With cold temperatures, few leaves left on the trees, and the first hints of snow yesterday, it’s time to start getting my apartment ready for winter.  This time, I’m ready.

My apartment faces north with a balcony overhanging it, which translates to not a lot of warmth from the sun.  Coupled with a big expanse of old inefficient windows and low-efficiency poorly placed heaters (right in front of the windows), it gets pretty cold in the winter.  While I’ve dealt with it easily enough in the past (wool blankets, hats, capes, soup, tea, hot water bottle, and other measures), I’m stepping up the challenge this year to see if I can make the space a bit better this year.  So, the plan for this weekend is winterizing the place.

I’ve already pulled out my supplies from past years.  My hot water bottle is out, although I want to make it a felted wool cover.  I’ve pulled out the blankets, down duvets, hats, scarves, socks, and shearling boots that I wear like slippers, so they’re all ready to go.  The teapot and tea are always at hand anyway, so no big changes there.

This year, I’ve added to the arsenal, though.  I bought shrink film for my windows to add in an extra layer of insulation.  While I hate buying plastic products, this is reusable, which is good, and I think it’s worth it if I get to stay a bit warmer.  I also bought just enough for my windows, so there should be a minimal amount of waste.

I’ve also pulled out curtains and bought some curtain rods and sticky hooks with which to hand them, since drilling into the old walls around here works incredibly badly.  By putting up curtains and keeping them close to the (newly insulated) windows themselves, I’m hoping to keep in even more heat, and out even more cold.  In the bedroom, I’m even going to add in some wool blankets underneath the curtains to further improve the insulation.  Given that the windows in the bedroom see a lot of use, I’m also considering by some reflective insulation to fit in there as well.  If I can get the bedroom a bit warmer, I can close it off from the rest of the apartment to keep it that way.

Up next: get some long underwear to keep a bit wamer, and knit a few more pairs of fingerless gloves for warm hands while typing.  Of course, I’m always open to suggestions, so if anyone has anything to add, I’d love to hear it.

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