Bundling up in a thick sweater and dressing in layers are two great ways to keep warm indoors during the month or two when it’s getting chilly outdoors but not quite cold enough to turn on the heat. In fact, many households wait until late November to turn on the heat in an effort to save money on heating and to conserve energy, which is good for the environment.
If you’d like to hold off on the heat until a bit later than usual, try these tips for keeping warm.
- Cover the base of doors leading outside so cold air can’t sneak in underneath. Use draft dodgers—tubes filled with sand, fabric or newspapers. You can make your own or find cute ones at home stores.
- Run ceiling fans, but switch the direction of the spin. To distribute warm air—which rises—around the room, the blades should rotate clockwise.
- Open curtains and blinds on sunny days so warm sun rays can heat up your rooms. Close them at bedtime to keep drafts out of the house.
- If your home isn’t carpeted, scatter throw rugs in the rooms you use most.
- Apply weatherstripping around windows to keep chilly air from getting inside.
- Throw an extra blanket on each bed in the house.
- Gather the family in one room in the evenings to watch TV, read or play games, and run a space heater in that room if needed.