Imagine living in an apartment with lots of windows and doors that aren’t insulated very well if at all. That means that in the winter your apartment gets really cold.

What would you do if you were told space heaters weren’t allowed? Would you simply keep the thermostat set to a higher temperature, wear warmer clothes, or come up with a creative workaround?

In this story, one person is in this situation and decides to try a creative alternative to a space heater. While the solution is technically allowed, using it as a heating device is questionable as far as safety is concerned.

Let’s read all about it.

Can’t use heater? I have options

I live in the midwest, which commonly has very cold winters.

Yes, I’m sure its colder where you are, and you’re snowed in, and you’re so tough.

Anyways, it’s cold. In fact, wind chill for tomorrow gets it down to -40 degrees.

Here’s the problem.

My apartment landlord has a strict no-space-heater rule, for safety reasons.

Now, in all honesty, it’s a fair rule; college students live in the apartments, and who knows which one of them is going to be a moron and leave it on for too long or whatever.

The problem is, my particular room has two very large windows and a door to the balcony, and all of these are single-pane glass and totally uninsulated.

My room, if I leave the door closed, generally has a temperature ~5 to 10 degrees colder than the rest of the apartment.

OP just wants to be warm.

The heater is on the other side of the apartment from me, so all the warm air gets sent to my roommates instead of me.

Basically, I’m cold, and there is a zero-tolerance policy for space heaters.

So recently, as its been getting ever colder, I decided to put my foot down and get something to keep myself warm.

I tried getting an electric blanket last year to circumvent the rule, and while it was nice, it’s too clumsy to use while working/gaming on my PC.

Here’s the space heater alternative.

Turns out I had some spare points from a payment service here locally, so I scrolled through to see what things I could trade the points in for, and got myself a nice little toaster oven.

That’s right. A toaster oven. Completely exposed heat elements, a ‘stay on’ mode, and 450 degrees F. A very unsafe equivalent to space heaters, but totally not a space heater and therefore not banned.

That definitely doesn’t sound safer than a space heater, but whatever works!

If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about a landlord who learned the hard way not to try to keep a security deposit he should have paid.

Let’s see what Reddit has to say about this idea.

This person suggests another creative workaround that might be a lot safer.

Here’s another suggestion specifically for gaming.

One person explains how to add some insulation to the windows.

I definitely don’t think OP should try this idea!

While a toaster oven might be allowed, it’s not the safest idea. Hopefully, OP looks at the comments and considers trying some of these safer alternatives.

Nobody likes to be cold, so it’s valid to want to find a way to keep the room warmer. Doing something that could burn down the whole place or make the landlord angry if he found out probably isn’t the wisest move.

Personally, it’d do all the options suggested in the comments except for the actual fire.