Preparing for winter II

Alwaysthebusybee

Thank You Rainy-Days for the heads up … will try and do most of my prep before November then at least I am prepared.

So far I have done:

• New blinds fitted that slide down back of radiators - will test to make sure no weird smells make an appearance when on.
• Got out and washed winter clothing
• Purchased rugs for laminated areas
• Started stockpiling - Toilet Rolls, Shampoos, Body Wash, Tea Bags, Coffee, Tins etc etc
• Extra stock of cat litter
• cleared 2 storage cupboards for space
• bagged up summer clothes
• Bought thermals and some snuggly boots that can't face rain or snow
• Washed extra quilts for sofas and second layer for beds

I still need to do;

• Stock up on pet food
• Buy in some additional detergent, washing up liquid (going to use this for bubble bath too) and other cleaning products
• Car Box
• Snow Shovel
• Winter coats for me and dh
• PJ's, Dressing Gowns and Slippers
• Hot water bottle for me - dh starting nights soon so will need additional heat
• Wide neck flask for dh to take some hot food
• Yaktrax or something similar (can anyone recommend?)
• Make some additional freezer meals or stock up on meat
• Grit for paths
• Autumn spring clean - Basically a good clean throughout
• Sort through my storecupboard, use and restock

I think that is about it for now

nikki2804

Evening. Ordered the heated airer from Lakeland. Found a £5 discount code so it came to £75. Pricey but im hoping its a good investment.

Reordered my jacket from Very. Will need to pack up my other one to return it. Also returning stuff to Next tomorrow so will hopefully get some new pjs and jeans for the LO.

Debating a heated throw ...

Becky_2

[QUOTE=nikki2804;46556635_Does_anyone_have_the_Lakeland_heated_airer?_http://www.lakeland.co.uk/21736/Dry-Soon-Heated-Tower-Dryer

If so, is it any good? I ended up with mountains of washing last year due to the weather.[/QUOTE]

Nikki2804,

I bought this heated dryer last year and it was brilliant to use. Washing dryed over night. If you put a duvet cover over the dryer your washing dry even quicker. I haven't got a tumble dryer so for me this is a brilliant product and it warms up the room as well.

CH27

Son starts college on monday so I made a list of what I was going to do every day next week & OH just told me he is working from home wednesday & friday:wall:

rosieben

kirsty822001 wrote: »

aww sorry didnt mean to make u sad. Come and join us!! dd 11 dosent stop for breath though so dont hear much of the film! hugs

Thanks I'd love to join you! dd and dgd are in Oz which is such a long way away ... we used to have to rewind to catch the bits of film we missed when dgd sang and danced along (we love the old musicals!) she knew the words to all the white christmas songs and loved to dance with fred astaire

sorry back on topic dsis bought me a slanket a couple of weeks ago and I just couldn't get on with it at all so I've donated it back to bil; I just found I had a gap at the back of my neck instead of at the front so I'll stick with my warm cardies and - if its really cold - a scarf around my neck. Thinking about knitting some fingerless gloves for when I'm at the puter At the moment my dd's are just about covering my gas and leccie but with the price rises I'll have to be a bit more careful this winter.

annie123

Confuzzled wrote: »

before i start putting together my new homemade thermal curtains i have a question...

this year i am going to put a layer of wool blanket, possibly some bubble wrap and i thought i'd ad space blanket. my question is, having never used space blanket before where layerwise do i put it and which side faces inside the house

do i put it first (closest to inside) then bubble wrap then blanket (closest to window) or what? or which way do i use it if i don't use the bubble wrap?

i'm going to seriously cheat, i'm going to pin everything together including the header tape with safety pins :rotfl:it'll all be up at the top so no one will see the tiny glints of silver poking through here and there, how lazy/clever is that

now i just need to figure out the order of things, i have a big 50m roll of 600MM small bubblewrap coming, got the space blankets,just got a gazillion safety pins in various sizes, have the blanket and duvet covers/sheets for the fabric so i'm nearly ready to go

my head is full of a touch of cold so i'm thinking a bit slower. weird feeling i haven't had a cold in 2 years! oh well better to get a wee one now and up my immunity before cold season hits in earnest i suppose.

One of the links I posted here http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=44829454&postcount=4067 has a diagram of the order they should go in. When I added space blanket (doesn't matter which way) I put it as the last thing before the lining as it acts as a vapour barrier. As warm air goes through towards the window it cools a little and the space blanket should stop any water vapour.
It did on mine, no more condensation in the mornings so I'm adding it too the other windows.

smileyt wrote: »

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/4433996/Trail/searchtext%3EWARMERS.htm

Might get my mum one of these for Christmas! She always has cold feet! I reckon one of these to go with the slanket I gave her last year would do the trick!


ETA a quick search of ebay reveals foot warmer slippers that are powered from the USB port of your computer!

I've got one of those, well not that model but the same thing. DS bought it for me a few years ago.
It's OK but it's slow to warm up and my feet felt warmer quicker in primark fleece socks and slippers but once it got going it was nice though but I wouldn't have one again if it stopped working.

tugrin

Have absolutely decided to send the useless Trevor Bayliss eco-lantern back - spent 2 minutes winding and got less than 2 minutes light for my pains (and winding strenuously was indeed a pain).
Can anyone recommend a RELIABLE wind up lantern (not a torch) or are they a good idea on paper but all rubbish in reality? Would I be better off with mains rechargeable torch or (scary) a primus or one of those tilley lamps for emergency lights? I have got candles but I really got caught out the last 2 winters - we get long and frequent powercuts (not to mention the same with the water - have got bottled water in already!)

annie123

Turgin, my son gave up on wind up lanterns, he's had cheap and expensive ones and has never achieved quoted figures.
He uses a battery lamp from £land, it takes 4 AA batteries but it has lasted him 4 days camping a V festival a couple of weeks ago and the light from the £land batteries is still strong.
Just a thought.

tugrin

Oh Annie that is depressing news - I thought there would be one - Im a dreadful optimist about stuff like that. Interesting about the cheapo torch tho' - I have an ordinary one from Millets which is quite good now but I think I need a more powerful one for taking the 3 dogs down to my detached garden. I guess it will have to be a mains rechargeable one for dependability. Anyway I'll stop chasing thar particular rainbow ad save my energy for more realistic winter prepping tomorrow.

D&DD

Tugrin I find a head torch is more useful as its hands free

The best windup lantern I got was a tiny one about 5 inches high on sale from Millets for DS3 in army green.It throws out way more light than any of my other ones!