Winter hacks
I don’t know if any of these actually count as hacks, but here’s some tricks for handling unusually cold weather (with a focus on doing it while broke-as-fuck because that’s where most of my experience comes from)
1) Layers. Dress in layers. Wear a shirt under your sweater or sweatshirt. If you’re going to be outside, wearing leggings, tight jogging pants, or thermal underwear (oh shut up, it’s cheap and it works) under your jeans or work slacks can make a HUGE difference. This also works when you’re at home and helps you keep the thermostat a little lower so you don’t break the bank on heating bills. At night it helps to have multiple layers - a sheet, a light blanket and a comforter. I sound like your grandmother - “Dress in layers, sweetie!” but it’s true and it’ll make you a lot more comfortable. Wear socks to sleep, it’ll make getting out of bed in the morning less painful if nothing else.
2) Bring a coat. Even if you don’t need it, bring it. If the weather changes and it starts to rain/snow or if the temperature drops faster than you expected you’ll be glad you had it.
3) If you’re walking anywhere, wear warm, practical shoes. Sneakers or boots don’t look good with your skirt or dress pants, but they will keep your feet much warmer than kitten heels or ballet flats. Dudes, this goes for you too - those patent dress shoes aren’t as warm as boots or sneakers and will do you exactly zero good on the ice. Put your nicer shoes in a bag and change your shoes when you get to work/school/your social gathering of choice.
4) Stock your car. Keep the following in it:
- gloves and a hat (get cheap ones from Walmart or a drug store or Goodwill and leave them there, carry your good ones with you)
- a clean, dry pair of socks and, if you can, a dry pair of practical shoes for when your feet inevitably get wet with slush and rain and melting snow.
- Pocket warmers.
- A blanket - you can get fleece throws for $10 or you can go to Goodwill and get a blanket of your choosing.
- An ice scraper (you can get them for as little as $2 at drug stores, Walmart, grocery stores, hardware stores and auto shops or even the dollar store. You don’t NEED a fancy one, but it’s nice to have one with a scraper and a brush. Don’t use your credit card, you may wreck it and it’s so small your hands will get covered in snow. If you can’t afford a scraper, you can use a wooden or hard plastic spatula without damaging your window.
- Buy some extra cheap car mats and use them for traction if your tires get stuck in the snow. Otherwise keep a small bag of sand, dirt or even unused cat litter.
- Food - some thing easy and small like a granola bar, nuts, individual servings of peanut butter or chocolate. We’re not looking for a healthy snack, we’re looking for something for your body to burn if your car breaks down in freezing weather. Just existing in cold weather burns more calories, having something calorie-dense and high-carb around can help if you’re stuck somewhere for a while in the cold weather.
5) Stop the drafts. Do you have old windows? Does your front door leak air like a sieve? The windows are an easy fix. Go to Walmart or most hardware stores. They have little kits you can buy - usually for less than ten dollars - that contain plastic sheeting, double-sided tape and adhesive foam. Use this to block the drafts coming through your windows. (You can also buy these items separately if you have more than one or two windows to cover up.) Use an alcohol wipe to clean the wall around your window, then once it has dried, apply the double-sided tape. Stick the plastic sheeting to the double sided tape. Make sure the plastic is as flat and smooth as possible with no sagging or bulges - if the wind gets bad enough it’ll make that loose plastic shake and the noise will drive you crazy.
For your front door, obviously, sealing yourself inside with plastic isn’t an option. If nothing else, I can guarantee your boss isn’t going to consider it a valid excuse for calling out of work for the next six to ten weeks. Instead you can buy some of the adhesive foam I mentioned earlier and line the top, side and bottom of your door with it. That way when you close the door, the foam will help stop the gaps around the edges. If this isn’t enough, or if your gaps are more than a half-inch or so, you can always hang a small curtain rod over your door and put up a thick curtain or blanket. This may feel a little tacky, but if you hang it nicely it just looks like a curtain from the inside and isn’t visible from the outside unless your door is open. You can also do what we do at my house, which is to get an old blanket or big bath towel and bunch it up along the bottom of the door. This makes my front hall floors much more bearable.
