Hot Weather Tip: Frozen Towels

SEE UPDATE BELOW 

It's dangerously hot this week. If you're like me, you want to be prepared.

One thing I did today was make some frozen towels, because today it was in the low 90s and tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter.  I made one for each member of my household and that includes pets. I'm not suggesting you wrap a cat in a frozen towel, but the towel could be used to cool off a place your cat like to lay down. Even just cooling off an area of the floor and then removing the towel can give your pet someplace to lay down and dump some heat. For humans, a cool towel on the face or head is refreshing. Draped around the neck, it can cool your pulse points, which helps you feel cooler.

Setting things up was easy. I recommend doing this in the kitchen sink or bathtub.

1. Get some decent sized towels--I like something thin enough to fold but large enough to drape over a person's shoulders. You'll also need large freezer bags. I find 2.5 gallon bags work great.
2. Fold the towel so that it can fit flat in the freezer bag. (One towel per bag is my rule.)
   
   
   
   
   
3. Put enough cold water into the bag to saturate the towel. 
4. When you're sure the whole towel is wet, role the bag to ring out the excess water.
5. Fix the towel so that it lays flat in the bag again and close the bag, leaving just about an inch open.
6. Roll the bag again and give it another squeeze. This time seal the bag and leave it rolled up.
   
7. The bags will be wet so I suggest laying them on a towel in your freezer, so they don't stick to the shelf.
   

If someone get's overheated, you'll have a handy way to cool them down. 

And if you're thinking, "I don't need this, I have air conditioning", so did we until about 8:00 last night. It doesn't hurt to be prepared.

One word of warning though, if it's already hot, getting these towels wrung out can take a bit of exertion. Take your time. Take it slow. And cool off if you need to. (I know I needed to!)

Stay safe and have a great summer!

UPDATE

Rolling the towels turned out not to be a great idea. When I do this with washcloths, they are pliable after a minute or two.  But I wasn't able to get the towels wrung out enough. The rolls froze to be rock solid. So, you may want to skip that step.