t’s always hot in the middle of the summer, but this season has seen record-breaking heat waves and temperatures soaring across the country and around the world. As much as we’d like to just stand in front of the open freezer door to avoid melting like a popsicle, we still have lives to live and that often includes leaving the house.
To help us suffer a little less in the scorching heat, Buzzfeed has rounded up some free hacks to help keep us cool(er) this summer.
- "Buckle in your seat belt when you leave your car so that when you get back in, the metal buckle won't heat up and burn you."
- "If your home’s HVAC system is struggling to keep your house cool, it’s probably a dirty filter."
- "Make sure your fan is switched to spin COUNTERCLOCKWISE to create a downdraft and push colder air toward you. Ceiling fans often have a lil’ switch on the base."
- "When you start driving, don't roll down all of your windows to cool your car down. Only roll down the driver's and passenger's windows, and the cross breeze will be much stronger."
- "If you're wearing sandals (or any other open-toed shoe) and you have to take them off, put them face-down. That way, when you put them back on, your feet won't burn."
- "Put your suntan lotion and after sun lotion in the fridge to enhance their cooling effects."
- "Put a couple plastic bottles 3/4 way full of water in the freezer. When the water is frozen, put the bottle in front of a fan and rotate when thawed."
- "Putting a large pot of cool water on the burner over your oven vent will help keep your kitchen cool when the oven is on. Very helpful in the summer."
- "If you double click and hold the unlock button for 10–15 seconds on most cars, all the windows will open. This is especially useful on hot summer days."
- "At night during the summer, open two windows and use a large fan to blow the hot air out of one window, which pulls cooler air into the house from the other window. This is much more effective than trying to blow cooler air in directly with the fan."
- "The easiest way to cool down in high heat is to dunk your shirt in water and then wear it."
- "In the long heatwave we had a couple of years ago, we were sweltering and thinking about the thermal sheets you can put in cars. I decided to hang one of those thin silver thermal blankets over the outside of my living room window. It worked so well I ended up putting them on all the south-facing windows. It still let the light in to a degree but reflected much of the heat back."
Source: BuzzFeed