As the colder temperature set in, nobody wants to feel cold in their home. Keeping the warmth inside where it belongs isn’t always easy. Use some of these easy tips to keep your home warm and cosy, no matter how cold it gets outside. 

Cold air coming in through any little cracks in the walls can really add a chill. If you have older windows or single-glazing, keep the draught out by putting self-adhesive foam tape around the frames. Check your outside walls and your skirting boards inside for any small gaps, and get these repaired to keep the heat inside. Outside, you might want to repoint between the bricks to replaces any areas that are crumbling and are letting in the cold air. Stripped floorboards can let cold air in, so fill in any gaps with a silicone-based filler. For a quick fix, fit some thick rugs to block draughts and add cosiness.  Fit draught-proofing strips around any doors to the outside, and to your loft hatch too. If the front door is still letting heat out, hang a heavy curtain over it. Thermal lined curtains work well over your windows too, to help you keep the temperature up inside the house. Spray Foam Insulation can help with any walls letting in the cold too. The letterbox can let air in too, so add some insulation like some bristles in the gap or a second flap on the inside of the front door. Cover your keyhole with a metal disc that can be slid aside, to stop cold air whistling in.

If you’ve bought double-glazing, insulated the attic and spent a fortune on an efficient boiler, don’t waste all that effort and expense, by losing all that heat straight out of the chimney. A chimney balloon blocks the gap when you’re not using it, keeping the heat inside and the cold outside. If you don’t use your fireplace, think about having the chimney blocked entirely to keep the cold out all the time. 

Insulation in your attic keeps a lot of heat inside your home and can help you to reduce the cost of your heating bill too. Some places offer grants for fitting loft insulation, so check to see if this is something you could claim to help with the cost of fitting it. 

If you have spent a lot of money on thermal lined curtains for your windows and exterior doors, use them wisely. During the day, keep your curtains open. Even weak sunshine still has a little warmth to it, so let the sun in to warm your home through the glass, in a natural (and free) way. As soon as the sun goes down, close the curtains even it’s not very late in the day. This keeps that warmth you’ve worked hard to get into the house to stay inside, and not leak out through the glass in the windows.