As it gets undeniably colder outside by the day, you might be looking at how to keep your house warm in winter without running up your bills. Presenter and consumer journalist, Alice Beer, shares a clever trick for staying warm that you would’ve never guessed – and it involves a layering trick used for skiing.
When it gets colder, our first instinct might often be to crank up the heating, but with energy bills soaring, this isn’t always the most cost-efficient option. We’ve opted for using our best electric blankets to the best mattress toppers for warming ourselves in bed, but what if we told you that it’s even simpler than that?
(Image credit: Future PLC/Dominic Blackmore)
Alice Beer’s ‘three-layer rule’ for staying warm at home
In an Ideal Home exclusive interview with Alice Beer, in partnership with Silentnight (opens in new tab), she lets us in on a trick for staying warm at home that involves nabbing a tip or two from skiers, the ‘three-layer rule.’
‘It’s the skiing rule so it’s a bit weird that we’re doing that inside our homes,’ Alice prefaces. ‘First is a cosy base layer that’s thin but also has to be decent enough to answer the door in, but also practical enough when you’re running around the house doing chores. Then on top of that, you put your next cosy layer on, and then on top of that, an extra layer.’
(Image credit: Future PLC)
Alice continues, ‘We have so many moments in our house when there are two people in the same house, but you have different takes on temperature because you’re doing different things.’
It’s oftentimes that messing with the thermostat isn’t an end-all-be-all solution to staying warm at home or vice versa. Implementing this little trick for yourself means that you have a lot more freedom with regulating your own body temperature instead of messing with the thermostat.
(Image credit: Future PLC)
And it’s a lot simpler than we make it out to be – it just takes a tiny bit of preparation from our end, as Alice says we just need to have those layers nearby and within reach at all times.
‘If you’re sitting on the sofa and you’ve got a cosy throw you can just pull over you, or you’re sitting at your desk and you have something over the back of your chair that you can pull over your knees, you’re going to be warmer and you won’t need to get up and turn the thermostat up,’ she explains.
(Image credit: Future PLC)
‘It’s just about having things to hand really that isn’t gonna cost you any money. We’ve all over the years bought far too many throws and blankets but aren’t necessarily using them. Colour schemes come and go, but a throw is a lovely thing to buy and it’s affordable. So you should be using the ones that are genuinely warm.’
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