How to keep warm in winter

Photo by Alex Geerts on Unsplash

The word Winter usually fills me with dread. What do you think of when you hear the word? Short days? Gloom? Cold? I think of all of these. I don’t mean to bring the mood down, but I can’t help it. I love Spring and Autumn (no hot sunny days for me please!) and I like to hurry through the Winter months with some crafting and a good book or two.

Photo by Giulia Bertelli on Unsplash

Contact Numbers UK have a vast directory of customer service contact numbers that cover a variety of different industries, such as British Gas. I can’t be alone with my dislike of these cold, dark days, so I was pretty happy when they asked me to share my top tips for keeping warm in winter.

In an ideal world we’d spend Winter with the thermostat turned right up. Sadly, energy providers don’t like giving all that heat away for nothing! So how do you get through Winter without the stress of large gas bills or a broken boiler?

How to keep warm in winter

Heating the home is a bit of nostalgic thing for me. One of my endearing memories of childhood is of my poor father turning out the hallway lights if me and my sister were in our bedrooms, or keeping our radiators at a certain level. Of course we wanted instant heat, so would often turn them up when we were cold – not grasping the fact that they were storage heaters and didn’t work like that.

Photo by Dominik Kuhn on Unsplash

Instead I got used to putting on an extra layer and this is something I say to my own children now. If they complain abut being cold but aren’t wearing fluffy sock or a jumper then they are sent straight upstairs to put them on.

My husband has set our home to be super smart. Everything can be controlled via an iPhone which is super handy when I’m wrapped up in a blanket on the sofa! Smart meters and an active heating systems (such as Hive) are a great way to keep your eye on how you are heating your home. There’s nothing better than turning the heating or hot water to come on so you can pop the kids in the bath after their karate lessons. It also helps save money by only heating your home when you need to, or when it drops below a certain temperature – perfect if everyone is out during the day or if you go away for a weekend or longer.

In Winter our sofas are covered in my favourite Orla Kiely wool blankets and homemade quilts. I don’t think there is anything nicer than cuddling up under a blanket and watching tv with my family. It’s just not the same in the Summer!

We’re lucky to have a modern-ish home. As well as double-glazed windows we also have shutters in our open plan living room. These make a huge difference to keeping the room warm, acting as an extra buffer between the heat and the windows.

My husband is pretty ace. As well as making sure we have a smart home he is also really good at shopping around for the best flexible tariffs, boiler and heating cover. 

I would love to hear if you have any tips on how to keep warm in winter? Do you love Winter or are you happier when the sun comes out and the days are warmer? Let me know in the comments below and look out for #WinterHeatingHelp on Twitter and Facebook to see more top tips.

Disclosure – post in collaboration with Contact Numbers UK