Preparing for Winter V

Laura_Elsewhere

C_J said:

I’ve collected my freshly-cleaned duvet from the laundry, and it’s like a brand new one! Sparkling white, as fluffy and soft as a giant marshmallow (can you tell I’m pleased??)  

Oh that's brilliant!

So much better than buying a new one

prepareathome

My take on preparedness for winter or anytime is always - stuff happens and we can find ourselves without power/water/ability to leave the home etc so should always be ready to hunker down and cope for a month if possible - real total emergencies aside and even then, prepare in case help for them might not be available for a day or so as best we could.  It came in handy when we had the lockdown in March 2020 - ok no medical emergencies thankfully but no worrying about toilet paper or anything else for three weeks or so either. 

 I have been 'preparing at home' for a long, long time (I had a website on this subject for years - staying at home during emergencies not survival by living off the land as most survival sites usually are about plus ran a yahoo group to help others, although until March 2020 most people never believed they could not just go out when they wanted to buy whatever they wanted in this day and age).  So even though our income is now very low we still coped but I know for many new to this it seems impossible to ever have enough to do more than one payday to the next be it wages or benefits.  I have always prepared to be stuck at home with no access to anything outside as best I could, might not be luxurious but we would survive and I never count on anyone outside being able to help be it doctors, shops or vets as I might not have an emergency but they might.  

Starting is by buying one extra item each time you shop or taking advantage of any special offers and putting these away (canned or died goods never fresh or frozen).  Start with food then add household items, like toilet roll etc.  Finding places to store them can be a headache but it's amazing how creative people are (coffee table made from cans as a base, wooden top and cloth over it was done by someone I knew many years ago as her flat was so tiny, visitors never knew her pretty coved table was part of her emergency food supply).  

Then you think of alternate means of cooking, heating, water supplies.  

These can be a big headache if you live in a small modern flat with no fireplace or fireplace has been covered or chimney out of action, plus no garden to cook in or grow your own food.  Again, you have to be creative.  This is one of the reasons the best food to keep in is canned as it can be eaten cold in emergency.  Dried is ok if you know you will always have water and can heat it up. 

leftatthetrafficlights

Fiona236 said:

Si_Clist said:

Fiona236

Nice to see animal supporters here x

Yes, but this thread is supposed to be about preparing for winter ...

Oh I see it's like that is it? Unfriendly. OK, I'll toddle off. 

Preparing for winter includes all of our family members- furry or human! 😉 No need to 'toddle off' - lots of contributers on here have furbabies who they wouldn't dream of not considering in their preps so don't feel the need not to do so on this thread! 

I've just ordered heating oil to see me through the winter- eyewateringly expensive 🙈 over twice the price it was during the lockdown that started in March 2020!! 😲 thankfully I had enough in the budget for it but feel for those who are a worse financial position  😔

Elisheba

That's really I retesting @prepareathome, but don't you get an awful lot of waste with things going out of date? Even if you are keeping on top of swapping thing in the pantry, first aid and medical supplies are thing that do go out of date and if you haven't needed to use them then they are wasted. 

prepareathome

Elisheba said:

That's really, I retesting @prepareathome, but don't you get an awful lot of waste with things going out of date? Even if you are keeping on top of swapping thing in the pantry, first aid and medical supplies are thing that do go out of date and if you haven't needed to use them then they are wasted. 

Now not done it for a few years but always used to pass on unopened near time medical supplies to local kid's groups/foodbanks who passed them on to parents or my own kids for their children. Also places like St Johns ambulance will or used to take unused medical things mainly for practising    I don't mind as those kinds of things parents need and rarely are given so rather them.  The way I have been so clumsy lately I have gone through my dressings rather quickly. 

Food and household stuff I use by strict rota - I only buy in what we use anyway except maybe long-life milk/dried egg/powdered milk but keep an eye on dates and use them up in puddings and replace.  I grew up and was running my own home before use by dates were a thing so trust my gut over things I admit but will always err on side of caution - better to be hungry than ill or die from food poisoning always but things like pulses I put in jars and never date but then use them a lot so they never really get a chance to run out of date - things with best before I usually much more careful with but only if it's something I can cook  so deli meat will never be used after date but on odd occasions we won't eat it dogs get it on last day lol. 

