Prioritize HEAT, then WATER, then FOOD.
Put your phone on airplane mode. Turn the screen down to its dimmest setting. Save it in case of emergencies, to contact family, to (1-3x per day) check progress on getting power back.
Hoard your batteries. If you have flashlights, only use 1-2 at a time.
Mittens are better than gloves at keeping your fingers warm.
COVER or TAKE OUT your piercings. Metal conducts heat and cold way faster than skin, and can give you frostbite at the site of your peircings if you don’t keep them covered.
Stay in the smallest room in your house, with as many ppl as can comfortably fit. Hang out in the bathroom or closet if you have to.
Tape a tarp, or a plastic sheet over your windows if you feel cold coming off of them.
If doors are drafty, Assign 1 door to be used, and tape over the creases of the others. Pad the bottoms of doors with towels to stop heat escaping.
Set all the taps to “dripping” and put pots or large bowls to catch the fresh water to drink later. Pipes can freeze and burst as the ice expands and you DO NOT want a flooded house during a freeze-in.
In a small room, you can put any candle on a metal cooking sheet, then cover that candle with a pot (leaving a gap at the bottom to allow oxygen flow) to make a tiny, electric-free space heater as the flame heats up the metal and the metal helps the heat radiate out instead of straight up. (Put it somewhere it won’t be knocked over- a couple of these can heat a small room)
You can also use a couple tealights to heat up soup in a pinch. (Be SUPER careful doing this)
If you don’t have gloves or mittens, and need to go outside for a task, you can put a large sock on your hand, a plastic shopping bag or gallon ziplock over that, and another sock on top to make impromptu water resistant mittens.
Layer up on scarves - even decorative scarves are useful when layered. They can go over your head, shoulders under your coat, even wrap around your hands for extra layers.
Especially with small children or elderly overnight - burrito them in a blanket, then wrap yourself and them together in another thicker blanket. Adults crank out way more heat than kids and elderly folks.
Sleep in a cuddle pile on the floor in your smallest room. Make a nest out of pushed-together mattresses, pillows, and couch cushions. If you have blankets to spare, or you have a large tent that everyone can fit in, set up a tent and cram everyone in - anything to keep your heat in a small, enclosed space.
It’s WAY more effective than individuals in their own bed - especially at below-freezing indoor temps.
It’s tempting to save water for things like brushing your teeth or flushing, but any thirst is #1 priority. You can brush your teeth dry, and poop in a covered bucket - flush it later, when your life isn’t in danger. I know it sounds gross, but I’ve been snowed in with no power for a week before, and trying to boil snow to drink is a nightmare. I deeply regretted flushing my shit with perfectly good drinking water.
If you don’t have a fireplace with a working chimney, for the love of everything, DO NOT start a fire indoors with wood OR charcoal. Do NOT try to heat your house with a gas grill.
People regularly die from trying to use charcoal or burning gas to heat a small space, the fumes from that are DEADLY, and it’s not worth having to open a window. Likewise, regular woodsmoke inhalation can also kill. Campfire smoke vents into the whole sky. It can’t in your house. Gas stoves are likewise vented to the outside in ways a grill isn’t.
Instead, put some pots of water on the grill outside, let it heat up, and bring the pots indoors for radiating heat. Or stick to the candle space heater method.
Eat your perishable food items first.
Eat fatty foods, eat loads of carbs - fuck your diet. You NEED extra calories to burn, to keep your body warm.
Soak your pasta in water to hydrate it first, so you need less time boiling it to cook it. Don’t toss pasta water, use it to make soup.
In general, don’t waste potable water.
We don’t know how long the power will be out - prepare for at least a week.
In the future, these tools are also super handy for any disaster situation:
Gas-powered generator for essential items, brief cooking, and charging phones.
Solar-powered phone charger.
Large battery with outlet ports - I use it for jumping my car usually, but It can also be used to power devices, and you charge it in your home when you have power for the times when u don’t. Sometimes you can find these with solar power.
Portable gas stovetop if you don’t have a grill. They’re pretty cheap.
Once safety is assured, nothing kills morale faster than having nothing to do while trapped uncomfortably in a small space.
Learn some card games. Break out the legos, drawing pads, and markers. Play hangman with printer paper and pens. Read books, do puzzles and play games. Invent songs, make up stories, challenge each other with riddles and word games.
