Avoiding the Draft

My New Year's resolution for 2010 will be to stop throwing money out the window. And since I like a good head start, I weatherstripped our windows.

Here's what you'll need and how to do it, if you're lucky enough to have ancient windows like me:

Rubbing alcohol, paper towel (or a rag), tape measure, scissors, weatherstrip (appropriate width for your window)


First, open up your window and clean your cracks (or tracks, jambs if you take offense and want to be technical) with rubbing alcohol and paper towel. This will clean up greasy stuff, and general debris. Let it dry (which won't take long).

Then measure the crack-track-jamb and cut weatherstrip to length.

Then remove the adhesive strip and stick inside the area you just measured.

Close your window tightly, and you're done. If you have side sliding windows (or doors), do it on the sides. If you have regular up-down windows, do it on the top and bottom.

I should have done this a year ago, but we thought we were going to replace all our windows. Which is also why we didn't bother doing a decent job painting around the windows. Just ignore that :)

Do you have old original windows in your home? Is your place drafty? Are new windows crazy expensive like I think they will be (none of ours are standard sizes)? Do you have any resolutions for the new year that you can't wait to get started on?