 Flours I always freeze for about a month before I put it in the cupboard and never had a weevil, even if it's ended up staying there for quite a while.  I have thrown other dried goods (not pasta or rice into freezer for 24hrs (usually try with a small amount first) to hopefully kill anything then jar it.  Obviously, I have cut down as only two of us and dogs now but still ry to ensure am covered for emergencies - when lockdown happened, we had to go and get youngest and her boyfriend when universities shut and he stayed with us for three months as no way for him to go home sooner.  None of use starved or do without except treats they liked as when I could get deliveries, they only let you have a few of each item.  Cannot keep many treats in as DH eats them.  

pelirocco

C_J said:

I had been half thinking of buying a new duvet this winter. Some of the pockets in the current goose feather and down one are looking a bit flat now and the filling has bunched up in other places, but it was an expensive one originally so it seems extravagant to just replace it. I'm wondering whether taking to a laundrette in for a service wash and dry might fluff it up again - £20 to clean and refresh it is more frugal than splashing out of a brand new one, after all.

It's a superking size so won't fit in my washing machine at home, and I'd rather pay to have it completely cleaned and dried in a day without having to drape it on the bannisters etc.

Has anyone any advice (or horror stories) about getting duvets washed, before I rush headlong into this? 

Speaking  as someone who washed a down and feather duvet at home, its the drying thats a problem  and needs to be dried as quick as possible 
Slow  drying feathers are nasty 

C_J

@pelirocco Yes, I had heard some horror stories from people who completely wrecked their duvets by not drying them out properly, and the feathers all went mouldy and smelly. The laundry I took my duvet to kept it for 24 hours, and after drying it in the dryer (with lots of shaking out in between each cycle, apparently) they hung it in a hot room overnight to really ensure it was thoroughly dry. It was slightly inconvenient to be without it for one night (we used one from the spare room in the interim, but it was smaller and thinner than ours!) but I am really glad I included this in our winter preps as I am thrilled with the result.

Toonie

I live in east London, definitely warmer in this corner of the country...or more accurately this year, milder for longer as we've not had a lot of sunshine and warmth as evidenced by my grape vine utterly failing this year (last two years had loads of lovely grapes). I have finally dug out a fleece blanket for the leather sofa though, evenings have started getting cooler.

I second being prepared for first aid, due to my job I am a qualified paediatric first aider, and whilst with little'uns it's often just cleaning a wound and popping on a plaster, I've used my skills many times on adults whilst out and about (I tend to carry a small first aid kit). My DP used to be an ambulance technician for St. John, so he also has extensive first aid supplies. Supplies are checked yearly and sorted out. At need, basic supplies like crepe bandages and wound dressings can be used well beyond any "use by" date stamped on their packaging.

Primrose

Garden undergoing winter prep this morning. Hose-reel being stored away in garage and garden tap insulated. Last of the climbing bean poles removed. Old remaining beans will be dried for next year's seeds as seed packets becoming increasingly expensive.  Soon a new trench will be dug on site of next year's bean location and filled with contents of oldest compost heap  and hopefully some of the next and last lawn mowing session of the year will be dumped in there too

My patio container pots, now bare of summer bedding,  get rested over winter but also have lawn mowings and other kitchen peelings  mixed into them to compost down over winter.     I do this every year now.    Everything rots  down completely in these containers with what little sun warmth is available,  it provides nutrition to the soil and saves the expense of having to add fresh compost every year.  It also keep the worms in them very happy over winter!

Laura_Elsewhere

I've been experimenting with growing-on supermarket vegetable-ends instead of chucking them into the foodwaste or compost bins. 

The 8"-all pot has a celery that I grew on in the summer, might try gently tying it up to see if it forms a head, and the jamjar has a younger celery, 3 or 4 weeks grown-on, and some leeks only a couple of weeks grown-on. 

It means even in the depths of winter I can have fresh tasty chopped leaves as a garnish over pasta or soups without having to buy expensive imported herbs in plastic bags!