We live on the 12th floor with southern and western exposure.  Our apartment has huge windows and we get pounded by the sun something fierce from noon until sunset.  There are wide mini blinds on all the windows, but they don't seem to do much good on a day like today.

Our building has all sorts of rules like: no holes in the wall bigger than a small nail, and all outward facing window treatments must be white. Last summer I came up with an inexpensive and rule-abiding solution and it's made all the difference in the world.

SUPPLIES:

• Cheap white flat sheets that are big enough to cover our windows ($6 per sheet)


• Several of the foil-like emergency blankets found in the sporting goods section of stores like Target ($2 per blanket)


• Really strong neodymium magnets

1) Cut or fold the sheet so it is the right size to cover your window and attach to window with magnets.

2) Layer an emergency blanket over the sheet and attach with magnets.

It really is that easy.

If your window frames aren't metal, you can attach some metal plates to the top corners of the window frame with removable adhesives. I'm sure you can find something that would work at the hardware store.

Last year I used the layer method above.  This year I sewed along the top of the sheet and the emergency blanket* and made little pockets to hold the magnets.  It was much easier to just magnet them on the window frame before I did the fancy crafting on them, but I tend to complicate things.  We keep the mini blinds down, so it doesn't look too trashy.

This works amazingly well for us.  It makes a huge difference in how hot our apartment gets during the day and how much we have to use the air conditioner.  I've seen reflective-backed fabric at Joann's for near $20 a yard, so covering a whole window for $8 is a bargain.

* Sewing the sheet to the foil emergency blanket involved me laying them flat on the floor and then pushing my sewing machine across the carpeted as it sewed.  So hard. So awkward.  So wanky.  Such a bad idea.  But I didn't stop ... I sewed them all.  That's how dedicated I can be. :)

[photo taken 7/1/2007 in New York City, not of our apartment building]