So, add this to January’s list of skills to tackle: find the main water valve to your house. And you can check this off in a jiffy.

A few days ago, Ryan showed me that ours is in the basement by the water softener. He asked why I wanted to know. Sure enough, a few days later, a very close friend (ahem, you know who you are!) told us about waking up to burst bathroom pipes that spewed water all over the floor and required all of her towels to clean it up. Now that’s a good “why” if I ever heard one! If you live in an apartment or rented home, pester your landlord until you know what you should do in case of an emergency.

Read more about finding your water and gas valves here and here.