Preparing for Winter

earwig

scuzz wrote: »

It is cold!!! And wet, and miserable. WHO TURNED SUMMER OFF????:rotfl:

MEEEEEEEEEEEE:j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j

lil_me

Sunny here today

I've sort of had to do one thing, my winter duvet was in a vacuum bag (cleaned at end of winter so didn't grow germs) and it decided this week to let air in, got itself jammed under the bed so I've had to yank it out. Still too warm for it however.

annie123

Am I getting old:eek: , very tight:rolleyes: , or sensible:j last one me thinks!

Just brought some Flannelette sheets £7 Rosebys in croydon(old ones ran out of softness) to warm the bed, not cold enough yet for the duvet under the sheets, sitting here in the living room with pj's on, thick socks, fleece dressing gown on and fleece blanket round me, still waiting for the cup of tea my DH offered me 20 mins ago!
He suggested a winter cuddle to warm up.................. just looked at myself in the mirror, he must need glasses or he's desperate:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

But I will not put the heating on yet!!

pnq06

I know there was a similar thread last year about saving money on gas and electricity but I thought we could start another (with anything MS) as some threads get to long and can be off putting to trawl through and it also gives us newer members a chance to add our ideas

Right then, in time for the winter this year I'm going to-

Buy a heavy door curtain to keep out the draft
Line my curtains
Re-seal the windows
Try NOT to use the storage heaters which cost us £300 for 3 months usage last year :eek:
Buy a new duvet so the old one can be another layer on the bed
Use baby oil when I get out of the shower to lock in warmth
Use vaseline on my hands and feet to lock in warmth
Grow my hair longer for the winter to cover my neck (even if it kills me!)


I have though got a few questions...

Should I hang the door curtain on the door or above it? I have friends that have both methods...
Shall I get proper lining for the curtains or would old towels etc. be more beneficial?

Pink.

Hi pnq,

Hapless started a thread on this earlier this week so I've merged your thread with it to keep all the replies together.

I am totally shameful and not prepared to think about winter at all until the end of September.....I am one of those deluded people who live in hope of an Indian summer!

For anyone who is interested in looking through the tips from last year's threads I've posted some links below:

how many of you have put the heating on

Avoid using GAS and ELECTRIC this winter !

Central Heating

how many of you have put the heating on

Central heating

Pink

Bambywamby

To save on utilitys this year I will be...

Snuggling up on the couch with a duvet,watching TV by candle light with my DP with the heating turned off. Romantic and cheap.

I have black out curtains (they are white though) that block the light out in summer and keep the heat in, in winter. They are up in all the bedrooms.

I have started to make a rather handsome snake draft excluder.

Leave the oven door open when I have finished baking to let the heat into the house.

Turn off all radiators in rooms that are no used.

Have your heating turned down (mine is on 18 degrees in winter) and wrap up well with cardigans and jumpers in the house.

Utilise the radiators when they are on by putting your washing on them or putting a clothes horse near a radiator rather than use the tumble dryer.

Wear socks in bed (if your feet are warm the rest of your body usually follows suit.)

Baking lots of warming, wholesome foods like stews, casseroles, spicy currys and chillis which will aid in keeping the family warm.

During the day, keep moving. The more you move the more natural heat you create and the less artifical heat you will need.

Have a flask of hot tea/coffee with you during the day. It will help keep you warm and you will only need to put the kettle on once.

That's all I can think of at the moment...back soon when I get a brain wave.

X x X

pnq06

Pink-winged wrote: »

Hi pnq,

Hapless started a thread on this earlier this week so I've merged your thread with it to keep all the replies together.

I am totally shameful and not prepared to think about winter at all until the end of September.....I am one of those deluded people who live in hope of an Indian summer!

Pink

Whoopsy- I didn't realise

Think I'm trying to be far more organised than my brain is allowing!!! :rotfl:

lil_me

With the door curtain mine hangs above and covers the entire door and frame.

pnq06

Ok so apart from the ideas I have mentioned can anyone recommend anything else for me or elaborate on the ideas I have?

I live in a 1 bed house which is tiny but I have open plan stairs and my living room is upstairs, the kitchen and bedroom (also upstairs) are over a tunnel where cars get through to the car park and my bathroom is downstairs with a freezing cold hall no matter what time of year so as you can imagine it is a very cold house :eek:

kethry

can i suggest ignoring the hall - you don't spend enough time in the hall, to make it worth while trying to heat that. I would concentrate my efforts on the other rooms - making sure to keep doors shut from the hall to keep heat in those rooms! Putting rugs or spare carpets down in the bedroom/sitting room will help with the cold coming up from below. Your bedroom should be cooler than the living room anyway, but i would put a spare duvet beneath your sheet, to help make the bed warmer, and if you have the kind of bed that has a space beneath it, then i would put things underneath it to try to block the cold coming up from below. You're not very clear as to whether the bedroom is open plan with the living room, but if not, then i would suggest keeping the bedroom door shut as well (your photos seem to suggest that the bedroom leads off the living room). The other thing is to wear slippers and socks, and, where possible, get your feet off the floor, when you're sitting on the sofa, for example, curl your legs sideways, and tuck a blankie around. it all helps.

what would be worth doing is checking the doorframes of all your doors - how tightly do they close? is there a big gap at the bottom of your doors? if so, then your heat will leak out. I remember dad putting a sort of stickybacked foam around doors when i was little, kind of like the stuff used in craft making to make a "raised" area from a card. I don't know if that's still available, but that can help with doors that don't fit tightly to the frame. at the bottom of the door, you can fit something like a long brush - it will make it harder to open the door but the brush thing will help to keep the heat in (you can buy them for letterboxes as well, but if you're putting a curtain over the door then it may not be as much of an issue). i think you can put them around the window frames too if your windows are old/wood/singleglazed/don't fit well. someone else has commented about putting plastic over the windows and running a hairdryer over it to make it shrink to fit.

in the bathroom, you don't say whether you have a shower, but i found when i lived in an old terranced house without central heating years ago (and the bathroom was stuck on the end of an extension - i could go to the loo in the morning and my breath would steam in there!) that just dashing in and running the hot water tap/shower attachment for a few minutes would heat the bathroom up with steam, warm enough to go to the loo, and often i had a shower anyway, so it didn't really cost that much extra. I would also put rugs down in the bathroom, for the winter, at least, and check the door/windows in there.

Finally, someone said last year (a singleton, i think, rather than a family!) that they moved everything they needed into the bedroom - like the TV and computer - and did everything from bed, and so cut down on the heating necessary that way! I wouldn't recommend it if there's two of you (we'd go quickly insane trying that) but its a thought on a very cold day. Although you should, over the winter, try to both air out the flat and turn the heating on sometimes, because otherwise, a mould/damp problem can form.

i think thats it - think in terms of layers, in terms of keeping heat in from the hall, and forget heating that hall. its not necessary!

HTH

keth
xx