Denver
Shoveling snow in Denver: the 24-hour rule and your heart
Denver gives you a day to clear the sidewalk after the snow stops. Shoveling can put a strain on your heart. Here’s what the rule says and how to approach the work.
The Nest
What a home needs, and why.
Short reads on your home and the people in it, from stress and sleep to Denver’s dry air, the lawn, the snow, moving day and the dog.
Read
Explore the articles.
Safety
Anchor the dresser: why furniture tips, and the ten-minute fix
A dresser with its drawers open is a lever waiting for a small child. The strap that stops it is in the box, and most people leave it there.
Yard
Mow high: lawn care in Denver’s dry air
A lawn a mile up, in 15 inches of rain a year, isn’t the lawn in the mower manual. Taller grass, a sharper blade and the city’s watering rules do most of the work.
Yard
Leaves: mow them in, or bag them for the city
Two universities spent years testing what happens when you run the mower over fallen leaves instead of raking them. The lawn was fine. Here’s when that works, and what Denver does with the rest.
Pets
How long a dog walk should be
Thirty minutes, an hour, two? It depends on the dog more than the clock, and a slow walk with a lot of sniffing does more than a fast one. Plus the leash rule Denver enforces.
Guides
Pressure washing: what it cleans and what it wrecks
The same machine that strips a winter of grime off a driveway will carve lines into a deck and blow the mortar out of old brick. The difference is pressure, distance and what you’re pointing it at.
Guides
Moving day with hired hands and no truck
Renting the truck yourself and paying people only to carry is the cheapest way to move across town. It works if the boxes are ready when they arrive. A plan for the day, and what to check if you hire a company with a truck instead.
Health
What a clean home does to your stress
The counter you leave for the morning doesn’t stay on the counter. Four studies on how the state of your rooms shows up in a stress hormone, in your mood, in the snack you reach for and in how much you move.
Focus
Clutter and attention: why a tidy room helps you think
Your eyes have a budget, and every object in view spends a little of it. What a Princeton brain-imaging study found, and what to do about the desk.
Health
Dust, allergens and the air inside your home
You spend about 90% of your life indoors. Here’s what the EPA, the CDC and the allergy foundation say is in that air, and which part of cleaning changes it.
Sleep
Sleep better in a clean bedroom
What 1,500 adults told the National Sleep Foundation about sheets, made beds and clean rooms, and what the CDC adds. Plus a bedroom routine that fits in 15 minutes a week.
Guides
How often should you deep clean? A room-by-room schedule
A schedule built from what the CDC, the EPA, the allergy foundation and the FDA say about bedding, dust, moisture and food. What to do every week, every month, each season and once a year.
Numbers
How much time Americans spend cleaning
Every year the Bureau of Labor Statistics asks thousands of people what they did yesterday, minute by minute. What the 2025 survey says about housework, who does it, and what it adds up to.
Denver
Denver’s dry air and dust: a routine for the Front Range
About 14.5 inches of precipitation a year, low humidity, wind off the mountains and a pollen season that runs from late winter to the first freeze. What that does to a Denver home, and what to do about it.
Guides
Moving out in Denver: a cleaning checklist for your deposit
Colorado rewrote its deposit law for 2026. What normal wear and tear now means, the 30-day clock, the walk-through you can ask for, and the room-by-room clean that leaves nothing to argue about.
Cleaning by the numbers
What the research counts.
Each figure links to the study, survey or agency it comes from, with who was counted.
- 90%
of their time is what Americans spend indoors, on average.
Some pollutants run 2 to 5 times higher indoors than outside. US Environmental Protection Agency, accessed 2026.
- 48% vs 24%
of women and men do housework such as cleaning or laundry on an average day.
US adults, 2025. Averaged over everyone, that is 49 minutes a day for women and 18 for men. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026.
- 19%
more likely to say they sleep well most nights: people who make the bed most days.
44% against 37%, in a phone poll of 1,500 US adults aged 25 to 55, paid for by a detergent brand. National Sleep Foundation, 2011.
- 130°F
is the wash temperature that kills dust mites in sheets and blankets. Weekly is the advice.
About 20 million people in the US have a dust mite allergy. Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, 2025.
- 27.8M
people in the US have asthma. Dust mites, pet dander and mold are among the common triggers.
8.4% of the population in 2023, including 4.8 million children. US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2023.
- 30 days
is how long a Colorado landlord has to return your deposit, or up to 60 if the lease says so.
Normal wear and tear cannot be deducted. Rules as amended from January 1, 2026. Colorado General Assembly, 2026.