9 Tips to Make Your Home Feel Cozy This Winter

When winter rolls around, many people feel the urge to hunker down at home and get all warm and cozy. If you’ve traditionally relied on cranking up the heat to make you feel cozy, it’s time to consider these 9 tips to make you feel snug without consuming extra energy.

• Clean Your Lights: With sunset coming ever earlier as winter progresses, it’s important to keep the interior of your home nice and bright. Simply cleaning the dust off of your light bulbs and light fixtures can make spaces seem up to 30 percent brighter, without the need to turn on more lights or use extra electricity.
• Seal Air Leaks: A drafty home doesn’t feel very cozy! In addition to gaps around windows and doors, look for leaks around wall outlets and recessed lighting.
• Get a Fireplace Insert: While a traditional fireplace may look cozy, in reality, it can be a huge detractor from a warm and cozy home, as heat will get sucked up and out the chimney whenever the fireplace is not in use. One way to stop this heat loss is to get a fireplace insert that will seal off the chimney while still providing the look of a cozy fire.
• Buy Houseplants: Having plants in the home is not only good for the cleanliness of your air, but also for humidity. By increasing humidity, plants can make your indoor air feel warmer so you use less heat.
• Change Your HVAC Filter: It’s hard to feel snug and cozy in your home if you’re combatting cold-like symptoms due to excessive allergens in your indoor air. Replacing your HVAC filter can help deliver fresher air as well as improve the efficiency of your forced air heat system so that it is easier for warm air to move evenly to all parts of your home.
• Clean Your Windows: A bit of sunshine on a chilly day can certainly warm up your body and spirit. Let in more light by keeping your windows nice and clean.
• Remove Window Screens: While you’re cleaning those windows, remove any screens you may have to further improve the brightness of your home.
• Use Warm Tones in Chilly Rooms: If certain parts of your home are dark or chilly due to a lack of natural light, one way to make them feel cozier is to use warm tones in your décor. You could try something as simple as getting a new yellow, orange, or red bedspread, or you might go all out and paint your walls a nice warm color.
• Get a Programmable Thermostat: One final tip for a cozier home is to invest in a programmable thermostat. This device makes it easy to tailor home temperatures to your schedule to improve comfort and save energy. For example, you can set the thermostat to automatically turn the heat down after your normal bedtime and then turn the heat back up a few hours before your alarm goes off in the morning, to ensure you always wake up to a warm and cozy home.