As someone who’s spent many (most) winters in cold houses and makeshift outdoor shelters while homeless, here’s my advice for if you don’t have adequate heating:
• Make soups or even just keep a pot of water boiling, and bake things if you can. I like to make teas in the morning for this purpose. Eating enough food (if you can) helps dramatically increase your core body temp.
• Take a shower BEFORE the coldest parts of the day, or skip the shower til it’s warm enough to. If you absolutely need to, use warm wet washcloth and work in sections of your body so you don’t have to be fully naked and wet all at once. If you can’t be in a warm enough location afterwards— avoid getting your hair wet at all costs especially if you have thick hair. If you’re at higher risk of cold related illnesses like hypothermia and frostbite, such as disabled and chronically ill folks, I would highly recommend avoiding anything that causes you to get wet if you can’t get warm afterwards.
• Make a blanket fort or use a tent indoors to spend your time in and sleep in
• Drink tea/cocoa/hot beverages, avoid ice or cold drinks. Avoid alcohol specifically if you can because it lowers your body temp while making you feel warm, which can be dangerous.
• Cuddle with your pets (even pets that don’t normally cuddle often are cuddly during cold spells as a survival response)
• Wear thermals and layers if youre up and moving, but make sure to pre-warm any clothes you change into by tucking them into the blankets with you for a while.
• If you have someone to cuddle with as close as possible, do it, also wear less clothes, thinner clothes or shorts when under blankets and cuddling, you share way more body heat that way, whereas thermals and layers will only keep your heat to yourself
• If you have cold feet: take off your socks under blankets (and keep socks under blankets before putting back on) and keep a hot pad under blankets near your feet. Thick socks are great for insulation— but if your feet are cold, insulation means it’ll keep that cold in and keep the heat out. You have to add your own heat, and once they’re warm, you can put the socks back on.
• Tin foil, trash bags, and blankets on windows if you don’t have plastic.
• Keep doors closed and use rolled blankets or towels to stop drafts. Try to stay in one room if your whole home is cold, smaller spaces are easier to keep warm.
• If you don’t have a mummy sleeping bag, a hoodie with the strings pulled comfortably tight can be a good substitute especially if paired with another sleeping bag.
• Layer blankets for insulation. Closest to your body, have hot pads and heated blankets, then a reflective blanket to direct heat back towards you, use fluffy blankets and comforters next for insulation, and on top, have something heavy to help seal the heat in and push that heat towards you.
Blanket layers: first, heated blanket/hot pad/hot water bottle/etc, then reflective blankets/emergency blankets (there are reusable ones!)/sleeping bag, then fluffy blankets, then your heaviest/thickest blanket on top (quilt, weighted blanket, tarp, etc). If you don’t have one/multiple of these, just layer what you have following this guide as much as possible.
• I like to have at least one fluffy blanket wrapped near my head/neck to keep as much warm air in the blankets as possible when I move my arms.
• If you’re on a thin bed, an air mattress, or don’t have a bed, put something below you for insulation from the cold ground. Any high quality sleeping bags temperature recommendation is always based on having good insulation below you. Cardboard, yoga mats, foam, blankets, coats, etc. all work.
• Be vigilant for signs of frostbite and hypothermia, especially in children, disabled, elderly and pregnant folks. Remember to follow frostbite and hypothermia guidelines for re-warming and get medical attention for these whenever possible.
• Have an emergency go-bag ready with your medications, chargers, clothes and other essentials in case you need to leave your residence.
• Be sure to not accidentally give yourself CO2 poisoning or cause fires or explosions with whatever heating method you use. Anything with gasoline, propane or other fuel sources are generally not safe for indoor/closed space usage.
• Don’t let yourself get so warm you sweat, you can lose a lot of heat that way and the wetness will make you cold which is hard to recover from.
• When you get out of bed or from blankets, fold the blankets back over where you just laid to retain the heat for when you climb back in. Even if you have to be gone an extended period of time, this keeps the cold out. You can preheat heated blankets for when you get back into bed.
• Lights have a lot of ambient heat, as do appliances, especially larger appliances. Even having your laptop on your lap and using it can help you warm up.
• If you’re able to be up and moving or do light exercise while you have to be out of blankets, thats the best time to do it. Again, be mindful of sweating.
• If you’re homeless and unsheltered and don’t have a camp, sleep in the daytime in the warmest parts of the day, and walk around at night to avoid freezing to death. Savor a hot tea or hot coffee at fast food places if you can afford it.
• Single use hand warmers can be saved if they still have heat by putting them in an airtight ziplock bag. When you want to use them again, you just open the bag to expose them to air. If you can, invest in reusable ones (there’s electric ones and also ones you can boil to reset).
• Laying on your side, particularly in fetal position, helps you to conserve heat, whereas laying on your back can allow more heat to escape
