10 ways to keep warm at home if you don’t have a heating pad

There are many sit­u­a­tions where a warm heat­ing pad can come in handy. This is mus­cle pain after train­ing, the occur­rence of cramps in the legs, pain in the lig­a­ments and ten­dons. And just the desire to enjoy the warmth in the cold sea­son is a seri­ous rea­son to get a heat­ing pad.

But if for some rea­son you don’t have it, it’s easy to do it your­self. The eas­i­est and most afford­able ways to “get” heat safe­ly at home are on Med­AboutMe.

Method 1: Hot water bottle

The most pop­u­lar way. It is used by sum­mer res­i­dents, try­ing to keep warm in unheat­ed hous­es, and stu­dents who are chilled in a cold hos­tel. All you need to get warm is to heat the water in the ket­tle to the right tem­per­a­ture, pour it into plas­tic bot­tles, close the lid tight­ly and wrap each bot­tle with a tow­el.

If desired, such heat­ing pads can be tak­en with you to bed — they retain heat for sev­er­al hours.

Method 2: Warm towel

If the first method is suit­able only for adults, because pour­ing hot water into a bot­tle, you can get burned, then even a school­boy can han­dle it. And what, exact­ly, in the absence of his par­ents at home, will he want a lit­tle warmth and com­fort?

To pre­pare a heat­ing pad, you need to take two tow­els and one ziplock bag. Soak one tow­el in warm water and wring it out. Place the tow­el in the bag and, with­out zip­ping it, place it in the microwave for 2 min­utes. Remove the hot tow­el in the bag from the microwave, fas­ten the zip­per on the bag and wrap it with a dry tow­el. That’s all, you can use the “heater” for its intend­ed pur­pose.

Method 3: “Second life” socks and golfs

If you have a whole col­lec­tion of “lon­ers” of socks and golfs at home, it’s time to give them a “sec­ond life”.

Fill clean prod­ucts with raw rice or buck­wheat. From above, tie the prod­uct with threads or an elas­tic band. Place the cere­al-filled items in the microwave for 2 min­utes. After that, you can use the heat­ing pad for your own pur­pos­es.

If you do not have a microwave oven, you can roast the grits in a dry fry­ing pan, then trans­fer it to socks and stock­ings.

Method 4: Fragrant bag of salt

To get not only a prac­ti­cal, but also a very con­ve­nient and fra­grant heat­ing pad with your own hands, you can sew a bag of arbi­trary size from a dense nat­ur­al fab­ric, fill it with sea salt from a phar­ma­cy, which you first sprin­kle with a few drops of laven­der essen­tial oil or any oth­er.

To use such a heat­ing pad, you need to hold it for 2–3 min­utes in the microwave or pre-heat the salt in a dry fry­ing pan. To avoid burn­ing your­self dur­ing use, wait until the tem­per­a­ture of the heat­ing pad is warm, but not scald­ing.

Method 5: Warm bean bag

Beans, such as beans, peas, and lentils, hold heat well. They are also often used to cre­ate home heat­ing pads. But you need to be care­ful when work­ing with them: the beans in the microwave need to be heat­ed at inter­vals of 30 sec­onds.

After heat­ing, place the beans in a bag or small pil­low­case and use as direct­ed. If the heat­ing bag is sewn in advance, heat the beans direct­ly in it.

Method 6: Bag of barley and herbs

And this way to warm up is suit­able for lovers of fra­grant pro­ce­dures. Such a heat­ing pad will help out in the cold and fill the room with the aro­mas of sum­mer.

To pre­pare it, sew a bag of the select­ed size, then fill it with bar­ley or oth­er grain. To make the heat­ing pad fra­grant, you can put dry herbs inside it — chamomile, sage, lin­den. Microwave the bag before use until the grain is warm and the dry herbs release their fla­vor.

Method 7: Massage Stones

And this way to warm up and relax has been used for sev­er­al cen­turies. It has been used since ancient times. Hot stone mas­sage is a pop­u­lar beau­ty treat­ment today.

For mas­sage, spe­cial stones are heat­ed in a pot of hot water, then cooled to an accept­able tem­per­a­ture and cooled. Most often these are stones of igneous, meta­mor­phic or sed­i­men­ta­ry rocks. They are smooth and pleas­ant to the touch, keep warm well. You can buy them in spe­cial­ized stores and phar­ma­cies.

Hot stones are ide­al for relax­ing the back, legs and but­tocks. It is enough just to lay them along the spine. And for those who want to get more ben­e­fits, you can learn hot stone mas­sage.

Method 8: Paraffin Treatments

If only the extrem­i­ties suf­fer from the cold, you can com­bine busi­ness with plea­sure — car­ry out paraf­fin ther­a­py and warm up.

For this pro­ce­dure, you will need cos­met­ic paraf­fin. It is sold in phar­ma­cies and cos­met­ics stores. Melt the paraf­fin in a water bath accord­ing to the instruc­tions, then apply in sev­er­al lay­ers on the skin of the hands or feet. When there are 5–6 lay­ers of paraf­fin on the skin, wrap the limbs with plas­tic wrap, then insu­late with gloves or socks. Paraf­fin will pro­vide heat for 30–40 min­utes.

Method 9: Hot Compresses

If a heat­ing pad is need­ed for med­i­c­i­nal pur­pos­es, and the area of ​​​​impact is small, you can resort to hot com­press­es. A 2013 study shows that hot com­press­es can help peo­ple improve flex­i­bil­i­ty, range of motion, and sore mus­cles and joints.

To pre­pare a com­press, it is enough to soak a fold­ed tow­el in tol­er­a­bly hot water, wring it out and attach it to the sore spot. But keep in mind that heat­ing pads are nev­er placed on dam­aged skin.

Method 10: Hugs with a pet

Favorite pets can also play the role of a per­son­al heat­ing pad. Cats and dogs will not only warm you in bad weath­er, but also calm and relax, and also give a lot of pos­i­tive emo­tions. And com­mu­ni­ca­tion with them, as stud­ies have shown, pro­longs life.

Be healthy!