Autumn and Winter Tips for Your Apartment
As the temperature begins to drop, it becomes more expensive to live in an apartment. The simple act of keeping your apartment warm becomes costly and can sometimes even turn typical nights into large arguments between you and your roommates.
For this reason, it’s important that you prepare your apartment for the cold that’s to come, between decorating for the holidays to optimizing your heating bill.
So, without further ado, here are ten autumn and winter tips for your apartment to ensure you’re ready for the changing seasons ahead of you!
1. Set a Thermostat Rule
One of the most common arguments amongst roommates while living together is over the thermostat. Everyone’s temperature, so to speak, runs a bit differently, which can quickly cause mayhem and arguments, especially when these temperatures don’t line up.
For instance, you may have one roommate that looks to turn up the thermostat all the time, while you have another that’s always looking to turn it down, leaving one hot and the other cold. During the winter, these arguments escalate, as having higher temperatures inside costs more money.
So, before the winter even begins, you and your roommate should set a thermostat rule for the apartment. With myself and my roommates, the agreement was that the thermostat was always set to 69 degrees during the winter, as people that were cold could always grab more blankets and layer up while people that get hot and don’t want to pay for higher temperatures were also satisfied.
By setting this temperature before a fight ensues, you ensure that everyone in the apartment is satisfied and guarantee that everyone will be on the same page come colder weather.
2. Get an Entrance Rug
Yes, it means you need to spend more money. And yes, it’s totally worth it.
When you think of winter, you think of snow and cold weather. However, very few people account for slush and the amount of water that you drag in from your shoes, coats, gloves, scarves and any other winter gear you typically don.
For this reason, having a rug at the front door can prevent ruined flooring, whether it’s carpet, tile or hardwood. In addition, this gives you a space to shed your gear before stepping into the apartment where other belongings could potentially be ruined.
Instead, everyone can leave their gear on the rug to dry and put it away once it’s no longer soaking wet and a potentially apartment-ruiner.
Again, it seems like a silly thing, and it’s often unnecessary in the summer and early fall months, but come winter and spring showers, you’ll be glad you and your roommates invested in the idea.
3. Talk About Decorations
No, this isn’t to say you need to think about your holiday decorations (that will come later, just you wait). Instead, this is to say that you should think about decorating your apartment so that the coziness is at an all-time high.
For instance, your couch would look less lonely with a nice throw blanket, and you’ll be happy you put it there as the temperature begins to drop and you need a nice and cozy cuddle buddy. In addition, a space heater can be a fantastic addition to your space, as it will keep you warm well through the winter months. You should also consider purchasing a humidifier and leaving lotion next to your hand soap in all bathrooms (both points we will touch on a little bit later).
Basically, you should be decorating your apartment with winter in mind, making sure you have everything that you need to have a cozy and productive winter ahead, ensuring that the cold stays as far away from you as humanly possible.
4. Make Sure Everything’s Working
One of the most likely things to happen in the winter months is that something you need stops working. For instance, many individuals find out that their heat is broken the first time they need to turn it on.
Before you find yourself without heat for a while before maintenance is able to assist you, make sure that everything in your apartment is working. Go around the apartment and check everything, from your furnace to the thermostat, to every pipe/faucet in your apartment.
Yes, it’s completely tedious and might feel totally unnecessary, but the truth is, if something isn’t working, it’s way better to find out sooner rather than later.
5. Purchase Cozy Accessories
It’s so important to accessorize, and not just because it looks good. In the winter months, cozy accessories are the difference between a comfortable walk to class and a miserable one. The more you bundle up, the more comfortable you are, and it’s best to get ahead of the crowds.
Don’t wait until winter to pick up the hat, gloves and scarves that you need to survive the cold. Make sure you pick up everything in advance (to ensure you can get everything that you need) and you’ll have warmth at the ready for that first cold day.
Winter hits way sooner than we expect it, so to be prepared in advance prevents you from needing to run to the store in sub-zero weather to pick up winter items that you should have had already.
But also, don’t limit your accessorizing to the wearables. Instead, make sure your apartment also has all the winter accessories it needs. For instance, you should be equipped with salt, a shovel, potentially a space heater and anything else you feel you could benefit from having in your apartment.
6. Bring in the Plants
If you’re a bit of a plant fan, then you likely had some herbs and spices growing on your balcony or patio. If that’s the case, most (if not all) of these plants won’t survive the winter months, so it’s time to bring them inside.
