Put wood in t'hole

[KnowtheBand]

This was a constant refrain of my childhood. Just in case, it's not rude, it means close the door!

In those days it was perfectly reasonable to have only one warm room (two including the kitchen) and keep doors closed to keep the heat in that room and avoid drafts. Bedrooms would be cold with plenty of blankets, thermal PJs and maybe an electric blanket.

Would it really be so awful to go back to that. Haven't we got used to being wasteful of both cash and natural resources but expecting the whole house to be toasty, even little used rooms and leaving internal doors open? Is this the end for open plan living?

Alternated with 'it's like Blackpool Illuminations in here' aka all the lights have been left on.

No it wouldn't be 'awful' to close doors to try and reduce the amount of heating needed this winter, or put warmer clothes on.

People seem to be overlooking the fact that the reason why it's got so expensive is that gas is in short supply so we should try and use less to make it last longer as well as reduce the cost.

We're as guilty as any of not shutting doors, our excuse is that it allows the cats free reign around the house, but the consequence is all the heat goes out of the living room and up the stairs, so the living room never gets up to temperature and the bedrooms are actually too warm for sleeping.

Before winter, I'm going to get DP to put a cat flap in the living room door so we can keep the door closed when we're sitting in there in the evening and hopefully use a bit less heating.

Were you born in a barn?

Completely agree that this is the way we're going this winter. Thick socks, jumpers and heated throws to keep warm rather than hearing the whole house.

I really feel the cold, so I'm nervous about this!

For God’s sake. My childhood was spent watching my uncle blue lighted to hospital because the coal dust from the only heat source affected his asthma.
yes we have central heating, yes some people are wasteful. Equally some of us are so disabled that it takes 30 minutes to get dressed, an hour to shower and we don’t have the option of a million extra covers (this would be excruciating for me).
My mother’s utilities only a one bed flat in france are £30 quid a month.
Yes we need to be less wasteful but equally we need a government to take control.

Ooh a cat flap in the door!

Generally we expect societies to progress, not regress.

Well yes, but we've progressed to the level that we're killing the planet due to wastefulness and overconsumption so it's time to dial back some of the behaviours contribute to overuse of resources.

It's not a hardship to wear warm clothes indoors in winter, to turn lights off in unoccupied rooms or turn heating off at night. This was the norm for most of us until 20/30 years ago.

Yes, but is using finite resources like they're infinite progress?

I agree with @BarbaraofSeville and @KnowtheBand

I don't want to go back to the days of my childhood when there was no heating upstairs and only a coal fire downstairs. I certainly don't want anyone to be cold this winter, or to have to choose between food and heating.

But we have become used to stuff being cheap, especially food, clothes and energy, and as a result do not value them as we should. Progress should not mean inefficiency and waste of precious resources. Many of us need to be better at reducing waste and over consumption. I'm better than most, I suspect, but I know I could do better.

Generally we expect societies to progress, not regress.

Tell that to the Romans.

YANBU, we will be doing this - I never wanted open plan homes for this very reason. Sofa blankets, dress warmly etc.

I will also add that getting my thyroid properly treated (privately, NHS didn’t care) has meant my internal central heating works again and limbs now actually feel warm on the inside - mindblowing!

We do however let the heat go up the stairs as we have a pulley maid hanging above them to dry all our clothes on, so that heat isn’t wasted. Works well!

Isn't it heat the person not the place now? Base layer. Jumpers. Thick socks.. Slippers. Throws.. Def no rooms at all being heated for us this winter.. Dc all have pj's and a onesie for over the top.

No it wouldn't be awful to close the doors, pull the curtains and turn the heating down or sometimes not have it on at all. Just like it wouldn't be awful to live on beans on toast.

It only becomes awful when you have to do it rather than treating poverty like an awfully big adventure you can dip in and out of and pontificate on Mumsnet about.

This is going to affect a lot of us. Be careful what you wish for.

Older people's chilly childhoods are part of the problem. When we got central heating in the mid eighties, my mum basically whacked it up and never switched it off. All very Scarlett O'Hara, 'I'll never be cold again'.

I often wonder if that's partly why old folks homes seem so stifling and airless to the rest of us. Even the slightest draught reminds them of their chilblain ravaged childhood.

It'll be like going back to Victorian times - tihnk of the images in Dickens etc. with people wearing fingerless gloves indoors and shawls wrapped round their bidues and tied, to sleeping in dressing gowns and hats as well as night clothes, for warmth. I don't want to go back to a time where families couldn't afford to heat their homes.

bidues? bodies even

I childhood wasn't cold. We were perfectly warm in the rooms we used, we were just expected to keep the doors closed to keep it that way and didn't heat rooms that were barely used.

We did have central heating, I'm not that old, but radiators were only turned on where "necessary".

I loved my flannelette sheets. The change from summer to winter bedding was the best.

Being born in a less privileged age, we already do all those things!

So you have fond memories of your childhood where you were never cold and loved your wincyette sheets in wintertime. It's all a bit Marie Antoinette by way of Enid Blyton but there's nothing stopping you doing that. There's everything wrong with telling other people whose lives you don't understand how to live them.

Ha love that!

The approach makes sense. That and 'heat the person not the room'. We're not huge heating fans anyway as it makes my head hurt a lot of the time.

To be honest, 'keeping the heat in' by closing the door is something we've always done in winter. It makes me nervous that I don't think my household has many savings to make because we have always been conservative in our use of energy - we don't have far to cut back. I'm sure we can't be alone in that.

Mumsnet: OMG climate change, we should all
cut back on fossil fuels, the government should do more.

Also mumsnet: OMG price increases, I have to cut back on fossil fuels, the government should do more.

I always got "When is a door not a door? When it's ajar!"

I'm in Scotland, in an old poorly insulated house (no roof insulation...).
Last winter (as previous ones) we 'heated the person not the house' .
This is because I am a Carer so I receive £68 per week to help compensate for the fact that I cannot work due to the care needed by my 2 Autistic SN kids.
We have flanellette sheets, electric blankets for beds & throws for sofa, draught excluders etc. There is nothing to cut back. Last year wasn't very cold.
I am genuniely scared this winter. A hot summer often means a very cold winter. I remember 2009 when they were small & it got to minus 20. We were COLD !!!

"To be honest, 'keeping the heat in' by closing the door is something we've always done in winter. It makes me nervous that I don't think my household has many savings to make because we have always been conservative in our use of energy - we don't have far to cut back. I'm sure we can't be alone in that."

^Same.
We are already very sensible with energy usage. The only way to go for us from here is to basically switch off the heating altogether this winter.
Extra measures we are taking now though, which we haven't previously:

• hung a thermal door curtain infront of our front door (our windows are already double glazed)
• insulated our loft hatch (the loft itself is already insulated
• adding foil insulation sheets behind all radiators
• insulating our up-and-over garage door

We've always done this. Even my four year old closes all internal doors behind her to keep the heat in the warm rooms.

When I see other people chat with their front doors open it seems scandalous to me in comparison 😂.