I have a couple of colleagues who positively revel in the cold, biking in negative bazillion degrees and taking pictures of their frozen beards and stuff. Me? I hate the cold. I’m more like my colleagues that moved here from CA or Hawaii in my preferences, though I’ve lived in the midwest most of my life.
So here’s how I cope:
- Silk Long Underwear, and get the good stuff (my favorite is Lands End). This is the single most important purchase for anyone living in a cold climate. I’m more of a wimp than most, so I wear this pretty much continuously from October to April. Bonus, I just figured out that you can even wear it under opaque tights!
- Two scarves — a silk one next to your neck and face, wrapped to cover your nose, and then a regular one over that to keep out the wind.
- Two pairs of mittens — I have lovely, warm hand-knit ones with thin commercial-knit mittens underneath. And mittens are far better than gloves because all your fingers can snuggle together for warmth.
- A regular coat for most of the time, but a thick, ugly survival coat for those truly cold stretches.
- A hat. Ideally it should cover your ears and forehead. It WILL mess up your hair.
- YakTrax — do NOT try to walk on ice without them.
- Lots of throw blankets around the house. Nobody can afford to heat a house to balmy temperatures in this kind of cold and wind, so keep things tolerable and then snuggle into blankets for extra coziness.
- Adhesive foot warmers for inside your shoes. (And when it’s REALLY bad, hand warmers for inside your mittens.)
- Thick flannel sheets on your bed (again, go for something like Lands End — it’s worth it).
- Heated mattress cover — warm up the bed for the half-hour before you go to bed. Mmmmm. (Ok, so this one is optional compared to the others. Taking a hot water bottle to bed with you works too. But man, if you have the chance to get one, it sure is lovely.)
- Window plastic to keep out the drafts. Again, drafts become very, very expensive when you’re talking truly cold weather plus wind.
- Lots of warm drinks.
What would you add?
Well, you’re gonna need a few cats. One could work, in a pinch.
Good boots! I have two pairs.
Emu makes shearling boots virtually indistiguishable from Ugg’s, to my eye, at least. They are less expensive. These are not boots made for walking. They are boots to step into in a jiffy, perfect for driving or just hanging out someplace. I can wear them all day without my feet overheating. They are soft and warm and lovely to wear. I don’t even have to wear socks.
For walking, I have fabulous insulated boots from Keen. They lace up and have hiking boot soles for better traction. They fit me perfectly and are very warm. I still wear YakTrax with them when surfaces get slippery.
Socks, Preferably SmartWool. They don’t itch. They come fun stripes. There other good brands of itchless merino wool, such as REI. I get good socks of this ilk for Christmas every year. Every. Year.
I like the layered scarves idea.
OK, I totally TOTALLY agree with the Land’s End silk long johns, first of all. I would die without my silk long underwear in the winter. I am not exaggerating.
I really like shearling (real shearling) boots. After trying various brands and having my favorite boots discontinued repeatedly and having mixed results with off-brand boots I caved and bought Uggs. I will check out Emu boots, though. I wear my shearling boots unless I’ll be wading through slush or tromping through substantial snow; they’re not waterproof, but in weather like this, nothing’s going to melt until I go inside, anyway. I also wear shearling slippers in the house.
I carry around a pair of backup slipper-socks in my purse because you have to take off your boots when you go into a house, and my feet will get cold without slippers. I will bring my real slippers in a tote bag if I remember; the backup slippers are in case I forget.
Smartwool! YES. Smartwool is awesome. I also have wool Smartwool sweaters that I wear.