Spinoff: Keeping Warm in Cool Homes - Page 2

[Aubergine68]

Has anyone mentioned spicy food?

I find ginger tea and hot peppers to be very warming, especially.

I've been taking this very spicy homemade tonic to boost my immune system and as a side effect, I'm finding my circulation has improved and I'm a lot warmer.

[gillibean]

My favourite piece of clothing is a knee-length cardigan. It's like having a wearable blanket to wrap up in when I get chilly.

One thing I did when we had a wood stove is that I kept a couple bricks on it during the day. At night I'd wrap them in an old blanket (make sure it's old because it can get scorched) and put them at the foot of our bed. They'd still be warm in the morning. You could probably do the same thing if you were baking something in the oven.

[gentlemango]

Yes oh my lord, showering in a cold house is the worst. Who wants wet hair when your house is 55 degrees? I shower once a week & wash my hair once every two weeks. On the other hand I hear this is healthier for your hair anyway. We keep a space heater in the bathroom and dress in there.

[Noelle C.]

Originally Posted by gentlemango

Basic winter indoor clothing: long johns, wool socks, pants, turtleneck, wool sweater. That's your basics. If you're too hot in that, you're keeping the thermostat too high.

*DING!* Right here. Sometimes a wool skirt instead of pants over the long-johns.

Skirts can keep you warmer than pants. With pants, each leg is protected from the cold air by a thin layer. With long skirts, your legs share heat and there's space for the warm air to circulate rather than go straight through to the outside of the fabric, as happens with pants. The waffle-knit of long-john works by making pockets for the heat to stay trapped in, which is what slacks and jeans don't do.

So wear long-johns and a skirt, and what heat does manage to escape the long-johns will circulate under the skirt.

Skirt = wearable blanket!

If you've got an allergy to wool, as I do, wear a cotton layer against your skin.

[lucyem]

I have a thinsulate vest from LLBean. It is black so it goes with everything. I wear that inside. It is thin so I do not feel too bulky trying to move around.

[myfatherslily]

Thank you so much for all the suggestions!! I think I'll look for some long johns, wool socks, and make sure everybody has comfortable slippers. Getting my boy to just keep his shirt ON would be a great improvement, as well I can't understand how I can still be chilly with two shirts, a sweater, long pants, socks, and slippers, and he still runs around in shorts and no shirt?? He's crazy!!!! lol

I love the knee-length cardigan idea! That sounds sound cozy!

Are wool socks something I might be able to find at a physical store? What types of stores would carry them? Or would it be easier to just order online? Where can I find the best prices?

[amyamanda]

Originally Posted by bluestorm

Thanks for all the wonderful tips. I'm taking note of a bunch of these. I really want to buy us all wool socks and blankets but they are very $$$.

One nice thing about wool socks is you don't have to change them every day. The wool is naturally kind of antibacterial and you don't get stinky feet as fast (unless you get really sweaty in them, but in that case I'd wear a cotton sock inside a wool sock).

So you can get by with two pairs per family member - one on the feet and one in the wash. We literally wash our wool socks about once a week - on cold and drip dry so they'll stay nice longer.

We love the Smartwool brand of socks. On sale you can sometimes find them for around $9/pair (adult) or $6/pair (kid). Yes, it's $$$, but they keep your feet SO toasty warm, I view them as an investment. One benefit to Smartwool is it doesn't shrink as much as some other kinds of wool socks, so you can "oops" and wash them on warm or put them in the dryer and they aren't wrecked.

Or you can get the non-stretchy kind of wool socks (think LLBean Ragg Wool socks, if you're familiar with those) and buy them a little big so you can layer them over a pair of regular socks.

One thing I find is that no matter how warm my socks are, my feet will get cold if I don't wear slippers or shoes on my feet. If I go around in sock feet, they get cold even with three pairs of wool socks layered on them. So slippers are worth it, IMO.

Good luck.

[sunnysandiegan]

I found SmartWool socks in Marshalls, TJ Maxx, etc. for a lot less than other places. We hike and the wool socks are great!

If you have an Ikea nearby, I got down booties/slippers there a couple weeks ago and they are lovely (holiday items near registers).

Get up and DANCE! Vacuuming is good, too, but dancing is way more fun. Alternate for fun and function.