Make sure you keep them close enough to a window that they are getting sunlight, but not so close that they are freezing. Keep them at the right temperature, water them as needed and ensure you have a backup system if there’s no way to get them direct sunlight.
Also, don’t limit your movement of things to your plants. Bring in any outdoor accessories that won’t survive the winter months, such as non-treated furniture and rugs. Basically, if you would like to keep it moving forward, you should ensure that you bring it in and put it into a storage space until it’s once again needed.
7. Keep a Steady Heat Flow
Just because you have the heat running does not mean that you have a steady heat flow running through your apartment. In order to have a steady heat flow in your space, make sure you follow the following steps.
One, make sure no vents are blocked. Every vent should be free to blow warm air into the apartment, unhindered. Two, make sure that you are retaining heat as much as possible. While it’s nice to bring in some sunshine during the day, at night, your blinds and curtains should be closed to hold out the cold air that moves through the windows. Three, make sure all windows and other areas are closed so that cold air isn’t freely moving through the apartment.
Finally, check to make sure heat is actually blowing from all vents. You should have done this during your apartment check, but it’s never a bad idea to double and triple check to ensure you aren’t going to be freezing in your apartment this winter.
8. Don’t Leave Out the Holiday Fun
Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas all fall in the early fall and winter months, which is why many individuals go a little crazy when it comes to decorating their apartments. Being away from home prior to the holidays (and, for some, during the holidays) can be a bit depressing, so make sure you bring some holiday spirit to your apartment.
That being said, there are some caveats to this idea. For one, you need to ensure you aren’t overspending on decorations. It’s really easy to get carried away, so make sure you and your roommates set a tight budget and stick to it. There’s no reason to break the bank over some decorations.
In addition, make sure everyone is on the same page. Just because you celebrate a certain holiday doesn’t mean that your roommates do too. While nothing should stop you from decorating your space the way you want it, make sure you are also paying attention to your roommate’s needs and holidays in doing so. Basically, don’t leave anyone out.
Finally, use the decorations to bring you closer together. Share some of your family’s traditions with one another, have a holiday-themed movie night or simply enjoy some hot chocolate in your freshly decorated apartment. This is a great opportunity to share some fun with your roommates, so make sure you are doing so!
9. Unpack Warm Clothes
Many individuals pack up their winter clothes during the summer months. When moving into a new apartment, these individuals will move in all of their warmer weather clothes, and then, as the temperatures drop, they will pack them back up, move them out and move in the warmer, winter clothes.
If this is the way you packed (and it should be, for the most part, as it’s the most efficient space-saver), then you should be unpacking those warmer clothes right about now, as the cold months aren’t that far away.
Make sure that you store some warmer weather clothes for those abnormally nice days throughout the fall, but aside from that, you should be pulling out the winter boots and parkas and having them at the ready, because winter is just about here.
As an extra space saver, you can always use storage bins underneath your bed or in your closet to store winter accessories, coats and other belongings that you don’t otherwise have room for. I know that winter clothing can take up a lot of room in a small space, so whatever space-saving hacks you’re able to use here, you should definitely be utilizing them.
10. Use a Humidifier
Last, but definitely not least, you should be using a humidifier in your apartment. It’s no secret that as the winter moves in, the moisture in the air moves out, leaving your skin dry and vulnerable.
While you should always have lotion at the ready during the winter, you can also beat the cold by using a humidifier in your apartment. It doesn’t cost much to run, and they’re rather inexpensive to buy, depending on the type you’re looking at. All you need to run one is water and some electricity, but your skin will be thanking you immensely if you do.
You can even buy humidifiers now that also diffuse essential oils, keeping your apartment smelling fresh and sweet and keeping your skin happy and moist.
It’s recommended that you use humidifiers in your bedroom at night for optimum results, but you should also consider having them throughout your apartment to make sure your skin is always getting the nutrients and moisture that it needs to survive another cold winter ahead of it.
However you choose to use them, preventing dry skin during the winter months and ensuring your lips, hands and other extremities aren’t always chapped, well that’s just well worth it in the end.
Again, winter is just around the corner and fall has snuck up on us rather quickly, so it’s already time to get your apartment ready for the changing seasons to come. With that being said, ensure you are getting everything ready for the winter ahead of you by following the above ten autumn and winter tips for your apartment meant to get you ready for the road ahead.
However, don’t limit yourself to the above ideas and make sure you are preparing your apartment for the months ahead of you without breaking the bank or starting unnecessary roommate drama.
Good luck!