The view from our porch in Abilene, TX, after a rare snow
A couple of years ago, I read a blog post by a northern friend (I can’t remember who it was), about preparing her apartment for winter. Since winter days in the north are short and dark, everybody spends more time cocooned at home, and she was focusing on making her apartment a place her family wanted to be, rather than simply a place to dump winter gear and hide out from the elements.
At the time, I was still living in Texas, where the barrier between inside and outside is nearly equally porous in all seasons – or slightly more porous in winter than during our 100-degree summers. So, besides pulling out the Christmas decorations, flipping on the heat, stocking up on tea and putting an extra blanket on the bed, we didn’t do much to prep our home for winter.
Well. Now that I live in Boston, I know what she was talking about.
We’ve long since removed our single a/c unit from our bedroom window and bundled it down to the basement until next summer. Our oil furnace lives in said basement, and we’ve fired it up and will be refilling it soon. I’m nosing around our windows, checking for drafts, and stuffing rags into them where necessary, to keep more heat inside. And I’ve been spiffing up the bookshelves, switching out my wardrobe and clearing away several boxes’ and bags’ worth of clutter. Because we will be – we already are – spending a lot of time inside this winter, and I want our home to be clean, tidy, welcoming, warm, comforting.
It’s no coincidence, of course, that comfort is my one little word for 2011 – and while emotional comfort has sometimes played hide-and-seek with me this year, I’m learning to create physical comfort for myself and others. There’s also a primal instinct at work here – the urge to nest, burrow, store up provisions for winter, like the squirrels (who are already getting fat). My stocking up consists of weekly grocery shops and a large supply of tea and yarn, but it’s driven by the same need to have a warm place to hide out and rest.
We will still come and go this winter, of course – to work, to church, to friends’ houses, to the city on some Saturdays. And I hope we’re better prepared than we were last year – we’ve got all the necessary gear, at least. But I hope this mini-clearing out, this taking stock as we settle in, will help us enjoy our time at home even more this winter.
Do you live in a climate where it’s necessary to “winterize” your home in any capacity? If so, how do you do that?
cakes, tea and dreams 
Let’s see. Tucson, Arizona. Nope. No winterizing here. (Although that being said, we had 3 days this week where the high was only in the 40s and it froze at night! Freakish.) 🙂
As a born and raised Illinoisan, I am quite familiar with winterizing. Now that I’m in Nashville, the winterizing is not as extreme. Just the other week we had 60 degree weather- in December! I love living here. But then this week there’s been frost on the car and ground, mornings starting out in the 20s. I’ve resigned myself that winter is here.
Besides switching out clothes and bringing out my down comforter, I usually put plastic over the windows and stuff the gap between the storm window and the pane with rags or plastic bags. I’m hoping to make a door cover (I’m sure there’s some technical word for it) to keep the heat from escaping through those cracks too. I live in an old, poorly built house so I do everything I can to keep warm without paying an arm and a leg in my electric bill.
I grew up in upstate NY, so I know the winterizing process well! I haven’t done much to speak of in my years in Virginia, but I like your idea of winterizing the house by making it a more comfortable and inviting place to spend time, since we do cozy up here more in the winter. I think I’ll stock up on some pretty candles and some more books. Can never have too many books!
This is so key!! I definitely noticed that I needed to spend more time “mentally winterizing” when I moved to Chicago. Not necessarily because it’s colder here than Michigan, but because I live on my own here (and no longer have a pack of roommates to keep me company during snowstorms). The short, dark days can drive you mad if you don’t find ways to keep yourself busy until spring arrives.
what fun to prepare to nestle in for the winter. I need to come to Boston, I’ve never been!
I live in Alberta, and it gets cold, cold, cold here. I live at a camp, in an old mobile home, so my winter prep involves adding quilts to my bed and wearing a hoodie, wool socks and mittens to bed on the coldest of nights. There’s not much I can do about the bad insulation or the gaps around my doors (seriously, I can see daylight … it’s a little mean when it’s -30 out!). But overall, I’ve always kind of liked erring on the side of cold — I try to avoid tropical temperatures at all costs — so I don’t really mind.