Hot drinks are great, too! We leave on our walk to school every morning at 7:20 am. It is still chilly at that hour, even here in San Diego. I don't shower in the mornings in winter to avoid wet hair on that walk. I shower in the evenings instead, which helps warm me up for the entire night and does really good things for my naturally curly hair. In the morning, DH makes me hot lemon water (neighbors and friends have lemon trees and share with us) and puts it in a stainless steel travel mug and I sip it on the walk to school. (Side benefits are warm hands and a healthier digestion system! ) Between the walking and the hot drink, I am toasty for several hours. By then, the sun is up and warming the air (outside) and the house a bit. If not, then some housework or a walk does the trick. Eating a hot lunch reheats my body until I walk to pick-up DD, which reheats my body again for a couple hours. DD and I will dance in the afternoons for fun and warmth. We also walk places, like the library, friends, park, Girl Scouts, etc. Our weather isn't so cold that we freeze outside. The activity actually warms us up very nicely! Cooking dinner comes next, which warms us up on several fronts for a couple hours. Just in time to shower and go to bed, where I will read or use my laptop or snuggle up with DH....... I like to sleep with the covers over my head and we have down comforters on our beds (purchased off-season on clearance).

Since one spends so much time in bed (roughly one-third of your life), I highly recommend making your bed very cozy, especially in winter...

[myfatherslily]

Originally Posted by sunnysandiegan

I found SmartWool socks in Marshalls, TJ Maxx, etc. for a lot less than other places.

Oooh, awesome, I'll check those two! Really, I think I'll just make sure the kids have slippers.... I can't see spending extra on socks that they probably won't even wear (cause they're crazy, as previously mentioned). But MY feet get really cold!!!!

[AahRee]

Originally Posted by frugalmama

we're in south texas here, and so far haven't turned on the heat yet. It is starting to get a little chilly for us in the mornings - 60's in the house - 40's and 50's outside.

How does everyone deal with taking showers & keeping the house cooler? We tend to get sick if it's cold when we get out of the shower - just a family quirk.

What about a space heater in the bathroom that can be turned on and off just when needed? My grandparents had a mountain cabin (my parents have it now) and when the cabin was first built, it didn't have central heat. There was a fireplace, but that didn't heat the bathroom, so they put in a space heater with a towel bar in the bathroom. You could turn it off before your bath/shower, and get out to a toasty warm bathroom AND heated towel. It was (and still is!) heavenly!

[A&A]

Originally Posted by myfatherslily

Are wool socks something I might be able to find at a physical store? What types of stores would carry them? Or would it be easier to just order online? Where can I find the best prices?

Do you have a Costco membership? We found women's wool socks for 3 pairs/$15. (So, $5 each.) In fact, I should go back and buy more!

Also Sierra Trading Post (online) is a good place to find wool socks for cheap-ish.

[ChristyMarie]

Originally Posted by Sarah W

Someone mentioned waterproof mattresses pads in the other thread. OMG do these things work! We bought one because our dog would have accidents in her sleep. It made the bed so much hotter at night it was shocking!

That was me!

I replaced it with a cotton one yesterday and bumped the heat down 1 degree and slept SO much better. I was way too hot with that thing on.

Another thing that helps (and is really comfy) is a feather bed. Feather bed then down blanket then down comforter = toasty warm. That's the set up on our master and it is awesome.

[kanga1622]

My big thing is socks - either SmartWool (which we found on sale last year on Black Friday at Scheels - seems like we find them most often as sporting goods stores) or at least 3 pair of regular socks. I always have blankets laying around my living room/family room so anytime I sit down I throw a blanket on.

I have a lot of layers on my bed to help retain body heat. I also tend to wear long sleeved thermal shirts under everything that isn't already very warm.

[honeybunmom]

Like others, I'm loving our wool blankets. One for every bed (dh and I; dd; and baby). I participated in a co-op last year sometime because we were moving to our new house where we'd be paying for gas heat. We had radiator heat which was included in our assessment in our condo. Pricey, yes; worth it - absolutely.

I also knit and the baby wore his booties to bed last night! He also has a lambskin in his crib (first purchase with a baby shower gift card) and wool longies and a wool sleep sack as an alternative.

My 4 year old won't keep anything on her except her pj's, but manages to stay asleep through the chill of the night.

My long johns, fleece and fingerless mitts have been my friends, too!

[Owen'nZoe]

For showering in a cold house, I stand with my head under the hot water for a minute at the end of my shower, until I feel a little overheated. That gives me enough time to hop out of the shower, dry off and throw my clothes on before I cool down too much.

For the kiddies at bathtime, usually the warm water heats up the bathroom quite a bit, but if it is still chilly, they could wear clean caps in the bath. My boys do run pretty warm, though, and have never had a problem catching a chill while bathing.