8 Ways to Survive The Winter Months from Your Kitchen

As the weather gets colder and the days grow shorter, you may find yourself spending more time in the kitchen making warm drinks, hot meals and preparing hot water bottles for bedtime. Autumn and winter come with their own experiences which make them cosy and enjoyable, but they also have their drawbacks. The shorter days can affect our moods, and with the cost of living skyrocketing at the moment, a lot of people are going to be going without heating this winter. In this blog post, we will share a couple of tips on how to use your kitchen to improve the winter months.

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1. Cook your favourite nourishing meal

For me, the colder months are all about soup and warm, buttered bread. Take care of your body and your mind by eating something nutritious and filling. Whether it's a simple sausage casserole using your favourite jarred sauce, or a homemade roast, make sure you're doing what you can to keep your body nourished. 

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2. Check on your water pipes, and insulate them if necessary

If your water pipes face an outdoor wall, it is especially important that you check them before the temperatures really start to drop. When it is really cold, consider leaving the under-sink cabinet door open to let warm air from the rest of the house circulate. Additionally, if your pipes are prone to freezing, consider leaving your taps on very slightly to keep water circulating.

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3. Stock up on tea bags

When the weather is cold, one of the best ways to heat up is by warming yourself from the inside. The ritual of dinking tea is a great way of doing this, and comes with the bonus of providing a little caffeine boost to chase away the sluggishness that can sometimes come with the colder weather. Tea bags are relatively inexpensive, especially if you get them from Aldi or Lidl.

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4. Invest in a rug

When I was younger, one of my least favourite things was walking into the kitchen on a winter morning and stepping onto the cold, stone floors with my bare feet. The same stone floors that cooled my family's feet in the summer also filled us with dread when the weather started to get colder. Kitchen floors can rarely be considered cosy, but recently, more and more people have been placing rugs in their kitchens. This is a great way of making the room appear warmer visually, but it also gives bare feet a soft place to land. 

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5. Move furniture away from your radiators

While energy bills are soaring, if you can afford to put the heating on for a little bit every day, it is highly recommended that you do so. In order to get the most out of having the heating on make sure that there isn't any furniture in the way of your radiators, as this can block the heat in and keep it from circulating around your home. 

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6. Place tin foil behind the radiators

While we're on the topic of radiators, a great way to give them a boost is by putting kitchen foil on the walls behind them. Simply mount some foil onto sheets of cardboard with the shiny side facing outwards, and place this behind your radiators. The foil will reflect the heat back into the room, rather than allowing it to disappear into your cold walls instead. 

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7. Consider candles and LED lighting strips

The main lights in the kitchen can make the room appear more cool than it actually is. A great way to visually warm up the kitchen, while also saving a little bit of money on your energy bill, is by focusing on mood lighting. Invest in some LED light strips, which you can buy fairly cheaply from Primark, and stick them under your kitchen cabinets. Light a couple of candles, and you're all set for a cosy evening meal. 

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8. Buy a moisture trap

In winter, it's not always viable to crack open the kitchen windows while cooking something on the stove, meaning that the room can get very moist, which heightens the risk of damp developing. Moisture traps are a great solution for this: the one I personally swear by is the UniBond AERO 360 moisture absorber, but there are plenty of incredible models on the market and they're definitely worth the money to avoid costly fixes for damp and mould. 

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As you can see, there are a number of ways that you can make your kitchen cosier, physically and visually, in the winter months. If this blog post has helped you out at all, or you have some of your own solutions that you'd like to add, let us know over on our Instagram or Facebook pages!