Five Hacks for Staying Cool

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In the summer, staying cool can be a huge challenge. With air conditioning, it can also be an expensive quest. The good news is that you don’t necessarily need air conditioning, whether from a window unit or a central air system, to keep cool. Here are five hacks for staying cool, whether now during the year’s warmest months or in the winter if your home’s heat is always too high.

Keep the curtains closed

Although the ample sun that summer brings is one of the season’s many highlights, if you’re serious about staying cool, you need to block as much sunlight as possible. Keep your curtains closed when the sun is out, especially between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. when the sun shines especially strongly, to block excess heat from entering your home. Blackout curtains may be especially successful at keeping heat out. If you have blinds in addition to your curtains, keep them drawn too.

Create cross ventilation

If you have windows on opposite sides of your home, you can use them to create cross ventilation or a wind tunnel when temperatures are cooler in the morning or at night. Open both windows and determine through which one the wind is entering. Place a fan pointing inward from that window and another fan pointing outward at the other window. This way, cool air that enters the house can be drawn directly across to the other window, generating cross ventilation that will help you keep cool.

Refrigerate skin products and fragrances

If there’s something you apply to your face or body every day, chances are that its shelf life is extended in cooler settings. In warmer months, refrigerating your beauty products comes with the added benefit of keeping you cool when you apply them. Putting a refrigerated perfume, lotion, moisturizer, or other cream or spray on your body will give you a cooling, refreshing sensation. This feeling represents an actual lowering of your body temperature.

Dampen a sheet

Take any top sheet you’re not currently using on your bed and dampen it. Hang this sheet over an open window and let the hot air from the outside pass over it. This hot air will evaporate the water in the sheet, which will generate a cooling air stream in your room without the use of fans or air conditioners. Once all the water in the sheet has evaporated, the sheet will still be useful, as covering your window with it can help keep heat out of your home.

Stay cold at night

Forgo your blanket, quilt, or comforter on warm nights in favor of solely your sheets — cold sheets, that is. At least one hour before you want to go to sleep, gather your sheets in a plastic bag big enough to contain and seal them. Place this bag in your fridge and keep it there until it’s time to sleep. Remove the bag and make your bed with your newly cold sheets to stay cool as you drift off into sleep.

What are some of your favorite hacks for staying cool? Sound off in the comments!