No matter how many times we go through it, winter always seems to catch us by surprise—a chilly, costly, inconvenient surprise. Prepare yourself for the rest of this season with helpful and healthy projects, clever tricks, and energy savers.


Photo by Roby Ferrari.

10. Make your own lip balm


Sure, Blistex and all the other lip balms found at the checkout counter aren't that expensive, but they're easy to lose, and often quite funky-tasting. Enviro-blogger Lisa Tae-Ran Schroeder shows us how to make our own lip balm in batches, creating a Burt's-Bees-like salve that you can customize for better scents and, um, flavors, and give away as a thoughtful gift once you've refilled your lip balm tubes. (Original post)



Make Your Own Moisturizing Lip Balm If the cold winter air is drying out your lips, you don't have to tough it out or wear a ski mask… Read more

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The snow—it never stops coming, and it laughs at your efforts to get ahead on it. When the stuff gets sticky and hard to toss, grab a can of canola oil cooking spray, commonly known as Pam, and spray your shovel with it. No more stuck snow clumps, and your shoveling blade is a proper weapon in the war against precipitation. Photo by *clarity*.




8. Make homemade cold and chill remedies


They're not FDA-approved, but piping-hot drinks and throat-soothing elixirs are usually much more welcome than a swift shot of Afrin. If you're just cold and looking for something that feels really warm, try some homemade sbiten—or, as the Russsians call it, сбитень. If your throat's sore from a cough, nasal drip, or yelling at that accursed driveway-entombing snowplow, give it a break with a honey/lemon/ginger infusion. Want something with a little more kick? Our readers have lots of family secrets and DIY detoxifiers, many of them involving a little 21-and-over kick. Photo by Jenny Downing. (Original posts: Sbiten, infusion).




7. Make your fireplace more efficient


Having a fireplace does great things for your house's resale value. Actually using it lets you stay in one warm area and not have to keep a whole house quite so toasty. Learn how you can improve your fireplace's throughput with a fireback, glass doors, and other upgrades at Mother Earth News' efficiency guide. (Original post)



How to Make Your Fireplace More Efficient Fireplaces are lovely and cozy to sit around but not to great for actually heating your home.… Read more


6. Keep your hands warm (and useful)


As far as gloves go, we like the Glacier Gloves for their sheer cold and moisture-repelling power, and the Dots Gloves for their ability to operate your cellphone's touchscreen while your fingers stay encased in comfort. If you're not looking to fork over $50 or $30 when you've got perfectly functional gloves, though, you can throw together some rice-powered, microwave-able mitten warmers. Or, if you're feeling evil-scientist-y, you can make any pair of gloves work with touchscreens with just a bit of conductive thread. (Original posts: Glacier Gloves, DOTS Gloves, mitten warmers, touchscreen gloves).




5. Winter-proof your body


When it's so cold you can "feel it in your bones," you're really feeling it in your face, hands, and everywhere else on your skin. Real Simple goes step-by-step in helping you avoid the worst wear and tear from the weather, including the most important factor—timing. We'd be remiss if we didn't mention this DIY heated clothing, which basically turns your long johns into self-wired thermal blankets, but let's restate the obvious: be really careful if you're hooking your clothes, and legs, up to a battery. Photo by buildscharacter. (Original posts: winter-proofing, heated clothing).



How to Winter-Proof Your Body With March 20th (the first day of spring) still an unfathomable distance in the future, Real Simple Read more


4. Really use your freezer


Left on its own, it's easy to let your freezer become little more than an overflow box for the stuff that's just about to go bad in the fridge and recipe ideas that never quite launched. If you're buying food when it's fresh (second half of that monster post) and using your freezer efficiently, you can actually buy less food during the cold season. That way, you save your bucks for when the getting's good in spring.




3. Have emergency kits for home and car


Our weekend editor Jason lives in a land where being entirely trapped by snow, whether at home or in a car, is a real possibility. It hasn't gotten that dire yet, but he's planned ahead, and so should you. Take his tips on putting together a winter emergency kit for your home or car, and you'll feel less like a victim of inevitable precipitation and more like a great winter preparedness story waiting to happen. Photo by Clarity.



Put Together a Winter Home Emergency Kit You likely have all sorts of things in your home right now that would serve you well in an… Read more


2. Keep exercising


Forget what you've heard about cold-weather exercise—it's perfectly fine, if you take the right precautions. About.com offers up a few tips for keeping safe and warm on the roads, and Runner's World offers a webapp designed to help you decide what you should wear. MetaFilter founder Matt Haughey has previously outlined the best gear for winter cycling. Some dreary days, though, it's not the pants or gloves you need to get running, but motivation. One winter runner learned to trick her mind into running all winter, using a few tricks from psychology, chemistry, and plain old bragging rights. Photo by lululemon athletica. (Original post: myths, running, cycling).



Ignore Myths About the Cold and Get Exercising Has the winter season and its frigid air put a serious hamper on your exercise habit? The New York Read more


1. Lower your heating bill


It's not the most fun of weekend projects, but putting a dent in your energy costs does free up money for things that are much more fun. If you're an apartment dweller, take the advice of many winter-hardened Ask MetaFilter posters on non-permanent upgrades for a drafty rental. Got your own place? We've previously focused on easy ways to stay warm, as well as the more intensive money-saving moves that are worth the hassle. (Original posts: apartments, Easy ways)




When winter's finally over—only 70-plus days to go!—what will you consider your most valuable winter behavior or equipment? Get all sturdier-than-thou in the comments.