Winterizing Tidbit - Curtains!

[helwen]

I had a new thought this winter -- curtains in doorways or hallways. This uses tension rods, so no screwing things into walls.

Depending on your layout, it might be useful to set one up in your hallway, far enough from the outer door that you can enter/exit easily, but that helps to form an "airlock" between the outside and the interior. Most regular tension curtain rods are too short, but they're also made as shower rods, which are longer and a bit heftier in construction. Obviously this only works in places that have a hallway...

Doorways I might consider using them on are if you have areas that don't have doors and that you don't go into very often but can't close off. I use one for the doorway into our unheated, north-facing pantry. The fabric I used here is just muslin because there's a window in the pantry and I wanted the light to come through, but it keeps the cool of the pantry out of the apt. and keeps the pantry itself cool enough to store our winter squash in.

If you have a funky deadend space/alcove somewhere, that mostly gets used for storing "stuff", and it has an outside wall, that space might be a candidate for a heavier weight curtain, to create a cool storage space. Weighting the bottom of the curtain is a good idea -- I haven't done that with my pantry curtain, but I'm thinking about it. Currently I've been rather lazy, and the muslin is literally just run over the top of the curtain rod and safety pinned to keep it from slipping down either side... This has the added advantages that you are now heating less space, and creating an additional layer of insulation of sorts.

Comments

[hugh-mannity.livejournal.com]

I've thought of putting a curtain between my kitchen and living room as there's no door there, but the Feline Overlords would shred it in an instant. Well, two instants, the first instant would be for pulling down the tension rod :)

[helwen.livejournal.com]

LOL

Hm, do they jump up on curtains or do you think it would be because it was at floor level? When we had the power outage a couple of years ago I curtained off the far end of our hallway, which only went to a room we keep unheated. I left a bit of space at the bottom, so the cats could still explore that bit of hallway and that seemed to satisfy them -- same thing in summer.

Oh, and I now also sometimes use tension rods in the fall, to hang corn to dry :D High enough the mice can't get to it, as we don't currently have any kitties to help us out with that. Don't know if that might come in handy, say if you ever dry herbs or something...

Also...

[bytchearse.livejournal.com]

Other than the curtain rods*, you can get some nice fabric/old sheets/blankets etc at Goodwill if you don't have something on hand.

*Used rods such as Goodwill might have could have weak springs.

Re: Also...

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Yes I would use new curtain rods, definitely.

Good call on Goodwill/Salvation Army for fabric/blankets. Or if you have Freecycle in your area, that has possibilities too.

[embermwe.livejournal.com]

I use this type of curtain in our computer room which is "command central" and people tend to hang out there a lot. It tends to be warm, as it is a smallish room with several comps and people in it. During the winter, the curtain in the doorway keeps heat in, but allows pets entrance and egress. During the summer, this is the one room of the house with AC, and the curtain again allows pets in and out, but keeps the ambient temp inside.