up what a hose bibb was, and that's just the spigot on the outside of your house where you connect your garden hose.

Ok, but you're supposed to cover that with something in the winter?! I've spent my whole life in Minnesota, and I've never heard of anyone doing that. But with the extreme cold coming, maybe it's a good time to do it.

These covers appear to be under $5 at hardware stores, so super cheap.

Also, I guess even the spigots that are supposed to be safe for Minnesota winters should be covered because there's still the chance that the water will freeze in them, especially in extreme cold.

I need to know if anyone actually covers their outdoor spigots! Am I crazy for never having done this?