With an exceptionally cold blast of winter weather across the U.S. right now, homeowners are struggling to keep the heat in and their homes snug. It seems like a constant battle to help your home stay warm while conserving energy without the threat of high utility bills.
Knowing how to winterize your home can help you beat the cold and save you money. Now that sounds like something we should all be doing. And there’s a clever hack that will beat annoying under-door drafts, which can be a major cause of heat loss in our homes.
I live in an old house and am constantly fighting the battle against winter drafts. One of the biggest culprits, apart from drafty windows is how heat escapes under my doors. Whether it’s my front door or internal doorways, if there’s a gap, cold air will enter or warm air will escape.
And according to Stay Warm Energy, one of the main areas of heat loss in a home is through the doors, with even small gaps around thresholds leading to noticeable heat loss and cold spots.
Unless your home is full of fire doors, which are super-sealed, it’s very likely you’ll have a problem with heat escaping under your doorways, too. Luckily, there’s a cheap hack that you can follow to prevent those drafts from wasting energy and causing a chill.
In fact, this draft-proofing hack isn’t just cheap; it won’t cost you a dime, as you’ll have all that you need in your laundry closet.
How to draft proof your doorways
The towel trick involves rolling up a towel and placing it at the bottom of a door to stop drafts from entering or heat from escaping a room. What’s more, you don’t need to use a new towel; you can use whatever you have to hand, and it’s a good reason not to discard your old towels. And the best bit is that this draft-proofing hack won’t damage your towel — you can pop it in the wash and use it again.
Here’s what to do
1. Take a clean towel.
2. Lay out your towel on a flat surface, the floor is fine.
3. Start to roll the towel up from one end into a tube. Depending on the size of your towel, this will either be the short or long end.
4. Secure each end of the towel with a tie. A rubber band will do, but I grab a couple of hair ties.
5. Place the rolled towel in front of your doorway, just as you would a draft stopper.
Why I’ll be using the ‘towel trick’
What I love about this draft-proofing hack is that it doesn’t add another element of clutter to your home. Once the weather turns fine, you can simply remove the towel, wash it, and return it to your laundry closet. You can also use the same hack to prevent window drafts.
However, if you buy a draft excluder, such as this Gorilla Grip Door Draft Stopper, $26 at Amazon, you’ll have to find somewhere to store it once the weather warms up, although it is a good alternative if you don't have any spare towels.
Another alternative is to attach a draft excluder to the bottom of any problem doors. This ensures there’s no issue when opening and closing the door, so you won’t have to remove the towel and then reposition it.
Whichever method you choose, you’ll be guaranteed a warmer, cozier home, during the cold blast.
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