The first day of the heatwave is pretty much over with so I’m going to share my thoughts on what helped us stay cool and what didn’t really work.

The Good

Freezing half-filled bottles of lucozade and filling them with water was a fantastic shout!! It was a refreshing treat and I would recommend it to anyone wanting a nice cold drink throughout the day.

Closing the curtains made me feel a little bit like a vampire but honestly it really helped keep the house cool. We measured the temperature on the living room table versus the windowsill (six feet away) and there was an 8 degree difference!!

Staying on the ground floor of our house probably made the biggest impact for me. Although there were two desk fans and a ceiling fan on full all day long upstairs, it was noticeably cooler downstairs. It might be because we have more window coverings downstairs or it might be the fact that heat rises. I don’t know, but I tried to avoid going upstairs unless I needed to!

And as a bonus: semi-frozen grapes!! I’ve heard so many people recommend frozen grapes as a treat during the summer but it wasn’t until a friend clarified that you pop them in the freezer for 15-30 minutes before you want to eat them so they aren’t frozen solid. I really enjoyed eating grapes this way! The texture was totally transformed and almost like a slushie consistency.

The Bad

I saw a tip to open your attic hatch to let hot air escape out of the house and through the roof and… I don’t think it works at all! Maybe it would’ve worked if we didn’t have any windows cracked or any fans going upstairs but that just didn’t feel like an option. Also it kind of seemed like it was letting more hot air back into the house?? Once we realised it wasn’t helping the heat escape we closed the attic again and tried to focus the upstairs fans on blowing the hot air out of cracked windows.

Putting cat treats in the fridge seemed like a good idea but honestly the cats didn’t care very much about whether the treats were cold. I also tried putting treats in a shallow bowl of water and that was only slightly successful. Basically our cats are picky and didn’t seem to give a shit whether or not they were overheating!!!

Pet cooling mats are another great idea but the cats don’t really seem to use it on purpose. Maybe if the whole floor was covered in cooling mats they would use it but they just didn’t care.

Final Thoughts

Tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter so I’m going to double down on keeping the curtains drawn, as well as making sure the cats aren’t allowed in the catio during the hottest part of the day. I have dance rehearsal in the evening and I’m already planning on bringing a cooler with some ice packs so the dance team can keep their drinks chilled, but I’m also definitely going to bring a fan with me just incase. Really crossing my fingers that the air conditioning in the rehearsal space is good!