We're Cold

I used electric heaters. Electric is much cheaper than gas. They were new and safe. I was a single mom of 2 boys and oil was just way too expensive. It helped to warm up the place and save me money.

When I was little, we used to put thin plastic on the windows to insulate them. You can attach it with double sided tape. I think you could probably pick it up at Lowes. I know most heat escapes through windows and doors, so I hope this helps you!

Go to your power company's website and look for "energy audit." A lot of the power companies do this for free or a nominal cost. They'll find the energy leaks in your home and though you may have to pay for some new attic insulation, say, it'll save you money in the long run.

People think I'm crazy, but I put wide masking tape around all my doors that have breezes coming through them. It is AMAZING how much warmer our house is!

One thing you can add to your routine is leaving the bath water in the tub until it's cold. The warm water actually helps heat the air.

by putting plastic over the windows helps alot..

Hi E.,
I was having the same problem. You might want to go to home depot, lowes, walmart, target or your local hardware store and get some weather stripes for the cracks in your doors and also get a winter weather kit for your windows. They are really easy to use. You might also want to make sure your furnace has a new filter. I hope this is helpful to you. Good luck in staying warm.

IF you qualify the state has a thing where they come and "do a test" on your house and see where it may be leaking air and then they properly seal up the areas. Also or another thing is to buy the plastic you can put over windows to make an extra seal. It makes much more of a difference than you would ever imagine. I have done both. (had someone come out and also have done it myself on windows). I live in a different house than I did then and we keep the (gas) heat set on 73 during the day and 72 or 71 at night otherwise my girls get cold that way too unless they are dressed in sweats (top and bottom) with socks. Another thought (though no one may like it ALOT) is to wear hats. (maybe as a last resort) There are soft comfortable ones if you do. Good luck.
K.

I understand what you are going thru, we are having the same problem. We put blankets down on the floors to absorb any cold air that might be coming in from the floors. We also went to wal-mart and bought the little electric heaters for $30 and run them at night and during the day while someone is home. Try putting house slippers on their feet as well as socks. We have also put towels down by the doors but also hung sheets on the back of the doors to keep any extra drafts out. It has worked very well. Hope this can help you let me know.

E.,

I live in a fairly broken up (meaning A LOT of sm-med sized rooms) three story house that is 85 yrs old. To say the heat is inconsistent is an understatement. Our bedroom, which is next door to the babies' room is pretty warm (light quilt warm), while we need to run a small electric heater in their room to get it over 65deg. The space heaters of today are not your grandparents ones. They have temp controls and auto shut-offs if tipped. They also can heat up a room pretty quickly and are affordable. If you are cutting-off all the "breezes" you can, get one or two for the rooms you use the most, and turn them on when you are there. Just keep it up high enough that the babies are not tempted to play with it or pull on the cords. Some rooms that are additions are sometimes impossible to keep airtight ("enjoy your porch year round" Hah) You might also want to check the heating system, or thermostat, depending on the type of system you have. We found that we dont have enough steam pressure to hit all the radiators, so even though the third floor was getting steamy, one of the other lines on the system wasn't getting hot at all (that would include the girls room). I shudder at the expected bill for that repair, but what ya gonna do? We're cold, too.

Hope you got some ideas. I would love to know how you keep the socks on the kids. Mine think it is imperative to remove all socks, shoes, slippers as soon as possible...even guests. Do you duct tape them to their ankles? Just kidding. Good luck.

S.

Hi E.,

Well, our house gets pretty chilly too and we have a space heater. I know, it's not the safest thing to have in your house but it NEVER runs without supervision. We are ALWAYS here when it's on. The kids know to leave it alone and it heats it up in here pretty good. You could even get up early and turn it on to heat up the house, and then turn it off when they get up. You know, just run it during naps or something like that. My kids are 6, 4, and 7 months.

It works VERY well... gets pretty warm!!

