8 small suggestions to survive the summer

My recommendations for the hottest season.

The last week has been a rocky ride for my family. My elderly father landed in the hospital (again), a scary situation that disrupted everyone’s plans. Meanwhile, my sibling and mom are both dealing with health issues of their own. The essay I’d been writing had to wait for another day!

In Junes past, I’ve created summer bucket lists of sorts (here’s 2024 and 2023)—these were breezy lists of fun things I hoped to do. But when I declared, “The fun season starts now!” in 2023, my father-in-law died just days later, and when I listed my many summer-y aspirations the following year, I ended up spending much of July and August in a hospital room with my dad. I guess that’s why I decided to skip publishing a summer wish list last year!

This years, I thought I’d offer some practical summer recommendations instead. These are the things that help me survive (and even thrive) the season—no matter what’s happening in my life or the rest of the world. It ended up being a very eclectic mix of suggestions.

Here’s what I’m relying on to get me through what promises to be the hottest summer ever:

Upgrade your cooling

I am not an air conditioning person. I wait until the heat is unbearable before installing our window ACs each year, but I’ve been a little less reluctant since we bought a u-shaped air conditioner two years ago. I discovered the Midea air conditioner while walking behind a mom pushing a baby carriage, who was raving about her super-quiet Midea air conditioner that blocked less of her window. I went home and ordered one the next day. Some of the brand’s models got recalled last year, but our 8,000 BTU model was not. It’s so quiet I sometimes don’t even realize it’s running. I’m also intrigued by the GE Profile ClearView, another u-shaped model but with a flipped design for even less view obstruction: Has anyone tried it?

++ If you’re in New York, I love buying appliances from P.C. Richards, a local, family owned business; they install (for a fee), if you’re not able to get an AC in your window yourself.

++ If you’re thinking about upgrading your central air conditioning to a heat pump system, Rewiring America’s got you covered.

And get yourself a tiny desk fan. Sometime in the mindset of the sweltering first week of last July I bought this tiny fan from Muji. This impulse purchase of a plastic electronic was very unlike me, but I love it because it lets me skip the AC (or run the AC a little higher) on hot days by cooling me directly at my desk.

Invest in an excellent swimsuit

My frugality led to years of wearing ‘meh’ swimsuits, but once I decided to spend some money on a proper suit, I felt so much better at the lake or the beach. A couple years back, I wrote a love letter to my favorite “mom swimsuit” for the Wall Street Journal. You can chase a toddler in it but still feel cool (in fact, I spotted my pal Jennifer Cook from Mom Friend, who is an expert in cool-mom style, wearing one recently).

However, it turns out, I might prefer something a little less, well, mom. Last year the nice folks at Left on Friday offered me a chance to try out one of their swimsuits and I fell hard for the Streamline suit: The fabric is so supportive and the cut is just a wee bit sexier than the Andie one–without making me feel self conscious. I just bought a second, so I can have two Streamline suits in this summer’s rotation (pricey, but worth it to me to feel confident while barely clothed!).

++ Sari Botton did the hard work of trying on dozens of suits to see what swimsuits are flattering for 60-somethings.

Give yourself a summer splurge category

I’m always shopping with budget front of mind, but two summers ago I decided I would buy all the farm strawberries I wanted in the brief window they were available. Yes, it‘s absolutely bananas to pay $9 for a tiny basket of berries, but the strawberries I bought last weekend were a very welcome spot of joy amidst a crummy weekend.