Preparing for winter III

Here is your new updated Preparing For Winter Thread

Winter Checklist

Clothes
Wash all coats, scarves gloves
Wash and mend jumpers and cardigans when you have done this for the time being put them away in the vacuum seal bags to keep them fresh and out of the way of moths until needed.
Repair or buy new socks
Check Wellingtons
Reproof/treat leather or suede gloves, hats and shoes/boots
Send to the cobbler any shoes and boots that need repairing
Polish all shoes and boots
Go back through clothing checking what you need and what you need to replace. Think - what will I wear - what do I need?
Put away all your summer clothes in either those vacuum bags or in a suitcase for the following year.

Car
Buy in screenwash now (either ready mixed or concentrate)
October make sure all fluid levels in cars are correct
Check tyre pressures and tread levels
Clean car inside and out making sure car has good amount of wax which protect it from harsh elements and salt and grit on the roads which will cause rust.
If possible make sure your car has rubber mats to catch wet and snow. Check Pound shops for cheap mats for £1.00 or so each.
Make sure that your mobile phone has enough credit in the event of an emergency on it.
If possible clean out your garage and put your car away each night. This will also help with insurance premiums as well and save you de-icing in the morning.

Food
Stock up on tinned products such as soup, rice pudding, baked beans and spaghetti. These items will keep as good store cupboard standbys.
Check and clean out your freezer, make a list of what you have and what you need to buy in. Keep at least two loaves of bread in the freezer. A clean frost free freezer will work better than a ice capped one!
If anything crops up on BOGOF and it will keep/freeze for winter buy it and store it.
Make a start on your Christmas food shopping list, allot of it can be frozen.
Create a 'stash cupboard' or area where you can put all of your extra buys away safely.
Buy in sacks of potatoes direct from a farmer, it will be cheaper than buying individual bags from the supermarket- protect them from frost in garage or shed - old carpet wrapped around them does a good job.
Sink four pints of milk in the freezer or have UHT milk in on standby.
Make jam and preserves from the garden, sink fresh veg from allotments into the freezer.
Batch make homemade soups and freeze. Good idea to do this now while fresh veg is plentiful and it will save on condensation during the cooking/prep during the winter months.

House and garden
Get your boiler serviced
Chimney swept
Snow Shovel - do you need it?
By in your logs and coal now while cheap deals are on offer. If you can and you have storage buy in your winters stock in one go.
Clean your home
Make sure your windows are not rotting away and repair them.
Make door curtains to keep out draughts
Add fleece linings to curtains for extra insulation
Clean out your guttering and facias
Clear away all fallen leaves
Clean windows inside and out
Launder you winter duvet and change over when the weather turns, now is also a good time to pick up reduced summer duvets for next year!
Launder all your throws
Buy in cheap white candles in case of a power cut. Also keep a torch on standby and use in emergency.
If you have oil CH try to make sure that your tank is stocked up by the end of October
Buy in Flannelette sheets. It may seem old fashioned but the oldies knew a thing or two about keeping warm. If buying from new make sure you wash and dry your sheets to remove the formaldehyde preservative that the manufacturers use to keep them damp and mildew free.
Repair your shed, check the felt lining for splits/tears and wood preserve it. The same goes for all your garden furniture and fences.
Decorating - do it before middle of October so that you can air the room and let the paint dry.
Tidy your shed up to make more room in there.
Put all garden furniture away (either in shed or garage) by the second week of October. If you have no room to store - buy garden furniture covers to protect your investment.
Spring is generally the time to use wood preservative on your fences, but if you can there is no harm in coating them now, it's just that shrubs might get in the way making your job more difficult.
Cut back everything in the garden late October to give your garden a big boost the following Spring. Roses love this!
Wash curtains and cushion covers
Clean Your carpets on a good warm day so that they have a good chance of drying quickly
Buy in or make dehumidifiers from Pound stores or use household salt in a bowl to draw in moisture.
Look around your brickwork on your home does it need repointing anywhere? Check your ridges on the roof top as well for mortar loss and repair. Get it done and this will save you from a bigger job later on. Key areas to look also are where pipes extrude from walls and windows.
Oil all shed and gates locks, it will prevent rust and stop them seizing up when you most need to open them.
Drain any outside taps and protect and cover either with an old towel and then covered over with plastic or buy a proper outside tap cover.
If your interior doormats can be washed in the machine do them.
Re-silicone shower areas where the silicone has turned black or mouldy, take it out and redo it. Easy job but so often overlooked. Having the window open also allows the silicone to cure or go off better.
Wash your vacuum cleaner filters out. It will help with your HEPA filter and keep your home cleaner as well, it will also make your vacuum work and perform better.
Conservatories, clean inside and out, make sure that your seat covers and cushions are washed and that all the frames are clean.
Some people still Autumn clean as well as Spring clean. In the winter we semi hibernate so if you feel a burst of cleaning everything in your home do it, it will be less to do when Spring does roll round.
Put away all garden pots and ornaments if they are not frost proof and protect them.
Cordylines mine suffered in the last winter, but I saved four of them using gardeners fleece from Poundland to protect them I stored them in the shed and it worked. Fleece is still available to buy now.
Take down any hanging baskets and dispose of the contents. Put those away for the following year.
Check lightbulbs and outside security lighting if broken replace or repair.
Buy in batteries now.
Put food out for the birds they will so thank you for it. Buy in their food now while it is plentiful.
Get your paracetamol, throat lozengers and cough mixtures in now, when you are feeling ill the last thing you want to do is traipse down to Boots having to get it in. Mixtures have good dates on them and when you are feeling lousy the well stocked medicine cabinet will be a huge relief!
Finally make sure that the battery in your bathroom scales is new after the Christmas blast :rotfl:

You are literally closing your home down for the winter and that is what and how you need to think, that everything is to be put away, protected and brought in. The more you do this and think ahead the better the chances are that your home, car and your garden will come through winter without you having to spend money replacing or putting right what you failed to do. Sometimes, things do go wrong and you have to replace or repair, but if you have done the basics then you stand a good chance of minimising any damage.

Finally, when that weather does turn in, ask yourself what you would like to do on those evenings, maybe hunt down that book in the charity shop now for reading later on or something else that you want to do, now is the time to get it.

I'm helping DD prepare for winter:) as her, her partner and our newish GD are in a new flat. They have a gas fire in the lounge but storage heaters elsewhere:( Flat is all DG but some of the units have gone. Don't appear to be any drafts though which is good. Landlord won't replace them so I've suggested thermal blinds and fleeces for their curtains as a starting point.

Does anyone know where sells long thermal blinds cheaply. Kitchen window is a 75" drop and other windows are roughly a 70" drop. Looked at Dunelm online but they all seem to be a 64" drop. They need to be cheap as they're also going to be replacing some of the dreadful curtains.

TIA:)

Dee2012 wrote: »

PAH I got some nice cheap fleece blankets from Ikea for £1 each and am going to line my curtains with them also got two extra for over the back of the sofa to wrap round us when it gets cold. They are not bad for £1 each they are 130x170 (51"x67" )they only had them in pale blue. Hope this helps.[/QU

Thanks nearest Ikea is about 20 miles from me, so will have a look round locally to see if can find any reasonable if not I will take a trip along.

Just picked up a sledge in Tesco for £2 reduced from £10.

Pollys x

Hello everyone,
I don't think I have been on here since Christmas time but now I am back and 4 months pregnant (yay!) I was wondering are there any winter preps I need to do specifically baby related as he/she is due 30th November.