How to Prep Your Baltimore Apartment for Winter Weather

Inspect windows. Look over your windows and determine if they have leaks or are drafty. You can ask you landlord to repair or replace them, but if that’s not an option you’re not doomed to a chilly winter. You can shrink wrap your windows, block off drafty portions, or invest in heavy draperies that will stop the bulk of the drafts.

​Test your heating system. Before cold weather hits, make sure your heating system is working like it should. If not, talk to your landlord and get things fixed before you actually need the heat.

Reverse your ceiling fan. In the summer, ceiling fan blades cool a room by pushing cold air down. In the winter, you want the opposite to happen. Most ceiling fans come complete with a switch that allows you to reverse the direction the blades spin. Flip it to get a little help with keeping warm air near the part of the room you’re living in.

Make or buy draft dodgers. You can limit the impact a cold breeze has on your space by blocking it with a simple draft dodger. They’re easy to make but if you don’t have the time or the inclination, they’re not expensive to buy either. Use them to stop cold air flows around windows and doors.

Consider smaller heaters. Space heaters and electric blankets are just two ways that you can add extra warmth to parts of your apartment that you use the most. Focus on these and you could save big on heating costs.

Learn to use your thermostat. If you have a programmable thermostat, you can save big by programming it to warm the house when you’re there and cool it when you’re not. If you don’t have one, consider adding one to you place or simply putting the heat up or down when you leave and come home.

Check your smoke detectors. Between holiday lights, candles, space heaters, and other devices, there are plenty of fire hazards in the winter. Make sure your smoke alarms are in good working order so you’ll be alerted of any hazards with enough time to get out of the house.

Invest in warm bedding. You’ll keep yourself from shivering at night when you’re sleeping by getting flannel sheets, a down comforter, or other types of super warm bedding.

Stock up on essentials. A crazy snowstorm could make it hard to get out of your place to get food or other essentials. Keep water, pet food, and canned items on hand to carry you through times when you can’t get out.

Warm sustenance. Avid Starbucks-goers can tell the seasons are changing by the appearance of pumpkin spice lattes, followed by peppermint mochas. Warm beverages have come to be prominent characteristics of the holiday season. And rightly so. Sipping a hot drink while the cold bites at your skin makes you infinitely warmer– and usually happier.
Getting ready for the cold weather season, have these hot drinks on hand in your home. Teas, cocoas, and coffees are great to fill your cupboards with. That way, when you wake up in the morning with the chill threatening to enter your cocoon of blankets, you might have an incentive to get out of bed: a nice hot chocolate (or whatever your morning drink of choice may be).
It doesn’t stop there. Soups and stews can make great meals during this time of year. Stock up early on your favorite ingredients.

​Using the oven. While we are on that note of cooking, the winter is a great time to begin baking. Have you ever restrained yourself from using the oven in the summer, when you don’t want the appliance to heat up the rest of your kitchen? Well during the winter that is one of the benefits of using an oven!
It is time to bring out all of your old recipes for baked goods– brownies, banana bread, lasagne, meatloaf– and turn that oven on! By the time you are done cooking you will have delicious treats, plus a nice toasty kitchen to enjoy them in.

​Original Articles: 
http://www.rentersinsurance.com/2012/10/how-to-prep-your-apartment-for-winter-weather/
http://www.uloop.com/news/view.php/175093/How-To-Prepare-Your-Apartment-For-Winter