Easyblinds | Uses for blackout blinds

New Year, New Bed Time Routine

3
Jan

Happy New Year! Is your new year resolution to get more sleep? Or to be specific to get your child to go to bed?

Now is the perfect time to start that bed time routine. The excitement of Christmas is over; the disruption is over now it’s time to get that sleep routine sorted out.

As with any routine the key is consistency, you should stick to the same things every night and if they go to stay over at grandparents ask then to follow the same routine.

You will find that it will take a few days for the routine to work but once it’s in place you will wonder why you didn’t do this before.

Here is our suggested routine for a toddler:

Bedtime snack with some warm milk
Bath time, use a lavender bubble bath to help sooth them
Get them dressed into their bedclothes
Put them in bed
Have a chat about both of your days that will help them relax
Story time; try not to choose something too exciting
Kiss them goodnight and leave them to fall asleep
If your child doesn’t like the room too dark then leave a night light on for them or of they prefer it really dark then an easy blackout blind is perfect.

You can also read:

Sleep Routine for Your 6 Months Old

Sleep Routine for Your 1 Year Old

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Blackout Blinds in Pregnancy

29
Dec

Blackout blinds are not just great from Children but can come in very handy when you are pregnant as well.

It’s really important to take care of yourself during pregnancy and lack of sleep can make leave you run down and feeling terrible.

Tiredness tends to be at its worse during the first and third trimester though some women find they are tired throughout the whole pregnancy, especially if you already have children.

A good night’s sleep can really benefit you and if you can get in the odd lie in that’s even better. If you find that you are having trouble sleeping at night caused by frequent trips to the bathroom or pregnancy insomnia then daytime naps could be the answer.

If you find it hard to nap during the day then a blackout blind can really help, I always found it was too light nap in the day. Get a travel blackout blind so you can use it during pregnancy and while baby is in your room and then you can move it to their room afterwards.

Of course if you are at works it’s less easy to catch a nap but even 10 minutes when you get home will help. Make the most of nap times when you start your maternity leave it; store up that sleep you will need it when baby comes!

Posted in Benefits of Blackout Blinds, How To Get A Good Nights Sleep, Preparing for baby, Uses for blackout blinds

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Merry Christmas from EasyBlinds

24
Dec

Just one more sleep to go until the big day!

We want to wish you a very merry Christmas and we hope you have an amazing day.

If you are worried about getting the children asleep tonight then read our tips on getting them to sleep on Christmas Eve.

Travelling this Christmas? our top 5 travelling with children posts may be of some help to you.

Where ever you are this year we know it will be magical.

Posted in Benefits of Blackout Blinds, Toddler blackout blinds, Uses for blackout blinds

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Getting Your Child Asleep on Christmas Eve

19
Dec

Christmas is a really exciting time of year for everyone especially children. It’s really tempting to let them stay up late, however you run the risk of having very tired children the next day as they are bound to get up early!

Here are our tips on getting your child to sleep on Christmas Eve:

Try and stick to your bedtime routine as much as possible.
Keep them active all day so they are tired. You may want to take them for a walk after dinner.
Try not and get them too excited I know it’s hard but if you get them too worked up they will never go to sleep.
You could try taking them to bed a little earlier as they will try and stay awake as long as possible.
Make sure their room is calm and dark, you could use a blackout blind to do this.
A warm milky drink before bed can help relax them.
If they get out of bed send take them straight back to bed.

We hope these tips are helpful and you have a great Christmas Eve

Posted in Benefits of Blackout Blinds, How To Get A Good Nights Sleep, Toddler blackout blinds, Uses for blackout blinds

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Visiting Family this Christmas? Must Pack Travel Blackout Blinds!

29
Nov

You’ve packed the presents, the travel cot, and enough clothes for a month. Don’t forget the travel blackout blinds!

Being away from home can make it difficult to get your child to sleep, it will be new to them and they will be excited. You can help make the transition easier for them by sticking to your normal bedtime routine.

A travel blackout blind will help as well and once the room is dark they won’t realise they are somewhere else.

We have a few different types of travel blackout blinds for you to choose from:

Go Anywhere Portable Blackout Blind

Gro Anywhere Travel Blackout Blind

Blackout In An Instant

Stick On Blackout Blinds

Make sure you add a travel blackout blind to your packing list!

Posted in Uses for blackout blinds

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Guest Post: Blackout Blinds for a Narrowboat Baby

24
Nov

Peggy works from home. When we had our first baby we were living on a 57 foot narrowboat. There are a lot of compromises to be made when you live in a small space and we only had one bedroom. The baby slept in a special hammock in our cabin, which was suspended above our bed.

Although it was the topic of hot debate at our NCT coffee mornings I was secretly a bit of a fan of the Gina Ford book. I know it gets called ‘baby boot camp’ and all but once I started getting a routine in place it seemed to make caring for a young baby so much easier. An important part of the routine is sleep times, both day time and night time, and for this we found our blackout blinds were essential.

When I was pregnant we got ourselves kitted out with blackout blinds for the whole boat. We had two in the bedroom cabin and then had one above the dinette, two in the living area and two blackout blinds in the kitchen. This meant that any part, or all of the boat could be blacked out, depending on where the baby was. We used this to our advantage. The baby hammock was movable; she sometimes had her day-time nap above the dining booth: with the window blacked out.

At other times the hammock was in the kitchen, again using the blackout blinds. Being versatile with your space is essential when you live on a narrowboat, so the blackout blinds gave us a lot of flexibility.

