Winterizing Your Home

The winter is here - and for many of us, that means one thing: cold snow. And with average household heating costs on the rise the past few seasons, and as this trend is expected to continue, many people are hesitant to turn up the temperature on their thermostats. But here are a few tips that anybody can do around their own home to help keep the warmth in, and the cold on the outside.

Put plastic on all of the windows

This is a big one. You can save yourself quite a bit of cash this winter simply by putting up sheets of plastic over your windows, and even on doors you are not using, too. By cutting small strips of cardboard, you can staple this around the edges of the plastic to better secure it onto the window. It doesn't matter if you put the plastic on the inside or the outside - it will help out tremendously either way.

Put blankets underneath the door at night

Before you go to bed at night, tuck a blanket underneath the front door of your home. Often times there is a tiny space here, but it actually lets in quite a bit of cool air. If you have any other gaps on the sides of your doorframe or around the top, you'll want to fill in these too. If a blanket is too big to fit into these gaps, try tucking old plastic bags into the void between your door frame and the actual door itself.

Use a space heater

Space heaters are one of the best things you can do cut back on your home heating bill - of course you will see a slight increase in your electric bill, however. But because electricity is far cheaper than gas, the trade off is well worth it. You can put your space heater in the room that you use most, and keep the thermostat down for the rest of the house.

Sleep with heated blankets

Using a heated blanket when you go to sleep at night is a great way to help keep the heating costs low, too. Like with a space heater, you may see a jump in your electric bill during the winter months, but the extra price you pay here will be more than worth it. To get even more heat out of your heated blanket, try placing it directly on the bed, and sleeping on top of it. Because heat rise, your body will be able to soak off all of the heat given off during the night.