Insulate Your Doors This Winter With Affordable DIYs Using Items You Already Own

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Anyone who has lived in a poorly insulated house or apartment with gaps in the doors and windows knows what it's like to run around trying to keep out chilly drafts. When the temperatures plummet abruptly, you may find yourself in a similar situation, suddenly becoming aware of gaps that you didn't even know existed. One of the best ways to seal up your home and keep cold air from blowing in from underneath the door is to use door draft stoppers. People make them from all kinds of materials, and there are plenty of affordable draft stopper ideas that use items you likely already have at home.

Draft stoppers offer a stylish alternative to weatherstripping. They're known by many names, sometimes called door snakes, draft dodgers, or breeze blockers. Whether you know them as draft critters or door sausages, they're an easy fix to a common problem. First mentioned in print in the 1850s, door draft stoppers have been used for generations. Whether you need a quick fix or a more lasting solution, you can make DIY door stoppers using items like socks, old pajama pants, and sweater sleeves. Even if you don't sew, there are simple ways to keep these together at least until the weather warms back up.

You can give an old pillow new life with this useful repurposing idea. Pillows can be used as-is for a temporary door stopper, though most wouldn't be long enough, so you may need to use more than one. Alternatively, you could cut the casing of the old pillow open, take out the stuffing, and cut it in half lengthwise to double its length. After stretching the stuffing out, you can roll up both halves into a longer door snake and use rubber bands to close the ends.

Every household has an old pillowcase hanging around, and it could be just the thing you need to fashion an affordable make-shift door snake that keeps the chilly breeze from blowing into your living space. If you sew, you can use the material and get a couple of hooks to make a DIY hanging draft stopper. If you don't sew, you can use everything from rubber bands to staples and glue guns to hold material in place. If you are not sewing it closed, use filling that will not easily fall out, such as fabric scraps. 

Another affordable idea is to turn an old towel into a DIY door draft stopper. Choose a towel that's as wide as your door for the best coverage, then roll it up and wrap a rubber band or hair tie around each end. This can work as a long-term solution if you choose a towel that matches your home's decor. Be sure to use only clean, fresh towels to avoid unpleasant odors, and don't be afraid to repurpose that towel in other ways after it's finished playing the role of breeze blocker.

While old pillows and towels can be hacked into draft stoppers without requiring any extra filling, if you reuse an old sock for this DIY, it needs to be stuffed with something. Traditionally, dried rice, beans, or peas were used as filler, but if you're worried about mice or food spoilage, materials like kitty litter, cedar chips, or small pebbles may be a better option. Once you fill the sock or hosiery, tie the end with a rubber band and place it at the bottom of your door to keep the cold air out.

Old t-shirts can be used for a lot of different things, and with a couple of rubber bands and some filler, you can make an inexpensive DIY draft stopper using the same basic method as the sock, only you'll have to tie it at both ends. If you lay the t-shirt flat, then place plastic bags filled with rice, beans, popcorn, or your filler of choice on top of it, you can roll them up pretty easily and use rubber bands to secure everything in place.

An old sweater sleeve makes an excellent DIY draft excluder, and it won't cost you a penny to make one for each side of the door by using both sleeves. Fill these with your choice of materials, but remember that knits won't hold loose fillers like dried beans and lentils, so you might want to use the stuffing from an old pillow. Otherwise, bag the filler to prevent spills, then secure the ends with rubber bands or needle and thread.

The rubber pipe insulation that's made to fit over pipes is another easy DIY door draft stopper. If you have leftovers from another DIY project, this can actually be one of the easiest and best fixes to keep your home warm during the winter by keeping those cold drafts out. If you have to buy one, choose a type with a taped seam, like this 1-inch Rubber Self-Seal Pipe Wrap Insulation from Home Depot. That way, all you have to do is pull the backing off the adhesive tape to attach it.

You can make an affordable breeze blocker with one of the legs from an old pair of jeans. Most doors aren't any wider than the inseam of a pant leg, and you can either cut the legs off and tie the ends off with rubber bands, or get a little fancier with your sewing machine and stitch up a couple of casings. Use the inseam, typically the straightest seam on a pant leg, as one edge, then cut a rectangle that's as wide as you need.

Of course, old blankets have many uses, and you may not want to cut one of them up just to make a draft excluder for the bottom of the door. The good news is that old blankets work great as a whole door draft stopper. If you just want something for the bottom, that's when you need to find a smaller blanket, like a throw, and roll it up as tightly as you can. Since rubber bands may not fit, use twine or an old shoelace to hold the rolled-up blanket together.

Along the same lines, old curtains can be used in much the same way as old blankets. Any old drapes you have lying around, especially if they're insulated or lined, make great whole-door draft stoppers, especially if you allow them to puddle at the floor. If you don't have curtains large enough to cover your whole door, consider using the material to stitch up something from the fabric. 

You may have suspected that a pool noodle would make it to this list, since they're useful for so many things. As proof, this pool noodle hack will keep your home warm during frigid winter nights. Just attach it to the base of your door with tape. You can cover the pool noodle with something like a pillowcase or a curtain to make it a little more classy. However, if you're just trying to keep the breeze out while still being able to open and close the door, use whatever you have around the house.