Preparing for Winter

Kitchenbunny

I'm heading off to the market tomorrow to pick up some fabric for draught excluders and a couple of small curtains to go over the top of existing blinds. The kitchen and bathroom get really cold! Does anyone have any ideas about how to fasten them over existing fittings without attaching a new pole?

KB xx

muffin_man_7

kitchenbunny it will depend on what kind of blinds you've already got up eg roller , venition ,vertical etc as the answer might be different for each one and also what sort of curtain you wish to hang heavy light weight etc

Kitchenbunny

Thanks for that. I didn't manage to find any fabric I liked anyway so that's a project for another day.

KB xx

fedupandskint

Hi,

I used this thread last year to plan for winter and it really helped me. As a result I have practically everything still around, lots of blankets, thick curtains, bubblewrap is still on the window over the front door, draft excluders on all doors, stuffed plastic shopping bags behind the kick boards in the kitchen which worked at blocking the cold draft out.

After all the snow, I got a snowshovel from fleabay and also collected some grit which is still outside with a shovel.

Only 2 things left to get I think, some batteries for my radio incase of a powercut (had one last year and despite telling myself to get some, never did and it was a long hour and a half!) and a large bottle of antifreeze for the car as in winter there was none around at all so good to stock up now.

My prep for winter box is still upstairs and is ready, medicine cabinet is still well stocked too.

Have started getting some preserving supplies in ready to go in a month or 2

My energy fit pack arrived from Eon today so I think that'll be interesting to monitor how much electric I'm using as it always shoots up in winter time

glad to see the thread is still around and I'll be popping back on for another look to see what everyone else is planning

csarina

We already have some insulation in our loft could do with more, we tried to get a grant for a top up, no joy, The house is rented so no way am I payiing for it.

I bought thermal blackout blinds for the bedroom and boot room windows, waiting for DD to come up from down south to put them up. We really need curtains for the bay, but I cannot afford them. I have thermal lined curtains that draw across the front of the bay and cut it off. I made a curtain for the door from the hall into the boot room, it needs lining but blankets seem to be in short suppply in the charity shops round here, apart from which they are rather expensive. I was in the cancer research shop last week, they wanted £75 for a pair of shoes. We have a multi fuel stove in the sitting room, it is actually too big for the room, it used to fire the heating for the whole house, but when the boiler sprang a leak some years ago, in his wisdom the LL had the boiler disconnected and put in oil fired centreal heating. fine, but the raidiator in the sitting room is not big enough to heat it, the stove when its going full pelt makes the room so hot we have to sit with the doors open. I have asked the LL to put a smaller stove in, but like all farmers he is pleading poverty and 'can't afford it'......I could say more but I won't.

We have just had a load of wood from the estate to fill up the wood store, we can gather what we want from the fallen wood, so always have plenty of kindling, there is also access to broken pallets on the farm which is useful, my son built a new wood store for us using broken pallets. I filled the tank up with 500lt of oil. and we have at least a sack of anthracite in the fuel bunker for when its really cold and we want to keep the fire in all night. I always keep a good store cupboard and the boot room freezer well stocked, we are all electric so if we have a power cut I have a gas lamp, plenty of candles and also a camping gas ring, we keep two spare gas canisters in the wine rack in the store room. I can cook on the top of the sitting room stove, but the pressure cooker comes into its own in a power cut, I can cook a meal in it if I have to, keep the meat hot on the stove whilst I use the steamer to cook the veg.

I started making jam last week, 10 lbs of strawberry, I need to get some more sugar to make marmalade and hopefully plenty of brambles for apple and bramble jam in a few weeks. I love lemon curd, but it does not keep well, so tend to make a couple of jars at a time and use it.`

For laundry during the winter I have an airerI put clothes on it and it stands in the guest room overnight then, I just air the clothes off on the radiator airers I have on all the radiators. sheets tend to be completely dry by morning so they can be ironed, aired and put away. Towels are the real bug bear, they take ages to dry, I try to get them out on the line if I can even if its freezing.

We both have thermal underwear and I suffer from cold feet in the winter I have some thermal socks I wear over a pair of thin cotton socks, they keep mt feet toatie warm, wash them at night and by morning they are dry to put on again......we use hot water bottles in the bed, I put them in about an hour before we go to bed with our night clothes wrapped round them so they are warm to put on. Fleeces are great for keeping you warm, we both have at least 3 fleece jackets and have a fleece throw each we can wrap round our legs.

Last year I bought each of us a ski jacket, wind and waterproof, brilliant for the really cold weather, never go out without hat gloves and boots.......

Around the middle of November I stock up the store room with extra supplies of things like tea, coffee, sugar longlife milk, tinned meat and fish, flour, porridge oats, if we should get cut off by the snow we can manage for at least 2 weeks if not longer........I also put stuff like ready cooked mince, stewed beef, chicken bacon, butter, sausage and emergency bread in the freezer, I bake most of my own bread, but just in case we run out of flour there is bread in the freezer. We always have plenty of vegetables from the allotment in the freezer too.

Gracious this has turned into a screed, think I had better sign off for now.......will be back later.

Cheapskate

Glad this thread's still going; I dipped in & out last year for ideas. I always start my Christmas preparations on Yorkshire Day & this year am combining it with starting to get ready for winter, too. Got my new sewing machine out & will be going to charity shops etc for fabrics to turn into draught excluders, extra layers for kids' windows, etc. Also need to make proper door curtains for 2 external doors, very cold even when it's not windy, & get some rugs for hard floors - like walking on ice in winter!
My brambles are looking good this time, also the ones in the village & elderberries, so plenty of jam making & berry-freezing to do. A couple of years ago I got 20lb just from our garden. Got loads of things to sell at car boots or online auctions, to give us cash to put away for gas/electric bills. Hoping to help out with friends with allotments, in case they offer to share a tiny bit of produce! Growing own spuds again, not many as they're in tubs, but every bit helps I suppose.
Got a dryer but hate using it too much, so clothes on airer in a bedroom until we get sick of it or desperate for something to be dry quick!
Hoping to see lots of ideas I can use, don't know if I've got much to offer though - will keep popping in.
A x

Topher

The beauty of this one is that it opens and shuts with the door.

http://www.betterware.co.uk/productdetails.aspx?pid=038080&cid=144&language=en-GB

I made one of these out of two pieces of pipe insulating tube and one piece of slightly padded plastic. Two straight runs on the sewing machine, job done. Barely cost anything.

mardatha

Ooooo a giant liquorice allsort ! I love it

ginnyknit

Mardatha hunny, you are hallucinating - too much sugar by any chance????:rotfl::rotfl:She says with a bag of midget gems hidden under pc - well I needed a boost and they are only 28p.

I don't know about draught excluders Im making a doorstop cos Dd was in a slamming doors mood today - frustrated by not getting either of the house she wanted, and she wanted to be in asap to make sure the place is warm for winter.

Energy_Saving_Trust_company_representative

gailey wrote: »

do need to use heating less as oujr bills stupid from last winter but did have small baby at time.

already contemplating winter coats for me and daughter as she starts primary in sept.

Anyone in Scotland who wants to pay less on their heating bills and who wants to be organised for winter would do well to call us up about the energy assistance package. Especially if you have young children, which is part of the qualifying criteria for some serious help e.g. new heating systems.

Hope that's helpful