How to Prepare Cozy Spaces for Colder Months

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As we enter the “ber” months, the air turns crisp, leaves crunch beneath our feet, and home starts calling us in a little earlier each evening. It’s the season for warm lamps, soft blankets, and creating spaces that make your family want to slow down and stay awhile.

But before they do so, it’s important to have your home truly ready for those colder months that are almost here. Here are a few steps to help you get that done quickly and efficiently, so they feel warm, welcoming, and ready for all of the cozy moments to come.

1. Create Warmth Through Layers

There’s no better feeling than waking up on a cold, crisp day and being cozy and snug in your bed, realizing that you can sleep in that warmth longer because it’s the weekend. To enjoy those moments, though, we need to prepare our textiles for the colder months.

Start by swapping your summer sheets and comforters for fall and winter options, like flannel and down comforters. You can also pull out those heirloom quilts and drape them on beds and couches or beautiful blanket racks.

This is also a good time to add extra layers around the house as well, such as pillows, rugs, and thicker curtains. Don’t forget the kids’ and guest rooms, as people will be spending more time indoors soon and will want to relax while they’re inside. By adding these layers, you’re not just creating coziness in your home, but you’re adding warmth and saving money. Heavy curtains or drapes will help hold in the heat and keep out the cold. By having warm sheets, you can turn the heat down a little at night, which will help save money. And by having rugs throughout the house, it will keep spirits up, as people aren’t walking on cold floors when they first wake up, which can lead to grumpiness.

2. Make Your Home Feel Inviting

As we’ve talked about a lot on the blog, tuning into your senses can make your home warm and inviting in ways that make it feel like home without always being able to detect why.

The Sense of Sight

Start with our sense of sight, as that is often the first sense to notice your environment; let’s focus on soft lighting. Twinkle or Christmas lights, small lamps with warm bulbs, and candles (real or fake) can really set the atmosphere when you walk in from work or school or other commitments. Especially as the world darkens more quickly, having warm lighting to greet you can bring a lot of tranquility into your home and into yourself.

The Sense of Smell

Moving to our sense of smell, there are so many ways we can bring a lovely aroma to our home so that when we or others walk in, they’re met with a pleasant experience. With everything on the market today, there are so many things you can do, whether that’s a dollar candle from the dollar store, some cinnamon and vanilla and simmering oranges on the stove, a candle warmer, or essential oils. Even a crockpot meal waiting to greet you when you get home can be a comfort and pleasant to experience. There are many, many ways to get a lovely scent in your home to help bring in that sense of coziness on a cold day.

The Senses of Touch & Taste

After we’ve met the two senses that meet us immediately, it’s time to address the senses that help us find comfort: touch and taste. Now is a good time to set up seasonal stations, as I call them, whether that’s a hot chocolate or tea station in a corner of the kitchen, or a basket of blankets in the living room. Having small seasonal comfort stations will help your family feel at home, and visitors feel comfortable and able to relax when they visit.

3. Prepare Spaces for Everyday Cold-Weather Living

We’ve now covered all the fun and thoughtful ways we can make a home cozy. But there are practical steps that we as homemakers need to take as well. Before winter really sets in, it’s important to do the following: clean, organize, and add practical touches to your home.

Firstly, the obvious: deep cleaning the home. Especially when you’re going to be spending a lot more time in your home, just makes sense. There is spring cleaning, but there’s also a good fall clean too. So wash the windows, dust the cobwebs, clean the rugs, and scrub the oven. Prep your home to be a place of comfort and rest. No one can find comfort and rest when the home is dirty.

Next, organize anything that needs organizing. For me, it’s the kids’ clothes and toys. We always have an influx of both. My kids tend to change sizes in the fall, and we have a fall birthday and a winter birthday. So clothes and toys get rotated during this time, and there’s never enough room. So organize and get rid of anything you know is going to become an issue in the coming cold months.

Lastly, add practical touches to your home. That may look like heavier drapes, plastic covering the windows, or making sure that you have wood ready for the winter. Adding doormats for dirty boots, boot warmers, or baskets for hats and gloves is a must-have as well. This way, all that gear and clothing is not getting dumped on the floor or strewn all over the house.

Let’s remember…

As you prepare for the colder months, remember you’re starting now, so you don’t need to do it all at once. Choose one small space to refresh this week. Whether that’s your living room or bedroom or entryway, find small ways to make those cozy spaces where your family can love to gather.

Budget Disclaimer

I would like to add this disclaimer even though this isn’t a budgeting post: If you already have this stuff in storage, that’s great, and if you don’t, that’s ok too. It’s important to work within your budget and not stretch it for things like this. You can always find things like this at thrift stores or in buy nothing groups in your area as well. Homemaking and making your home cozy doesn’t have to be expensive when you can think outside the box. If you’d like more info on creating a cozy home on a budget, check out this post.