Cozy Living in the Winter Time

How to keep your home warm and comfortable during the cold season.

Winter time can be difficult, especially when you live up in the mountains. Our small town is prone to prolonged power outages during the coldest season due to bad weather. We are surround by trees, and more often than not the snow and ice break branches and a power lines are downed. We are a long drive from the nearest city, and oftentimes repair crews are unable to make the journey to fix lines and restore utilities to families in the area. That means we can go weeks without electricity and heat — it certainly teaches those in the area to prepare for the worst.

While these conditions may not be the case in every location, I hope some of you can benefit from these cozy tactics for those colder months of the year.

Throw Rugs

Many homes in our town are not carpeted, and therefore, feet can get quite chilly. We try to heavily utilize throw rugs and have invested in quite a few to move from room to room as needed. While they don’t cover the entire floor, we keep them in areas we frequently use such as our seating area in the living room, and our bedroom. They help to insulate the area a little bit and while the difference isn’t huge, it is a contributing factor to keeping our home warm.

Blankets

We own more blankets now than we will ever need at once, but I don’t mind at all. They are one of the few items I prefer to have a surplus of. Having extra lets us rotate them out on laundry day, and allows us to have them available in more than just the bedroom. We have a wicker basket stuffed with plush throws in our living room for movie nights, so there isn’t any needing to pull the bed apart to stay warm.

Last winter we didn’t have any extra blankets and it resulted in us basically shutting ourselves in the bedroom for the coldest parts of the winter because it became such a hassle to drag things back and forth everyday. Not having to remake the bed every few hours is great!

Candles

Not only do they make the house smell lovely, but candles do let off quite a bit of heat. I always have at least two or three in the house and at one is typically burning when I’m home. I try to keep one going on the bathroom counter on the worst days since that room is small, typically very cold, and benefits most from the heat.

Socks & Slippers

When your feet are warm, the rest of you is warm. It took way longer than it should have for me to realize this, but I’m so glad I finally did. Slippers are a great investment — bunny slippers are one of my valuable possessions this winter! Socks can be basic, but I like to keep an array of fuzzy ones available as they tend to be a bit warmer. If you have the money to put forward, I’ve heard good things about wool socks as well.

Baking

While baking in the summertime may not be the best idea, it works wonders in the winter! Not only does baking offer a warm, tasty treat on cold days, but you can leave the oven open afterwards to make use of the heat. During the coldest days we bake brownies, banana bread, even pizza just to warm up the house. We have one small space heater for the entire house, and it doesn’t do much, so this really helps us keep the temperature bearable.

Cocoa, Tea, and Other Warm Beverages

Just like baking, warm beverages offer a fantastic relief from the otherwise brutal cold. Our go-to is a hot cup of coffee, or a some pan-made cocoa with almond milk, caramel, and whip cream — shave some chocolate on top, and you have a perfect winter treat!

Hopefully some of these tactics help you and your loved ones stay cozy this winter! They seem straightforward enough, but the first year in our own home it was really easy to overlook some of the simpler solutions to our problem, and I wanted to share the most useful ones with those of you who are facing a similar situation this winter.