Good Question: How Do You Get Ready for Winter?

It's that time of year again: Although it's still relatively warm here in California, we know that other parts of the country are starting to cool off significantly. That means that it's time to get your home (and life) ready for winter. Do it well and you'll seriously help your pocketbook and the environment.

Rachel installed a storm door over the weekend ... What are you doing?

Winterizing your home can be as simple as pulling blankets out of storage and buying a draft guard or as huge as installing new insulation.

Treehugger has a nice post up today on the subject -- 12 Ways to Green Your Home for Winter. From the post: "In an old, pre-1945 house, the air leaks can add up to the equivalent of a hole in your wall 21 inches in diameter!"

So what are you doing or planning to do to get ready for winter?

image via clarity; Flickr.com

Comments (4)

We live in an old house, only half of our windows have been double glazed and sealed properly so I've put heavy curtains on all the other windows that could let cold air in (and warm air out.)

I'm also knitting a scarf and wear wooly slippers to keep warm inside, so we don't have to use the central heating as much.

posted by TheKidsAreAlight on October 7th 2008 at 7:20am
view TheKidsAreAlight's profile

It's funny that the 2nd on a list of preparing your house for winter tips is to increase the temp on your AC.

I usually install that plastic wrap stuff over the windows. The easiest, cheapest way to keep my apartment warmer.

posted by amt230 on October 7th 2008 at 7:27am
view amt230's profile

I think #2 is pretty funny too, but then again I live in Canada and it could start snowing this week (sigh) needless to say I dont have an AC

I'm trying to figure out how to air dry the clothes in the laundry room (without causing too much clutter/humidity) since its too cold to do it outside now.

By biggest problem is I rent, so half the recommendations on this list are not an option for me. I really hate the plastic wrap window stuff, I've been looking into an energy saving window film, has anyone used anything similar, and does it work?
http://www.homedepot.ca/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CatalogSearchResultView?D=936268&Ntt=936268&catalogId=10051&langId=-15&storeId=10051&Dx=mode matchallpartial&Ntx=mode matchall&recN=0&N=0&Ntk=P_PartNumber

posted by Hollie on October 7th 2008 at 9:34am
view Hollie's profile

My house is in pretty good shape already. But since I'm in California and winter means rain, I'm having a new shelter built for the outdoor cats.

posted by Jeri Dansky on October 7th 2008 at 3:30pm
view Jeri Dansky's profile