How to Keep Cool in a Heatwave
This is a quick blog and I hope you can help me at the end.
I am going to share the things that I do, that cost very little, to keep cool when we are in a heatwave. I really do need to use these methods as the 3rd floor flat that I live in is H O T by the evening and the kitchen is in the same room as the lounge / entrance / dining / EVERY-bloody-thing and it can become unbearable.
Plus, both myself and my offspring are build from Scottish / Yorkshire DNA, we have the skin pallor of frozen poultry, our default ancestral habitat is a misty bogland and we are physically unable to thrive over 21 degrees celsius. (Sorry USA, I have no idea about what that is in fahrenheit? I think Fahrenheit is a 90s aftershave).
Right, these are my methods - Please add yours in the comments and this can be our catalogue of cool.
1) Cool, wet flannels on the back of your neck, wrists or calf muscles. Big veins lie beneath. It really works.
2) Fill an old spray bottle (FOOD or cosmetic use, not lavatory bleach) like one of those low fat oil sprays with water, put it in the fridge and spritz your face / neck / every damn bit when needed.
3) Do not have a cold shower. It does some madness with blood vessels and you can end up restricting blood flow and feeling worse.
4) Keep the windows SHUT all day and the curtains drawn. Channel your vampire lifestyle. I know this seems foolish and we all want to fling open our shutters and waft away to our heart's delight, but what you are doing is welcoming in all the baking hot air. If you only open them at night you keep your home cool. During the day you trap your cool air in and it stays cool for much, much longer.
5) Wash your towels and bedding and use them instead of curtains, drape them over the poles when they are wet - you will cool down the house and dry the washing at the same time.
6) Eat small things often. Cook in the morning or last thing at night when it's less grim in the kitchen and then eat cooked cold food with salad etc.
7) Wear loose stuff. Natural fibres. Don't go wandering off in your spandex leggings and boob tube.
8) HYDRATE - Gus worked on concrete the other day, all day. He drank about 8 litres of water and didn't need the work portaloo once. That's how much your body pushes out of your skin - you need to replace it.
9) Make a fan from any old bit of paper. Try using some hideous winter electricity bill for the irony.
10) Sleep on top of your duvet. It feels very odd. But also amazing. Like the princess and the pea with her 300 matresses. You will be all pissed off for 27 seconds in the night as you try to work out why you are cold and how you can ever find the entrance to your warm nest again, but welcome that cold feeling as you try to untangle your legs from the unorthodox bedding scenario.
NOW - Please add your top tips for staying cool to the comments! Nothing is too obvious! Take it from me who once tried to take a VHS tape out, turn it over, and play the other side.
Open loft hatch 🥵 works a treat. Hot air rises!
All great ideas I’ve used many time, best one for me is keeping all the curtains closed throughout the day, definitely keeps our home much cooler as we are south facing.
If you have the flexibility, get up super early and get your work done before the heat of the day. Then have quiet time or a nap during the hottest period. Learnt this when living in Greece.
Wet small flat cleaning sponges, squeeze out excess, pop in a sandwich bag & poop in the freezer. Cheap freezer block 👌🏻
Fill an empty plastic bottle (I know, not great but at least we re-use them a lot! we use diluting juice ones!)
fill it 2/3 full.
pop it in freezer.
keep in freezer
take out when feel hot
add some cold water to it up to the top.
sip lovely ice cold water
take it to bed so you have ice cold water all night
AND you can roll
it on your skin if you feel too hot! (I used to do this when breastfeeding as had to keep hydrated and hated drinking warm/tepid water in the night feeds! 🤣)