Making a difference with curtains

Ahh, my favourite part of the week where small footprints keeps us accountable.

This week, as we move into autumn we’ve been asked to choose one task from this extensive list of “39 tips for fall“.

On there you’ll find everything from car maintenance to vacuuming your fridge coils

Here’s a synopsis:

• Check air pressure in your tyres
• Use a garage to park your car if you have one
• Service your boiler / central heating system / clean the fireplace and chimney
• Install a programmable thermostat on your heating system
• Remove obstructions from radiators and place a reflective panel behind them
• Open blinds and curtains during the day for solar warmth; close them at dusk to keep heat in
• Vacuum behind the fridge and check the seal on the door
• Clean the tumble dryer filters
• Check seals around windows and doors and consider fitting new efficient windows
• Consider hanging a thick curtain over the front door
• Is your home insulated? Now’s the time to consider getting it done. Here in the UK there are many grants available for free loft and wall insulation
• Check your roof for any missing or damaged tiles or shingles.
• Clean the roof gutters and install a rain barrel
• Keep weeds and shrubs trimmed
• Insulate outdoor pipes to prevent freezing
• Check for water leaks both inside and outside.
• Wrap the immersion heater in an insulating blanket.
• Bring in any plants that need to be overwintered indoors
• Plant trees! They won’t need watering this time of year and will establish strong roots Bring in any houseplants that have Save the leaves that fall in your garden for leaf mulch
• Preserve summer produce for use in the winter and check out local farms and markets for seasonal foods
• Declutter your wardrobe; turn old cloths into cleaning cloths or donate to charity
• Wear an extra layer rather than turn up the heating
• Get in the habit of making a zero waste lunch each day
• How do your kids get to school? Can they walk, bike or take a bus rather than hop in the car?
• For autumnal celebrations and festivals – use as much reusable table wear as possible; ditch those disposables!

There are a couple of if ideas that stand out to me; checking tyre pressure, putting reflective panels behind the radiators, installing a new patio door (ours gets ice inside it during winter!), repairing the bedroom roof (it leaks when it rains heavily), fixing the kitchen tap (currently drips and replacing the washer hasn’t cured it).

The lazy options will be to check the tyre pressure, It’s something I forget to do but it’s not difficult.

Installing a new patio door is on the back burner due to cost.

Putting reflective panels behind the radiators sounds a bit of a faff and to be honest I’m not sure our radiators get that hot to warrant the effort.

Repairing the bedroom roof is top of the hit list but it’s currently blowing gales and raining so it’s not safe for Mr Green to go up there.

Fixing the kitchen tap is outside of my domain; it’s a job for Mr Green and he’s procrastinating about it. It involves taking out the sink and worksurface due to the design of our kitchen.

So here’s what we’re going to do…

I’d love a new patio door but that’s not going to happen at least until next year. So we’ve bought some new curtains for the door (the pet bunny ate through the last ones <sigh>) but they don’t fit properly. They need adjusting and resizing; something that has me running a mile as I’m not best friends with my inner seamstress. I’ve told Mr Green it will have to be his job but for this challenge we’ve agreed to share the task. However, we’re going to do this with a twist… We’re going to fix space blankets inside them; this will keep the heat in the room and keep the cold between the curtains and our leaky door. We’ve been putting it off for ages but this is the week to tackle it…

I may be gone some time …