Equally as important as buying good quality clothes is making sure that your apartment is ready for the incoming cold. You don’t want to waste heat and you want somewhere cozy to arrive home to in the evenings, so make sure you follow these tips!
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Some are safety-focused, some are just plain convenience, and some I bet you didn’t think of!
Your heat will come on automatically
You’ll probably get home one day and your apartment will be much warmer and you’ll wonder what happened. Most apartments in colder cities will have central heat that is controlled by your landlord or building management.
In some lucky cases, you’ll have a thermostat but in many, you’ll have vents, radiators, and hot-poles that will regulate the temperature somewhat.
DO NOT TOUCH HOT THINGS, THEY ARE HOT.
That one should be pretty self explanatory.
Clear the vents and heated areas
When it starts to get cold (or if you’re extra prepared, BEFORE), be sure to check that you’ve cleared everything away from where the heat comes out, we don’t want to start any fires.
Check your filters
Check any filters that are in place for your heating as well, to ensure that the year of dust and gross hasn’t clogged anything up.
Winterize your apartment
A lot of locations throughout the city will “winterize”, but your landlord should let you know if that’s something you need to worry about (it’s worth getting in touch with them before your first winter to make sure nothing is expected of you).
If it’s a particularly cold night, you could get frozen pipes and frozen pipes = bad news for everyone.
Remove your A/C unit from your window
If you can, this will let you seal up space and you should do that. What you’re really trying to do is make sure that no cold air can get into your place, ruining all that delicious warmth.
If it’s recently rained, be careful because it may have water in it that will then spill all over you and your floor. Similarly, if you’ve already had days sub-zero, it may have become frozen inside so be sure to use some caution.
Opening the window to grab your air-conditioner is a risky business so make sure you know what you’re doing before you drop it on someone’s head who is walking past.
Turn your fans into reverse
I bet some of you didn’t know that one!
When the air blows straight down, that keeps you cool, but if your fan has a reverse switch (which is sometimes found on the fan itself) it can blow clockwise and then take all the warm air that’s pooling uselessly in your ceiling and can blow it down to you!
Check for drafts around the place
If you can work out a way to seal them up, do that. You might have to buy one of those funny sausage logs (apparently they’re actually called “draft snakes” after looking it up, here’s how to make one yourself).
Don’t use anti-freeze
Unless specifically instructed to, or if you really know what you’re doing, avoid it! It’s dangerous to people, animals, and the environment and can lead to many more problems.
Mind your thermostat
If you have the option to change the temperature, try and keep it as cool as you can before you feel cold (put on a sweater, ta-da!).
This will save LOTS of money on your heating bill, and you can then spend that on silly things you don’t need instead.
That’s all about apartments in the winter, but don’t worry, there’s more!
Learn how to buy the most appropriate clothes for the winter months.
You can also find out my tips for getting around outside in the colder weather.
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