Desperate times call for desperate measures, and the last heatwave had the House Beautiful team trying all sorts of questionable tactics to keep cool (we won't name names, but someone used their door as a giant fan).
The internet is teeming with tips, ranging from sensible to seemingly counterintuitive to downright bizarre. So we put them to the test – and some were surprisingly effective. These are the cooling tricks genuinely worth trying.
Point the fan out of the window
Fanning straight out of the window is a hack I first came across in an Instagram reel poking fun at the amount of ridiculous heatwave advice circulating online. I gave an amused chuckle, shared the clip with a couple of friends, and forgot all about it – until I came across the same piece of advice again, this time alongside an explanation of the physics involved.
Pointing a fan out the window works by acting as an exhaust, the person explained. It pulls trapped, warm indoor air and pushes it outside. So, after two unsuccessful days of trying to cool down my top-floor bedroom (read: sauna) by setting up a bowl of ice water in front of the fan, I felt inclined to give it a go. I set it up about a metre away from the window, and – lo and behold – half an hour later, the room felt noticeably cooler.
Throw on wet socks
After being tipped off by an acquaintance from Texas, House Beautiful's editor-in-chief, Torri Mundell, now swears by wearing a single cold, wet sock at night. If this sounds entirely unappealing, it is ('I'd describe the experience of pulling on a wet sock as "ugh,"' she concedes), but hear her out.
'Our bedroom is south-facing and a heat trap; we were desperate enough to give the technique a go,' she says. She ran a single hot under cold water, wrung it out and reluctantly pulled it on – but the initial discomfort turned out to be worth it.
'There's no denying that it does cool down your core body temperature – or at least provided me with enough distraction from the stifling heat of the room until I drifted off,' she says. 'I did wake up a few hours later confused and wearing a single dry, hot sock, but those first few hours were dreamy anyway!'
Sleep with a cold hot water bottle
Like me, style & interiors editor Rachel Edwards found her salvation in a reel. 'Sleep with a frozen hot water bottle. I saw this hack on Instagram suggested by a doctor, so I felt justified in trusting it immediately,' she says.
'Fill your hot water bottle three-quarters of the way – never to the top, as water expands as it freezes and you'll have an explosion on your hands. It works like a dream.' And it's not just a clever cooling hack for humans. 'I put one under a blanket for my dog, too,' Rachel adds.
Cook up a foot bath
Another foot hack comes from House Beautiful's homes writer, Maddy Ando, borne from a particularly desperate moment. 'I’m not proud of this,' she says, 'but as someone who doesn't have a fan in her flat, this heatwave inspired me to get a little more creative on a sweltering WFH day at my desk.'
Neither open windows nor drinking ice water offered relief, so there was only one option left. 'I filled two of my (least favourite) saucepans with water, added a few ice cubes, and gave each of my feet their very own low-budget ice bath under my desk,' Maddy says.
'I washed the pans thoroughly afterwards, but needless to say, it’s not the most appetising hack. It did do the trick, though…'
Take a hot shower
No one wants to hear they should take a hot shower or drink a steaming cup of tea when it's 37 degrees outside, and yet, it might just be the thing that ends your suffering – at least it did for designer Lucy Roberts.
'I had a hot shower so my body temperature came up, and when I left the bathroom it felt much cooler,' she tells me. 'I usually build it up first so start lukewarm, let myself cool down and then build up to the usual shower temperature. I’m not sure if this is scientifically accurate, but it did work for me.'
Science does agree. In fact, there are multiple reasons why this might work. For one, you experience what some refer to as the 'relief factor': a hot shower will always be warmer than any room in a heatwave, making it feel cooler by comparison.
Taking a shower also leaves a microscopic layer of water on your skin and, as this water evaporates, it pulls heat away from your body, lowering your temperature. Finally, the heat widens your blood vessels, pushing warm blood to your surface to release excess core heat.
Sleep downstairs
Next to wearing a wet sock like Torri and pointing your fan out of the window like me, there's one more thing you can do if your bedroom becomes a heat trap during the summer. You can simply not use your bedroom, like Art Editor Louisa Edge.
'At night, I open all the windows to cool the rooms down before I go to bed, and I also sleep downstairs. We use a sofa bed or an airbed in the living room,' she says. Why would that work? 'Hot air rises, so it’s much cooler!'
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The Cooling Edit