For indoor doors, if the gap is too big for the adhesive - I hate to say this - you can slice open a pool noodle and fit it over the bottom of the door to block drafts, or hang more curtains/blankets.
CLOSE THE FLUE. If you have a fireplace and aren’t using it at the moment, always close the flue. It will suck the warm air right out of your house.
6) If you have a high ceiling, turn your ceiling fan onto the lowest setting to push some of the warm air back down.
7) If you know snow or freezing rain is coming, lift up your windshield wipers so they don’t freeze to your windshield.
8) Get antifreeze windshield wiper fluid. It’s only a couple of dollars more and it’s incredibly useful to have.
9) If you have rooms that aren’t being used (like guest rooms), close the vents in those rooms and then close the doors. Put some blankets against the doors to stop heat from going in there. (Or the pool noodles)
10) Park in the sun, if you can.
11) Have jumper cables. Very low temperatures can drain your battery. If it’s going to be super cold out, don’t let your car sit unused for several days. Make sure you start it and drive around for at least fifteen or twenty minutes.
12) If you don’t have a snow shovel, a broom may do in a pinch, especially if it’s powdery snow. Also, when you’ve shoveled your porch or sidewalk, you can scatter cat litter if you can’t afford de-icer or sand.
13) Never, never, ever try to de-ice your windshield by pouring hot water over it. Never. Never.
14) Don’t use boiling water on your car doors if your handles or keyhole freeze. It may splash up and hit your window. You’re better off spraying a little WD40 in your keyhole before the weather gets too bad. If you can’t do this, use rubbing alcohol or hand sanitizer to melt the ice over the handle/keyhole.
15) Got a boot tray? Get one. Line it with rocks or gravel. When you put your wet shoes in there, the snow will drip through the rocks and your shoes won’t be sitting in water constantly. This is especially good if there are multiple people in your house.
16) If your shoes are wet and you need them dry in a hurry, stuff them with newspaper or microfiber towels. They’ll absorb the water and your shoes will dry much faster. Make sure you remove the paper or the towels once they’re thoroughly wet, don’t just let them sit in there. You may need to change them out a couple of times.
17) Wash your car - most de-icing agents are corrosive and will damage your car if you let it build up. Hit a car wash at least once a week or so if you’re having consistently bad weather. If you can’t afford a trip to the car wash, get a hose, or a sprinkler and thoroughly rinse off the top, sides, tires and underside of your car. Please try to wait until the temperature is above freezing.
18) Check your tires. Make sure they have enough air (your car manual will tell you how much and if you aren’t sure what to do, ask, google or give in and take it to a garage. A lot of them will help you with air without charging you, but not all of them). Check the tread! Take a penny, with Lincoln’s head facing down. Put it into the space between the treads (the gap). If you can see Lincoln’s head you need to look for new tires, especially in bad weather.
19) If you know you don’t have time to scrape your windshield in the morning, or if you’re just realllllly bad at budgeting that extra time (me!) you can try covering your car with a tarp, or just covering your windshield and rearview window with towels to keep the snow off. This will NOT help you with freezing rain, just FYI.
20) A mix of white vinegar and water (NOT HOT) misted onto your windshield will help prevent it from freezing.
21) Hot water bottles are SO NICE. They’ll get your bed toasty warm and you don’t have to worry about falling asleep with them on like electric blankets or heating pads.
22) Moisturize. Don’t bathe with very hot water, it dries you out. You can boil some water on your stove to get some moisture in the air, or buy a small humidifier on Amazon or Walmart for about $25-$35.
23) Chapstick. Seriously.
24) If your hair freezes, don’t touch it anymore than you have to. Get somewhere warm and let it thaw. It’s really easier to break or otherwise damage frozen hair.
25) Use coconut oil or something similar to moisturize your hair and scalp in cold dry weather.
26) If your front door freezes shut and you’re trapped in your house, toss your youngest sibling out the window and let them chisel you out. (Make sure there’s enough snow to cushion their fall!)