With the cold fronts rolling through South Africa, buffeting Western Cape with icy storms, and temperatures dropping into the negatives across the country, people are looking for ways to keep warm and ward off the chill.
Here are five things that online marketplace Temu suggests you can do to make your home warmer tonight.
- Start with yourself and your body heat
Start with what’s “closest to home” – your body. Heated clothing can provide the first layer of warmth before you bring on the blankets and gadgets.
We’ve brought circulation back to the hands with the hand warmer – now what about the feet? Temu recommends a foot warmer with a USB-charging function – like your electric blanket but for your feet. Slip them in and feel your toes thawing out immediately. A neck warmer does the same for the other side of your body, with USB charging and intelligent temperature control to make sure you get the perfect temperature. Then for the torso, Temu suggests you try a battery-powered heated jacket with a hood to keep the rest of you warm.
Content creator Caitlin Willis got a nifty headband that not only keeps the top of her head snug and warm, but ensures her hair stays out of her face. Check out her video where she shares her latest Temu haul.
- Get an indoor fireplace
There’s nothing quite like cosying up in front of a fireplace to warm you up, and while not everyone has the luxury of a built-in wood-burning fireplace, there are other fireplace options that you can use.
Bio-ethanol fireplaces come in all shapes and sizes for any room in your home, whether it’s the living room, bedroom, bathroom or even as a warm centrepiece on your dining room table. Because these fireplaces use natural gas to burn and don’t require a chimney, they don’t produce smoke or ash and are very clean to use. They also come in a variety of designs so you can choose one that matches your home’s decor and design style.
If you do have a fireplace installed in your home, Temu suggests that you can amplify its heat with a heat-powered fan, which needs no electricity – just heat to get the fan running, and enhance the heat circulation in the room.
For smaller spaces in your home, like next to your favourite armchair, or in the bathroom, you could get a tea light oven radiator candle heating kit. Shaped almost like a lamp, tea candles lit beneath a terracotta “lampshade” warm the lampshade up which in turn radiates heat outwards into the room – great for warming chilly hands!
- Heated blankets and…furnishings?
Many of us have electric blankets on our beds, so we can slide into a warm bed when heading off to sleep. But did you know that you can get USB-charging blankets too, that you can use anywhere – on the couch in a weekend Bridgerton binge, over your lap while you’re working at the computer, or used as a shawl wrapped around you while making a cuppa in the kitchen?
To make your couch even cosier, Temu suggests you add USB-heated throw pillows and you’ll be warm and toasty all round. You can also get a plug-in heated seat cushion that lines the back and seat of your chair, almost like a heated car seat, to keep you warm while working at your desk.
And don’t downplay how effective a traditional hot water bottle can be in warming you up – especially placed at your feet when you head off to bed.
- Keep the heat in with insulation
Once you’ve built that warmth in your room, you need to keep it in, and smart insulation is a great way to do that. Insulating curtains for your windows or magnetic insulation door curtains are very practical considering a typical home loses 10% to 15% of its heat through its windows, and 25% to 30% of heat through its doors.
If you’re into your DIY, you can take it a step further and insulate your ceiling with adhesive high-density fireproof insulation cotton, like the rolls available from Temu.
- “Cool” gadgets to bring the heat
Innovation is always bringing new gadgets to the market, and there are some really practical but fun ones to help you keep warm tonight.
Like a heating coaster for your tea or coffee. Hot beverages tend to get cold much quicker in winter, so having USB-charged smart beverage warmers will help to keep that hot chocolate hot for longer (especially when you’re engrossed in the latest episode of your favourite series).
There’s no reason to be cold, and using these tips from Temu will ensure that you and your home will be warm and snug, not just tonight, but throughout the remaining winter months.