In the mornings we felt it was the blackout blinds that allowed our daughter to sleep just a little bit longer, so that she didn’t wake up at the crack of dawn.

The baby and I would meet the NCT mums for coffee and cake every Tuesday as regular as clockwork. I was embarrassed to admit that I was completely devoted to the Gina Ford routine, yet my friends were impressed at how my baby seemed to nap on command. We all agreed on one routine though: sharing advice and a bit of cake every week was an essential part of our weekly schedule that couldn’t be missed.

Peggy

Posted in Benefits of Blackout Blinds, Buying baby equipment, Uses for blackout blinds

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Take Blackout Blinds For The Midnight Sun

26
Aug

Last weekend our family visited Iceland for a short break.

Iceland is a smallish island, about 60% of the size of England but much more sparsely populated, situated in the North Atlantic Sea, between Greenland and the UK. It takes 3 hours to fly there. As one of my friends on her way to Cornwall from north-of-London pointed out, we were happily settled in our accommodation before they were.

We knew it would be colder in Iceland than the UK, so we took warm clothes, fleeces and waterproofs. We knew food that our 4 year old son would eat might be scarce, so we bought some of his favourite snacks. And we knew that we’d be doing some long, potentially child-boring tours with a group of complete strangers, so we bought a bunch of iPads and Nintendos to keep the kids quiet on the bus.

What we didn’t count on was the time of year and the fact that in summer, it never gets properly dark in Iceland. They have a kind of dusk for a couple of hours, but really, it’s still pretty light, even at midnight. There were roller blinds installed in the apartment we stayed in but they weren’t a brilliant fit: light still came in around the sides. My body was exhausted but my poor, confused brain insisted it was day time and wouldn’t let me sleep.

The kids had a rough first night, but managed to sleep well after that. I, on the other hand, lay there wide eyed and stared at the ceiling for hours, wishing I’d thought to pack some travel blackout blinds.

Posted in Benefits of Blackout Blinds, Uses for blackout blinds

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How To Get A Parrot To Sleep

16
Aug

Everyone knows parrots are smart: their intelligence is often compared to that of small children, but did you know that parrots, like toddlers, also need lots of sleep?

Most parrots kept as pets come from countries that live on or around the the equator and these countries have very little variation in day length between the seasons. As a rule, most parrots do best when they get 9-10 hours sleep every night.

Signs of sleep deprivation in parrots can include feather plucking, screaming, phobic behaviours and aggression. If your bird gets less than 9 hours sleep every 24 hours and is exhibiting any of these behaviours, it would be worth increasing the amount of time it spent sleeping.

But how do you get a bird to go to sleep?

Ideally your bird should have free access to a smaller sleep cage and so should be able to signal when it wants to go to bed. You can then cover the cage with a thick blanket or fitted cover which will encourage the bird to sleep soundly.

Another option is to put the sleep cage in a room with black out blinds over the windows. These will stop any sunlight disturbing your pet before they have had the pre requisite 9-10 hours and will prevent birds from pulling at their covers and disturbing them.

Posted in Uses for blackout blinds

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Blackout Blinds And Home Theatres

1
Aug

Whether you have a dedicated home theatre room, or just a home theatre system set up in your every day living room, you will find viewing more pleasurable if you can darken the room while watching movies.

If you have a basement theatre, then the chances are good that you have no windows down there anyhow. If you have windows, you may decide to black them out or you may prefer a temporary solution such as close fitting blackout blinds that use velcro, suction cups or double sided tape. Some people even go as far as attaching blackout blinds to the wall and ceiling in order to make the screen look like it is floating in mid air.

Black out blinds will block out all external light while you are using your home theatre and will help you get the best possible picture quality out of your equipment.

The less of your surroundings that you can see, the more you will be able to focus on on the movie you are watching. You will not have to turn the picture’s brightness up to maximum and so the colours on the screen will be brighter and more vivid.

Also, there will be no reflection or shading on the walls, ceiling or screen to distract you from your film. Just add soft drinks and popcorn and you will have the best seats in the house.

Posted in Uses for blackout blinds

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Help Your Blackout Blinds Blend In

23
Jul

Do you think blackout blinds are boring, or might need hiding to make an attractive nursery? In fact you might not need to change the appearance of your blackout blinds at all, with more fun and funky designs now available. Or, if you are creative, here are some ideas to help you customise them.

As well as selling plain cream and white fabric roller blinds, we also sell patterned ones. You can choose between a very smart dotty blue and dotty pink pattern, which will make any room look attractive without the need for added embellishment.

If you have curtains up , these will most likely be drawn when you are using the blinds, so there is no need to choose a patterned blind. If you have have fabric roller blinds in a room, you can simply wind these completely up when you have your curtains open. And the velcro or stick on options can easily be removed from the window during the day, and repositioned when needed at night.

But if you feel that taking your blackout blinds down every day sounds too much like hard work, and you’d prefer to treat them as part of the decor, then you can do anything to blinds that you would do to a wall. You can paint them, stencil them or put wall stickers on them. If you are going to use paint, either acrylic or fabric paint is recommended.

And once your children get a little older, you might want to customise your blinds further. If you punch small holes in a fabric blackout blind in the general shape of well known constellations, then they will not only look like stars at night, but they will let tiny, sharp rays of sunlight into the room in the morning. They won’t compromise your child’s privacy in any way, but the extra light may come in handy for getting them out of bed in the morning when they hit their teens.

Posted in Uses for blackout blinds

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