How to Survive Winter in the Northeast

22 Feb How to Survive Winter in the Northeast

Whenever I tell someone how much I hate the winters here in the Northeast they always ask, “Well where are you from?” My answer, deadpan: “Michigan“.

I guess it doesn’t really matter where the winter is, I just don’t get along with it. Sure, I love skiing and snowboarding as much as the next guy, but it’s not so easy to do when you’ve got three little children. And besides, skiing doesn’t make up for the dry skin, dismal views, wet shoes, and commutes so cold you can barely think.

For years I’ve dreaded winters. All summer long I think about it. “Geez it’s nice to be sitting on my porch in the sun with my shirt off. Wish I could do this forever. Too bad I can’t because WINTER is just a few months away.” I understand, I should be living in the moment and enjoying the warm days. But the winters here are just so long here that it’s hard not to think about summer as a mere ‘break’ from the cold.

Near the end of last winter I decide that I needed to make some changes. Recognizing that a move to California wouldn’t be happening anytime soon, I figured I’d better learn how to make the most of winter or else I would go insane.

It is now February, and let me tell you, I’m doing alright (so far!) Granted, we haven’t had the worst winter on record, but we’ve had some substantial snowfall. The changes I’ve made are surprisingly simple and cheap, and I want to share them with you in the hopes that maybe they will make your own winter even slightly less-awful.
 

Four Inexpensive and Easy Winter Hacks

1.) Use a Humidifier

Whether you get dry skin or not, my opinion is that NO ONE was meant to live in the dry, stale air which is in most of our homes. I recently purchased a humidistat for $11 on Amazon (highly recommend) and discovered that my un-humidified house was sitting at around 31% humidity. The recognized ‘comfortable range’ is between 40% and 60%

As soon as the humidistat drops down below 40% (even the low 40’s!) I start to feel super unhealthy. My skin gets dry and irritated easily, my sinuses hurt when I wake in the morning, and I generally just feel hollow and terrible (thanks, Winter.) I’ll admit, I haven’t read much about low humidity’s effects on the body, but it can’t be good.

Humidifying my house has been the single, best thing I’ve done for my body this winter. With the help of three humidifiers throughout my house (and occasionally boiling water on my stovetop) I’ve been able to maintain my entire house’s humidity between 52% and 60%, sometimes even slightly higher. My skin feels better, I sleep better, and my house feels warmer at lower temperatures. (67 degrees F with 60% humidity feels like 70 degrees at 30%).

My favorite room humidifier right now is this guy for $30. It’s definitely a knock-off Chinese brand of some sort but it’s WAY better than the name brand ‘Crane’ models. This humidifier will easily handle one really large room and it could potentially handle even more.

There are other ‘whole house humidifiers‘ I’ve been playing around with the idea of purchasing (~$150), but it really comes down to your need and budget.

Keep in mind that it can take over 24 hours for the humidifier to ‘catch up’ with the air, so be patient once you start using it.
 

2.) Buy a Coat

You wouldn’t believe how much I’ve complained about the cold weather in my life while at the same time wearing summer shoes, a light jacket, and no gloves. What an idiot.

If you’re hoping to get through winter with minimum chill, you really need to buy yourself a nice winter coat. Not a peacoat, not a puff-jacket, not a North Face softshell, I mean a parka. I know Patagonia-esque down jackets are kind of ‘in’ right now but they just don’t match the warmth of a heavy, bulky winter parka. And before you say something like, “Parkas are expensive! I can’t afford one of those!” let me just say, you don’t need a $1,200 Canada Goose parka. There are really nice name-brand parkas available in the $80-$150 price range, especially if purchased on sale.

The same goes for gloves. Wear gloves. It will instantly make your cold commute 20% better.
 

3.) Take initiative with the snow

This is an interesting one that took me a number of years to figure out.

Sure, it’s kind of magical when the snow first begins to fall in November and December. Everyone is still looking forward to the holidays, it’s a change of scenery, and the roads aren’t completely debased with thousands of tons of salt, grime and chemicals. But by the end of January it’s a different story. By then I’m cursing any new snowfall. An inch or two of new snow will fall to the ground and I pretend it isn’t there. “It’s just a dusting…do I really need to shovel? It’s going to melt soon anyways, right?”

The problem with the ‘ignore it till it melts’ method is that before long you’ve got a chunky, slippery, annoying driveway that reminds you daily how much you hate winter.

The solution: stay on top of the snow! As soon as that snow begins to fall, get out there with a shovel and get rid of it. Don’t let it pile up. Brush off your handrails, picnic tables, and porch even if you don’t intend to use it. Every inch of snow piled onto a fence post is another reminder of how much of that damn white stuff you have to deal with. Staying on top of your snow removal keeps things clean and eliminates that feeling of being ‘snowed in’.

Another benefit to taking care of the snow early is revenge. Preventing the snow from piling up on my driveway gives me the satisfaction that I’ve give Old Man Winter the ole’ One-Two.
 

4.) Buy as many house plants as you (reasonably) can

So the operative word here is ‘reasonably’. ‘Reasonably’ doesn’t mean that you should turn your living room into a rain forest, nor does it mean that you should spend outrageous money on the latest urban millennial phenotype fad.

Still, your home could probably stand to have a few plant additions, and here’s two reason why:

1.) If you live in the Northeast, it’s easy to forget that green is a color in nature. The more you can remind yourself that is is, the better. Placing plants in key places around your home offers a subconscious reminder that even though everything outside looks dead, there is still plenty of life to enjoy in the world.

2.) Buying new plants during the winter gives you the feeling that you’re actively bringing life into your house. The novelty of something fresh and new in your living space is a nice refreshment.
 

Make the Most of It

The biggest thing I’ve learned about living in the Northeast is that your experience is defined by your inputs. If you plan on winter being miserable, winter will be miserable. The same goes for any undesirable circumstance in which you find yourself. The key is in mindset and planning. If you take an active role in creating your experience and maintain the right perspective, just about anything can be tolerable. I’m not saying that I’ve learned to love winter (and of course I still complain from time to time) but I’ve learned to make the most of it. I hope you can learn to do the same!