I used to hate autumn and winter so much, especially after moving back to the UK having spent years in a hot country. I would start feeling like I was becoming mentally unwell by January and pretty much salivating over a glimpse of daylight by Feb. I got the SAD light and hoped for the best. Didn’t feel much better.
Now I really approach it like an impending apocalypse which, conversely, makes the reality of it the total opposite! I prepare for autumn and winter so thoroughly now (have done for about 8-9 years) that I embrace it and don’t hate it. I declutter and deep/spring clean, fix anything broken and often get so motivated from that, that I redecorate a room or two - in September. I treat September like a massive overhaul, renaissance of my life and book in, organise, plan and prep for September to March. This is also helped by having an academic wall calendar as they run from August to August. So I can get everything visually laid out in front of me and feel good about what’s coming up and I can always see next summer in my sights.
Feeling clean and clear and organised is great for mental health anyway, but for winter it’s a necessity almost because of being indoors more but also anything not operating at maximum efficiency will just be worse. You need guttering clean and clear, drains clear, house ship shape before it gets hammered by the weather. The actions of getting it all done seems to get the endorphins vibing and has a twofold effect to me. We’re on holiday at the moment and in quiet moments while everyone’s napping or chilling, I’m putting 30 min jobs onto my notes. If they’re longer then I break them into half/thirds or do one at a time I.e sorting and cleaning the kitchen cupboards takes more than half an hour so they get half an hour each. And I do them on different days so I don’t hate my life. I make a list of DIY tasks and deep clean and do the DIY tasks per room as I’m going along. Eg my living room I’ll deep clean but it also needs a carpet clean booked in, and there’s a hole in a sofa cushion needing mending and I’m going to change out some art work. All sofa cushions will get washed and the windows cleaned, light fittings brought down and cleaned. Will take probably two separate afternoons but will look wonderful by the end. It makes me feel better being in a house that’s all in order and spotless when it’s shitty outside.
I have a whole winter changeover as well. I’ve got more lamps, thicker sofa blankets, electric blankets, fake candles, sheepskins, etc in a cupboard where the Christmas stuff is. It’s all been washed when it went away in march so getting all that out after deep cleaning feels like I’m saying hello to the new season, as opposed to saying “why the fuck are you back again I hate you”.
I use up and then discard anything else from the freezer, defrost and start some prepping/batch cooking for the winter. Not so much standing there doing a hard slog all day, more like when I make a lasagne making 2/3, when I make a curry making 2/3 and building up a good selection over a couple of weeks. We have tonnes of fruit in the garden but what we don’t have we go picking for. I then cook a lot of it down and freeze ready for crumbles, and will make the crumble mix, too, ready to sprinkle on. I go through all the cupboards when I’m cleaning and make lists of herbs, curry pastes or grains that need topping up, I ask the kids what we love to eat in winter and start getting dry ingredients ordered in.
I get out every single day even if it’s just something simple, but I will force myself to walk even when it’s easier to drive. I’ve got proper boots and waterproof down coat, a million umbrellas and anything else to repel the weather. A bit of delayed gratification has to be deployed also. My kids wanted us all to rewatch Stranger Things now to get ready for the new series, I said no let’s wait until outside is shit and we’ve got less to do and we’ll really appreciate a cosy series to watch. I usually take them away in Feb half term to pretty much anywhere in Europe that’s cheap on Ryanair/Whizz and haven’t been disappointed yet. It’s never roasting, but anywhere from Rome downwards we’ve been able to walk about with T-shirts on and got so much just from that bit of sun and light.
I suppose I say all that to say, don’t try and resist. It’s going to happen, fake it to make it. Yours, a former autumnal doomsayer.