Home » Things that go ‘bump’ in your house

Things that go ‘bump’ in your house

We at the New York Paranormal Society are obviously interested in all things paranormal. So when I found this article, I got a bit of a tickle out of it. The scariest thing about spooky occurrences in your home, according to Consumer Reports?? Increased utility bills! Oh no! ANYTHING BUT THAT!!!!!

That noise coming from the refrigerator? It’s not a ghost. I promise.

Kitchen doors and cabinets opening by themselves, appliances unexpectedly turning on and strange bumps in the night. In the wake of Halloween, it’s easy to connect strange incidents to the paranormal. But an industry expert says the real scary feature of these fairly common household occurrences is the increased utility bills they can cause.

“We joke about flying witches in this place, flying squirrels is more likely the culprit,” says Daniel Diclerico, senior editor of Consumer Reports.

Small animals and rodents often sneak through small holes into attics to nestle in the insulation, and get in to walls causing the strange bumps or scratching noises.

This lets air into the house, running up heating bills, Diclerico says,

“The best thing to do is to try to keep them from coming in in the first place and that means plugging holes around the exterior of your home.”

Diclerico recommends lighting incense and looking for the smoke to blow sideways, an indicator that there’s some sort of air leak or inadequate insulation nearby.

The potential safety hazard of kitchen appliances turning themselves on might be even more alarming, but again Diclerico says there is nothing supernatural there.

Last week, over 120,000 Electrolux Smoothtop Cooktops were recalled for doing just that.

And even mysterious movement in kitchen fixtures isn’t necessarily a poltergeist.

“It is low humidity — it’s going to cause the wood to shrink and doors and cabinets will start to open by themselves.”

I actually woke up at 5:15 a.m. this morning to find that my living room floor lamp had turned back on. I am more inclined to blame my cat or a faulty lamp than a ghost, though it was interesting. And funnily enough, my first thought wasn’t a ghost, but my utility bill! We’re in a recession! I can’t have my stuff turning back on!