Cold still hurts

[rosefaeries]

I so hate the cold. I have neighbors who count down the days until the local ski resort opens. They can't understand why I dislike winter so much. I would enjoy the snow if it wasn't so cold. Cold hurts. Cold hurts a lot.

So far this week, I have knitted 2 sets of simple fingerless gloves (basic tubes with a hole for the thumb.) They seem to help a great deal. (My youngest son loves the first pair. I keep having to retrieve the from him. lol) I have been using acrylic yarn for them because where I am temporarily working at wool yarn would get destroyed. Next week though I can wear some made from my hand spun yarn. For one month I get to work in a warm place.

So my question is, do any of you have any other suggestions for keeping warm and thus be in less pain?

I already dress in layers. Though that is problematic. If I am having a flareup, having too much weight on compounds the problem. I am using an electric mattress pad on my bed. (Love that thing! I have no idea of how I got along without one.)

Once I get relocated, I am planning on having a place with a bathtub. At the moment, I only have a shower.

If I could convince the landlord that he really should insulate the house it would help. And there are even programs that he could do it through where he would get massive tax credits. Sigh, but no he won't. And he wonders why he is having such a hard time renting the other two units here. Though to be fair, there are insulated windows installed here. Just wish the floor and ceilings were insulated.

At the moment, I have blankets hanging over windows to block the cold air. Some of the doorways have blankets over them also. (Like the laundry room and the doorway to my son's bedroom.) I am planning on ordering some shower tension rods soon. That way, I can get the doorways properly covered. At the moment, the blankets are up with lots of push pins.

So you have some idea of what I have been doing so far. Any other suggestions?

[WenchLadyKate]

You might want to try an electric towel warmer. I know when I get to spec out my own house, one of those can't live without it items will be the electric towel heater. They do sell them free standing and they're great. Turn it on when you get into the shower and put your towels on and by the time you get out, toasty towels.

My bathroom is right next to my kitchen door. Yea, it's a stupid floor plan there. But it gets freezing, especially this time of year when the wind whips up. Anyways, The towel rack helps a great deal, and the bigger fluffier towels stay warm a little longer for that half-naked dash to the bedroom.

On really cold mornings, I put my clothes on the towel heater too, I'll tell ya, there's nothing better than toasty pants. :-)

I'll admit though, I way prefer the cold to the hot. I rarely have a problem with the cold, and always bitch and moan about the heat. Even when it's too hot in the house in January.

[Phoenix McHeit]

I hate the cold, too.

One of the things I do is wear a hat - even inside. Most of your body heat dissipates thru the top of your head, and that will help. I go nowhere in the house without my toasty slippers, and I wear them with socks, too.

Do you have more than one door to the outside? If you can get thru without using one or more, cover them with plastic sheeting that you can find at a hardware store. Its usually meant for windows, but it'll work on drafty doors, too. Its the stuff that you take a hair dryer to & shrink it to seal. Do that to your windows as well - even though they're insulated, it'll still help.

Bare walls - in a poorly insulated house - are horrible. Try hanging blankets along them as well. Especially if they're outside walls. Nice tapestries do the trick too. Anything to keep that cold from leaching into the room will help.

If the side of your bed is against a wall, and you have the space to rearrange the layout, do it. Have it with the headboard against the wall, bed sticking straight out into the room. That'll help the heat flow better around the room. If you can't do that, put a body pillow or something against the wall to keep your body away from it.

Something else that helps me (I have poor circulation in my extremities) is to run hot water over my hands. I usually just do dishes by hand when that need strikes, because I can soak for awhile without running up the water bill.

Have a pot of water boiling on the stove. The steam will warm up your house, plus put moisture back into your body, which will help too. I usually have a pot of soup or something simmering all winter long. Even if it's not for food, put a drop or two of vanilla extract into water & get it boiling.

When you make your bed in the morning, take off the blanket & lay it over wherever your heat comes from, if you can do it safely without fire risk. My heat is from the floor, and the registers are too hot to touch. So I have a sturdy coat hanger that I drape my blanket over. When the blanket is on it, it's about 4 inches above the register. The blanket soaks up the heat as its blowing & I have toasty bed when I crawl in at night.