Hope this helps!
K. C

I also have 3 and 1 year olds. We get the same kind of cold. I have to sometimes drag myself into it, because I've already been to the gym, but my boys love to play "tackle." Thanks to Daddy, we have this game: toss a foam football, then run after the one who caught it and tackle them to the floor. Even my one year old (actually 11 months) gets into it by crawling up (he's walking, but not running) and climbing on top of the pile. It's as rough or as tame as you make it... and gets the blood flowing, warming everyone up. It's also fun to watch my 3 year old try to do jumping jacks and toe touches. "Whole jack, half jack, knees, toes, slap-jack, right toe, left toe, wiggle your torso!" The moves to go along with it really get you going, and giggling, too. Anyone remember that? Or am I the only old one here? ;)

if you have a crawl space under your house you might want to look into seeing if its insulated underneath and also seal up the crawl space openings to keep the cold air from flowing through. (but open them in the summer as you need air flow to prevent mold and humidity.) I notice when its below 40 its really chilly floor level. Also you can put plastic over your windows or add shades/blinds w/ your curtains. during the sunny part of the day open them up to warm the house. you could run a space heater to help take the chill off.
also you can buy a cheap digital thermostat to sit next to your house thermostat to see if its accurate. it might need calibrated. it could be saying its 70 and its only 66 or 68. ive found that even 2-4degrees makes a huge difference.
hope some of this helps.
ps i was told from an a/c guy that closing vents to rooms unused does NOT "help". its good to keep surrounding rooms warm as it helps the central area keep warm. and also you are only closing the vent to the room, but the air is still flowin thru the duct to that vent. it does NOT get re-directed. hope that makes sense.

We've found that if we close the vents in teh rooms we don't use helped, also we bought a heater, it was a bit on the pricy side (around $80-90 I think was few years ago) but that thing heats up the room to the point of sweating. It does use a lot of electricity and you have to be careful having too many appliances going at once with it but it works. We actually survived a night with no heat when our heater broke in 10degree weather last year and it kept our whole upstairs (its a townhouse) warm. good luck.

I have also put packaging around a door that was letting in quite a breeze....it does help! It was our backdoor, so it didn't need to be used that much in winter. I have also used my sewing machine with scrap fabric, and made long tubes, filled them with rice or dried beans to put in front of doors and windows to keep cold out. Hope something helps!
K.

wool wool wool! I always dress my little ones in a bottom layer of merino wool http://www.novanatural.com/s.nl/sc.2/category.55/.f

They are worth their price. You can dress them in the same pair each day and wash every other week or less or when they are soiled. They are lovely and keep my little ones very warm!

E.,
I understand. We have the same problem in our apartment. Get an inexpensive thick blanket and use a staple gun to attach it around the windows. This helps keep the drafts out and you can get some really cute one. The kids have a Spongebob Squarepants one on their window.

i had to get a fireplace installed last winter around january because we were down with colds constantly. now the gas stove runs all day and i keep it at 80, kitchen and living room is very warm but girls still wear socks and slippers, long underwear, turtlenecks and sweaters. in the evening around 8 pm i turn off the gas stove and let the house heater at 73. girls have duvet comforters, quilts they get covered with and i check on them twice during the night to make sure they're not uncovered. i dress them in onesies and fleece one piece footed jammies.
i see a difference this year compared to last year. we haven't been sick so often. at least so far knock on wood

We're cold too. We have an OLD heat pump and poor insulation. Luckily we got new windows! We are shutting off rooms and shutting some vents in unused rooms, investing in lined curtains and more insulation later. Also with our heat pump if wet set it really high (like 75) it will keep up a little better because our auxillary heat kicks on. On nights when it dips below 32 we do these things, put the baby in double pajamas and use space heaters during the day. Last night we set it at 75 and woke up to 64. Not too bad.

E.,

Brrrrr. Yes, it has been cold. We use Window Insulation Kits to add warmth to our home. You can purchase them at Home Depot, Lowe's, even WalMart. They are really easy to install. You just use the double sided tape in the box around your window frame, apply the plastic over the window, use your hairdryer to smooth out the plastic and it makes the plastic really tight over the window, which keeps out that cool breeze. Good Luck!
~E.

This is something my mom did growing up every fall. She'd buy these big plastic sheets that you can get at Walmart in the home department and there's doublesided tape and you seal the window and blow dry the plastic tight. We had a couple of very chilly bedrooms where our children slept and tried this last year. It seemed to make an amazing difference. I took them down in the spring but forgot this year and it is so different cold. I think the extra layer of something between the glass and our house helps the heat to stay in and the cold to not transfer as well.