Despite my efforts to stay cool, some parts of my home hit 29 degrees in the heatwave — this is what I'm doing to improve how it handles heat

I don't think any of us were expecting temperatures to exceed 30°C in May, and for me, it felt like a bit of a scramble to get my home heatwave ready.

While I aspire to be one of those people who has a consistently cool home in summer, I do have a way to go, and so I'm taking stock of how my home faired in this first proper hot spell of the year. After all, if past summers are anything to go by, these record temperatures are going to be more commonplace, and as someone who isn't that heat tolerant, works from home and has a pet, keeping as cool as possible is a non-negotiable.

This is what I've learned and what prep I'm doing now for when it gets hot again.

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1. It's worth having different types of fans

Investing in one of the best fans is essential for surviving a heatwave in some sort of comfort, but lugging one fan around the house with you is no fun when it's hot. Plus the type of fan you need might vary depending on where you want to use it.

So I've decided I need multiple fans. I like a really quiet pedestal fan in the bedroom and living room, a desktop fan for when I'm working, plus a handheld portable fan that can go with me whenever I am out of reach of the others.

2. Somewhere cool to sleep is a non-negotiable

For some inexplicable reason, my bedroom is hands-down the hottest room in the house and it's very difficult to keep it cool no matter what I do. And that's a big problem when it comes to sleep.

After spending a couple of nights sleeping on the sofa (and now physically paying the price), I've decided that I need an comfortable option for sleeping downstairs when it's roasting hot.

My ideal would be upgrading to a sofa bed, but if my budget won't stretch that far,

3. I need more cooling solutions in my garden

While I'm careful to only walk my dog early in the morning when it's coolest, she does need to go out into the garden throughout the day. And my garden is a roasty little sun-trap, which is nice on mild days, but absolutely unbearable in a heatwave.

And so I need to create more options for shade and doggy cooling before we get the next hot spell.

4. A misting fan is a good halfway house between a fan and portable AC

When it gets really hot, it can feel that fans are just blowing warm air around the room. But if you don't want to go down the portable air conditioner route, then a misting fan is a good mid point.

I just tried by first misting fan, and was really impressed by how cooling it was. I didn't end up drenched either. You've got to be in the path of the airflow to feel the benefit, unlike a portable AC that will effectively cool the entire room.

5. I shouldn't wait for a heatwave to buy a portable air conditioner

Every single time there is a heatwave, the best portable air conditioners sell out. We've been covering portable air conditioners for years at Ideal Home and we've seen it happen time and time again.

When I realised that my bedroom has reached 29°C, despite having the window and curtains closed, I was ready to treat a portable air conditioner as an impulse purchase and finally buy the one I'd had my eye on for a while. But alas, so had every other boiling hot person in the country it seemed, and my top picks were quickly selling out.

But now I have learned my lesson, I will definitely not wait until the heatwave hits to buy a portable air con unit, I'm keeping an eye on stock levels and as soon as my favourite is back in stock, I'm buying it.