Bare windows tonight
Privacy and some darkness for the first nights in a new place, with no holes in the wall and nothing to wait for. Each step is a short version of a chapter, linked for when you want the reasoning.
This page is for the first nights in a new place, before anything is measured or ordered. Nothing on it needs a drill, and nothing needs a delivery. When you want the lasting answer for a window, each section links the chapter that gives it.
Tonight: see what shows from outside
People see into the brighter side of a window. By day the street is brighter than your room, so a sheer or a bare pane in shade hides a lot; after dark, with the lamps on, the same window shows the room or a silhouette.
- Turn on the lamps you use in the evening and go outside. Look at each window from the street, the path and any neighbor's window that faces it. Note what shows: the room, a moving shadow, or nothing (Privacy by day and by night).
- Move the lamps away from the window. A lamp between you and the glass throws your shadow onto whatever covers it. A lamp across the room, or one turned toward the wall, gives less to see.
- Close whatever is already there and look again. If the previous occupant or the landlord left blinds or shades, close them fully and check from outside before you buy anything.
This week: a cover with no holes
Pick one for each window that showed too much. Each is a stopgap; the lasting choice comes later.
| Option | What it does | Check first |
|---|---|---|
| A tension rod inside the frame, with a curtain | Holds by spring pressure against the two sides of the frame, so it needs no screws. One university housing office that bans drilling notes tension rods are commonly used (Northwest Missouri State) | That the frame is deep enough for the rod and the curtain to clear any sash lock or crank. The load the rod takes is on its package; we found no maker's published figure |
| A temporary shade (paper or fabric, sold for this) | Covers the glass for days or weeks | How it attaches. Tape or adhesive on a frame you do not own is a change to it; read the lease or ask first |
| The blinds already there | Closed, they hide the room. For sleeping by day, federal shift-work guidance says blinds can let too much light filter in, and to block light at the edges (NIOSH, sleep environment) | That they close fully and are not broken. If a child is in the home, do the cord check below first |
| An eye mask, for a day sleeper | The same guidance offers it as the alternative to a room dark enough that you cannot see your hand (NIOSH, night and evening shifts); the same agency adds that it works only if it stays on for the whole sleep | Nothing; it touches no window |
Before you pin up a sheet, a blanket or foil, read the lease. One sample lease clause rules all three out and requires coverings that look white from outside (Law Insider, window coverings clauses). And keep any fabric you put up at least 3 ft from a heater or radiator (U.S. Fire Administration) and candles at least 12 in from anything that can burn (NFPA). For darkness in a bedroom, the next step is Daylight, glare and darkness.
If a child lives here or visits: the cord check
Do this on the first night, before anything else on this page. A child can be strangled by a looped or long cord in moments, often silently, even with an adult nearby (CPSC, Window Covering Cords).
- Walk every room the child uses and list each cord, loop and bead chain. Look at the front, sides and back of each blind; on older blinds, the inner cords that run through the slats can be pulled into a loop. Write each one on the cord sheet.
- Move the crib, bed and anything a child can climb away from the windows, to another wall if you can.
- Take down corded coverings in the child's room first. The commission says cordless window coverings are the only way to remove the hazard, and says to replace blinds sold before November 2000, most of which have inner cords a child can pull into a loop.
- For a cord you cannot remove tonight, follow the commission's interim steps: make pull cords as short as possible, set cord stops 1 to 2 in below the headrail with the blind fully lowered, and anchor a continuous loop taut to the floor or wall. Do not tie cords together; the knot makes a new loop (CPSC release 06-014). These steps reduce the hazard; they do not remove it.
In a rental, the landlord's corded blinds are the landlord's to replace; ask in writing. The full check, buying cordless and the fire and window items are in Cords, children and fire.
In a rental: photograph before you change anything
- Photograph each window, its frame, sill and whatever covering is up, before anything comes down. One state attorney general's table advises dated photos at move-in and move-out (Idaho Legal Aid, normal wear and tear); Lease and move-in record in Learn First Home Basics shows how.
- Store the landlord's blinds with their brackets and screws in a bag marked with the window. One housing office requires blinds that were taken down to be re-hung in good condition before checkout.
- Ask in writing before making any hole. What counts as damage depends on the lease and the state; Hardware and installing says what to ask.
Then open these three chapters
- Privacy by day and by night: the lasting answer for each window, by day and after dark.
- Daylight, glare and darkness: how dark each room needs to be, and how to stop light at the edges.
- Measuring for blinds and shades: measuring before you order, so what arrives fits the frame.
This page is a route for the first nights, not a lasting answer. It does not say what your lease or your association allows; read it and ask. It does not promise that a tension rod will hold in your frame, because we found no maker's figure to give. And the cord steps on it reduce a hazard without removing it: only cordless coverings remove it, and nothing here certifies a room as safe for a child.