"Do Americans really have full rooms just for their laundry?"

Ok. I like hot water bottles - because I'm cheap. We have screaming hot water at the tap, so I use it.

Of course, I have also purchased a heating pad, because the Daughter tends to run off with the hot water bottles. I put the heating pad under the blankets at my feet and it turns itself off after a while. I have plenty of blankets, so once the feet are warm, I stay warm. 

When it's not so cold, I just use bottles but at this time of year, when it's extra chilly,  some nights I'll use both! 

One leaky hot water bottle at 2am will remove the fascination.

Yeah, that is undoubtedly a huge PITA but not enough to end my love affair with the HWB! 

I have never used a hot water bottle, but I used to have an electric heating pad that was meant for aching muscles, etc., but I put it under the fitted sheet at the foot of my bed.  I'd turn it on about 15 minutes before I planned to go to bed to "preheat" it for me.  Like Nan's, it would turn itself off automatically after a time, so it was just enough to make my bed cozy until I fell asleep.

When I was young and poor, and had just left home, I lived in a place where it got so cold at night that the dog's water dish would freeze over in the kitchen. I had a lot of blankets on my bed. And an open-flame space heater in the bathroom (thank goodness!). I used to work swing shift, so I'd get home at 1:00am and it would be frosty in the house. I used to put a tv dinner and a brick in the oven.

Yep, brick wrapped in a towel at the foot of my bed, under the covers. Worked pretty darned well. Of course, the dog would get under the blankets and hang down there, as well. (It was a little short-haired rat terrier, and a heat-thief!)

The brick, I'm sure was awesome. Also works when camping to do this with stones, well wrapped to not burn one's self.

The Daughter gives me the "oh, suuuuure you did" look when I mention the brick.
She has been blessed with never (except for a few years when she was very young) having had to live in a place with minimal heating in very cold winters.
Uphill. In the snow. Both ways. Barefoot. With a pocket of dirt to eat for lunch, and was glad to have it..... 

Uphill. In the snow. Both ways. Barefoot. With a pocket of dirt to eat for lunch, and was glad to have it..... 

You were lucky...