Shrink Wrap your Windows!

Seriously, shrink wrap your windows!

I know. I was skeptical of it being a worth while investment of time and energy at first too, but it really works, especially if you live in an older home like me.

Now, if you don't know what I am talking about I'll explain myself.  What I call shrink wrapping your windows is really called weather sealing, weatherizing, home sealing, or whatever.  They all mean pretty much the same thing and you can get handy dandy little kits in just about any hardware or department store to do this, and you can do it all yourself in an afternoon.

Notice that is claims a saving of up to $190 in the top right corner.
I am not sure  about that, but I know doing this does save
you money. 

The kits look something like this, and this one cost me around $10.  They are really easy and straight forward.  Even a klutz like me can finish this project in an afternoon.  I promise.

All you'll need besides the kit is a screw driver, some scissors, a hot air blow dryer, and maybe a tape measure if you really want to be a show off.

First thing that you are going to want to do is take off all the window dressings, i.e. curtains and blinds, on the windows you are going to shrink wrap.  Then clean the window frame because later you are going to adhere double sided tape on the frame to hold the plastic over the windows.

Then cut out a piece of plastic the size you need to cover the window, put the tape on the window frame, put the plastic up, blow dry the plastic to make it shrink down and look smooth, and then put your curtains and blinds back up.  That's it.

Yes, this is kind of a pain in the ass, but it will be worth it.  Mama Bear and I have done this for a few years now, and the difference was notable, and I am positive that the heat retained from doing this did in fact save us some serious money during the winter season because before we learned about this little money saving trick our home was just hemorrhaging heat.  It's not like that now.    That's all I need to be a firm believer, so now we shrink wrap our shiz every winter.

P.s. Using the gaskets on the sockets and weatherstripping the doors helped too, but for us it was the windows that were killing us.

P.P.s.  If you wake up in the morning and your windows have condensation built up on them that means they have a bad seal and you are losing money by heating the out doors.  A little shrink wrap will help you save some of that cash. 

P.P.P.s.  I was in no way approached to post this.  I just thought I would pass along an idea on how we can all save a little money by doing an easy DIY project.