Things that worked or didn't work last winter

short_bird

The cheapo, uncovered, hot water bottles have been fine for me. (possibly acquired from Poundland, I bought some for stocking fillers) Bought some about 3 years ago, possibly 4, and they were leak free last time I checked. Worst thing that happens with these bottles is losing the stopper underneath the washing machine...

bluebag

short_bird wrote: »

The cheapo, uncovered, hot water bottles have been fine for me. (possibly acquired from Poundland, I bought some for stocking fillers) Bought some about 3 years ago, possibly 4, and they were leak free last time I checked. Worst thing that happens with these bottles is losing the stopper underneath the washing machine...

LOL, the stoppers have good company though, with the shrivelled up peas, deceased chips, springless clothes pegs, and those teeny safety pins only The Borrowers could use.

The last time I had a new washer fitted I was embarassed to death, I also found £1.86.

Eenymeeny

You're welcome, Bigsmoke and children's old tee shirts usually fit quite nicely... depending on the size of the child of course!
Liked your post bluebag a washing machine engineer once told me that loads of women took advantage of the machine being pulled out to have a 'quick mop!' So you are not alone..

SpikyHedgehog

Eenymeeny wrote: »

You're welcome, Bigsmoke and children's old tee shirts usually fit quite nicely... depending on the size of the child of course!
Liked your post bluebag a washing machine engineer once told me that loads of women took advantage of the machine being pulled out to have a 'quick mop!' So you are not alone..

When I lived at home, getting in to find the kitchen floor cleared & washed prompted the question 'Is it the washing machine or the dishwasher?' Mine isn't so cluttered or dirty, not having 3 dogs, but yes, I do have the hoover on stand-bye when the appliance is pulled out for repairs

On the subject of hot water bottles, I use the annoying bits of ribbon that stick out of new clothes to tie onto the stoppers so I can tie them to the bottle when not in use (after throwing one away this year cos I'd perished it by storing the stopper in so it didn't get lost).

Barneysmom

SpikyHedgehog wrote: »

When I lived at home, getting in to find the kitchen floor cleared & washed prompted the question 'Is it the washing machine or the dishwasher?' Mine isn't so cluttered or dirty, not having 3 dogs, but yes, I do have the hoover on stand-bye when the appliance is pulled out for repairs

On the subject of hot water bottles, I use the annoying bits of ribbon that stick out of new clothes to tie onto the stoppers so I can tie them to the bottle when not in use (after throwing one away this year cos I'd perished it by storing the stopper in so it didn't get lost).

I love that idea, I'm going to do it too :cool:

SpikyHedgehog

SpikyHedgehog wrote: »

We're going to get some of these for preschool, as we're supposed to have the doors open so the children can go in & out as they please, which I agree is good early education practice, but = COLD :cool: Not too expensive either - for the 2 sets of double doors at preschool, we were looking about £200 for the strips & fixings. when I worked it out for the old building when we only had 1 single door we wanted them at, it would have been about £35 but that was a couple of years ago. For domestic you could go with less heavy duty ones unless you have small children you think will pull at them... We know ours will, so have gone for jolly sturdy ones. Can't find the link right now as it's at work, but if you search 'plastic strips for doorways', it will bring up loads of companies that do them.

I know I'm quoting myself but they really work well - in the end we've only got a set on 1 set of double doors, one of the dads fitted them for us & they whole thing cost us about £75 pounds - remember that's for wide double doors though. They've been stronger than I thought they'd be with the children hiding behind them and playing with them, and actually they worked in the summer too as we could have the air conditioner on in the big sun filled playroom.

Something that worked well for me last year, while I'm thinking about work, was having spare dry warm clothes at work so if I got drenched on the way into work, I could get changed into warm dry clothes.

Seakay

chocolatepennyfarthing wrote: »

Anyone know who does cheap hot water bottles/covers?

It's quite easy to make a very cheap cover from a baby's top available from 50p to £2.00 depending on fabric and area.

I was originally looking for polo necked jumpers, but not finding any I went for tiny hooded tops or jackets with a zip aged around 6 months. Sewed up arm holes, cut off arms and sewed up the bottom edge. Put poppers on the hood so that it covered the neck and top of the bottle. Fleece or fake fur is especially cosy but pretty much anything works.

airgead

We found when we switched to a memory foam mattress, it kept the heat in the bed lovely. You could get up to the loo, or up to make a cuppa to take back to bed in the morning, and the bed would still be toastie when you got back in. This was living in a wooden house with no insulation and no heating in northern Scotland in winter, so it was fairly well tested

You sometimes see the memory foam mattress toppers in LIDl, don't know if htese have the same effect.

Tygermoth

Last spring we answered an ad on freegle for giving away old partially broken pallets and they advised they would drop them off for us. When I got home from work and ‘Pallet Mountain’ had appeared in the garden. It was huge. The pile was higher that the garage roof. I was shocked as I thought they were only dropping off one or two (all I wanted was enough to build two raised beds) I was absolutely flummoxed what we were going to do with them all!


They then called and advised the second load was on the way :rotfl:


So we borrowed a friends table saw, bought two hippo bags and over the course of the weekend broke them down, sawed them in to small chunks, filled both to the top and stored them in the garage. It’s at least three maybe four years worth of kindling (if not more!) for the wood stove/parlour fire and was an absolute boon last winter. Saved us a fortune.


Checked with the sweep this year no issues in the chimney so they are burning well.

Chris25

SpikyHedgehog wrote: »

On the subject of hot water bottles, I use the annoying bits of ribbon that stick out of new clothes to tie onto the stoppers so I can tie them to the bottle when not in use (after throwing one away this year cos I'd perished it by storing the stopper in so it didn't get lost).

that's a good idea :T
we have about 6 hot water bottles, 1 of them has a little chain on the stopper so it doesn't get lost & it also doubles up as a hanger. Some of the others have old tablet-detergent nets looped around the neck with the stopper safely stored in but the others will now have tee-shirt ribbon I don't know why I haven't chopped them off before now as it gets on my nerves, keep wrapping them around my bra straps.