Advice for the rolling blackouts & frigid temps from someone that grew up dirt poor in MN and dealt with the electricity being cut off

* a thread *

Pick a room with a door to keep heated and shut all the other ones off. Close heating vents & shut the doors. Make it a fun sleepover if you have kids. Gather up all the blankets, pillows, warm clothes (plus entertainment & snacks) and stick to that room as much as possible.

If you're lucky enough to have a gas stove that should still work without electricity, but you'll need to light it yourself. Fill all 4 burners with pots of water to boil. Put the pot full of boiling water on a safe surface in your warm room & immediately start boiling more.

Plug up the bathtub & toss the warm (but no longer steaming) water from your warm room in the bathtub. This will keep the bathroom & pipes warm plus great for a bath if needed.

Seems silly but humidity helps make it feel warmer.

In your warm room you need to cover up/ further insulate your window(s). Get creative here because you might want/ need all your blankets. We used saran wrap, packing tape (don't recommend b/c it's damaging; painters tape is ideal) and stuffed crumpled up newspaper inside...

Working up from the bottom add a row or 2 of saran wrap then drop newspaper balled up in the gap between the window & the plastic. Keep working your way up. It's not perfect & looks SO BAD but it helps a lot. Clearly real window kits are better but it's unlikely you have that.

Dress in layers. ALL OF THE LAYERS! You don't need fancy gear. Wearing any old pair of leggings underneath sweatpants will make them warmer. 2x socks. A long sleeve shirt under a sweatshirt & your warmest jacket. Get a proper hat on and then put your hoodie up over top.

We used to run an extension cord from our nice neighbors but in a rolling blackout situation that's not helpful. I'm going to keep wracking my brain for the other things we used to do. Please feel free to add your own ideas! No power in this cold is so scary!

People not used to freezing temps also might not have insulated pipes. You DO NOT want to deal with a frozen pipe. It can burst & cause all kinds of heartache. Run hot water when you can & maybe use some of that boiling water to ensure pipes don't freeze.