Get some lightweight thermal underwear. Damart makes a delicious set that is uber light, but insulates so amazingly well! They're lifetime guaranteed, and they do mean LIFEtime. They're so pretty too - not your Grandma's long johns! http://www.damartusa.com/portal/page?_pageid=53,373191,53_373218&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

Hope these help you, hun!

[Jamianne]

Silk thermals. I worked outside in the winter and they're great! They're warm, but very thin and light. They're thin enough that I was even able to pull a pair of regular cotton thermals on over them on really bad days.

Can you have a space heater? It may help keep things a little warmer.

Do you have carpeting or bare floors? Even an area rug will help keep you from losing heat through the floor - and you won't have to walk on a cold floor.

That's all I can think of that everyone else hasn't already suggested.

[rosefaeries]

I have some disaster blankets I am planning on putting on my son's bedroom walls. Since the bunk bed takes up so much room, I figured it wouldn't make any difference there. I will be keeping an eye out for some tapestries or pretty blankets for my bedroom and the living room.

I am hoping to soon have the funds to get a few seats of lightweight thermals. Either the silk or the Damart's.

lol I was wearing my velor muffin cap at work today. I was getting the strangest looks from some of the guys. They also couldn't believe that I was cold. That is until I got one of them to feel my cold fingers. *rotfl**rotfl*I was told that the freezer was warmer than my hands. And this was with my wearing my fingerless gloves.

The carpets in my house have very little padding under them. I am in the process of getting more area rugs to put on top of the carpets. I already have one in the living room. I got a very fushia pink carpet with the thicker padding last winter off of freecycle. It has made a very big difference in how warm the living room is. In my son's room if I can't get additional padding to put under the "new" rug I will be using some painter's plastic sheeting. That will help to block out the cold and more importantly the damp. I have an area rug already down in the dining area and additional rugs scattered in the kitchen. (crocheted wool rugs I made about 2 years ago. They have been a life saver.)

I was actually warm for awhile driving home in my car. Too bed it didn't last. Shortly after getting home, I was cold again and feeling sick from it. I think I may call it an early night and crawl into bed once the mattress pad has warmed it up.

I get to buy a new coffee maker tomorrow. My current one seems to have died today. Sigh. We drink a lot of tea in this house: one of the things that helps me to deal with the cold.

[Isabelle Fawkes]

If I could convince the landlord that he really should insulate the house it would help. And there are even programs that he could do it through where he would get massive tax credits. Sigh, but no he won't. And he wonders why he is having such a hard time renting the other two units here. Though to be fair, there are insulated windows installed here. Just wish the floor and ceilings were insulated.



Would it be possible to convince the landlord to reimburse you for insulating the house? Say he takes X amount off the rent per month and you provide insulation for your unit? He gets the tax credit and you get to keep warm!?!

Just a thought.

[Lis Elfwench]

Hot water bottles. In your bed at night, at your feet, and also just one to carry around during the day with you. Nothing keeps you as cozy, especially if you also wrap in a blanket!

[KissMeKate]

I agree with Phoenix about the plastic sheeting and the blankets on the walls. I lived one winter in a second floor enclosed balcony space. So only one wall was connected to the house, and that was the main stairwell. I put plastic sheeting from floor to ceiling on the outside walls (I used tape and staples) and blankets over much of them (I left 2 windows exposed for light). I had to get one of the large oil-filled plug-in heaters to keep the place tolerable, but the plastic sheeting also helps keep the heat in. Fluffy rugs or carpet remnants are relatively cheap and you can layer them on the floor.

My favorite accessory in the winter is a large fabric bag filled with whole dried corn (I get it from the farm supply store). I pop it in the microwave for a few minutes, then put it on my lap or toss it under the covers if it's almost bedtime. It stays warm for hours! I like it better than hot water as it doesn't leak and the fabric is more comfortable against your skin or clothes.

[rosefaeries]

Would it be possible to convince the landlord to reimburse you for insulating the house? Say he takes X amount off the rent per month and you provide insulation for your unit? He gets the tax credit and you get to keep warm!?!

Just a thought.

This is the same owner that wouldn't take care of the employee that wrecked my loom. I have no faith in the owner what so ever. The same "man" has been verbally abusive towards me on several occasions. The owner tells me to take care of it in an adult manner. (Gee, I thought letting him know that his employee was behaving that way instead of doing something far more satisfying was behaving in an adult manner.) But it wasn't a bad idea. Just not feasible with this particular owner.