As the cost of energy rises to before unheard of levels, householders are attempting to use as little energy as possible to heat their homes. For the elderly especially it is important to keep the rooms they use warm enough to avoid any harm to their health. Here are some top tips for keeping your home warm this winter.

The effect on the warmth of a room by closing blinds and curtains cannot be emphasised enough as research using a heat detected shows that this simple thing can keep the heat in a room rather than a high percentage of it escaping outside. Heavy curtains are the best and should be closed as soon as night falls.

It is important to stop any draughts coming into the room under doors by using foam draught excluder around the door frame and by putting a fabric draught excluder at the bottom of the door. Again, a heavy curtain across the door can be used to retain heat.

Making sure that the heating appliance that you are using is working efficiently is essential so having the gas central heating boiler serviced, having the chimney swept and checking the settings on storage heaters to see whether they are giving out heat when they should, could save you money.

Energy prices are currently at an all time high and this is only set to get worse as it is like to increase further over the next 12 months. So many people are already struggling to keep up with the rising prices and this does not appear to be a short term issue. The best way to help navigate this issue is to try and reduce the amount of energy you use and one way in which you can do this is to insure that your home is well insulated so during the winter months, when most of us use more electricity and gas to heat out homes, you retain as much heat as possible.

There are a number of ways in which you can improve the energy efficiency within your home but opting for insulated doors and windows is one of them. You may be surprised as to how much heat can actually be lost through your front door. It may be time to replace or upgrade your door to a better insulated one. Although there is an upfront cost for this, you may find that overtime you more than make this money back in saved money on your energy bills.

Most of us do regular quick cleans round each room of our homes without paying too much attention to any particular room, however this is how hidden dirt and grime can really build up over time and often gets missed. In your bathroom it’s probably often full of moisture, from either the bath or shower and often filled with unpleasant smells too so a regular deep clean really is a must.

The bath/shower – these areas are absolute mould magnets so you may need to use quite strong cleaners contain bleach to get rid of the black mould that can sit between your tiles. For any stubborn areas soak cotton wool in bleach (always wear gloves!) and leave on the area over night. Ensure the room is well ventilated and that the bleach doesn’t come into contact with any fabric or delicate surfaces.

The toilet – a really good antiseptic cleaner is a must here and you should always keep a separate cloth for cleaning the toilet with to avoid spreading any harmful bacteria such as E.coli.

The sink – to cut through all that soap scum you will need a good degreaser, citrus fruits such as lemon provide a great natural cleanser and will leave your sink smelling lovely too!

There are times when you don’t have time to do a full house clean but need a quick freshener. Maybe you have friends popping round or you have 15 spare minutes before you need to leave for work. Here are some fast cleaning hacks that will maximise what you can do in a short space of time.

Plumping up your sofa cushions – this makes a massive difference to your living room making it instantly look tidier, you could give the cushions a spritz with a fabric freshener too, leaving the room smelling fresh and clean.

Make your bed – straightening out your bed sheets and scatter cushions on your bed make the room look neat and tidy in a matter of minutes and spraying on a bit of a crease releaser will tidy up your sheets making them look freshly ironed.

Tumble dryer sheets – you can use these on the mirrored surfaces in your home to give a lovely shine and the simply pop the sheets just behind the radiator. When the heating comes on a beautiful smell will fill your home.

Flip your reeds – If you love reed diffusers and have them dotted around the house you may not realise that it’s recommended that you turn the reeds over once a week. Doing this help to disperse the scent more evenly and will give your room a real burst of fragrance.

For lots of people, cleaning is just a job that has to be done and something that they don’t look forward to but for others, cleaning can actually be very therapeutic and calming. It may be that you like cleaning certain rooms of your home or that you find some cleaning jobs more enjoyable than others. It is easy to get distracted with the things we enjoy doing and keep putting off the jobs we don’t like. Creating a cleaning schedule will really help keep you on track and can ensure you get everything done that you need to.

Firstly, you need to decide who you are able to allocate jobs too. Even if you have children living in the home, you can often find small jobs that are age appropriate to them. This will not only help to share the load but will also help in teaching them life skills and lessons they can take forward with them as they get older. Make a list of all of the day-to-day jobs that need doping and then split them up in to who is able to do those. It may be that many of the jobs need to be done by the adults of the house, but these can be swapped around to ensure the same person isn’t always doing the same task.