OK, I live in Northern New York, in a place famous for getting enormous amounts of lake effect show. It’s not unusual to get 36" in 24 hours. Typically it’s about 16" in 8-10 hours. And it gets brutally cold. All this means I have to do a lot of strenuous labor moving snow. I also have to keep the furnace running, and that generates dry heat, which is bad for my banjo, so during the winter it lives in its case rather than out where I can easily pick it up and play.
What a difference this has made! After doing the snow removal I can barely lift my banjo. And there is something about removing it from the case that sets a different tone. When I can just pick it up & play, it fun, even if I only play for 5 minutes. It’s convenient & easy.
But when I unsnap the case it seems like something formal clicks in my head. I cannot just grab it and play. When I formally unsnap the case, I feel as if I must make the most of the time, and practice hard and buckle down & get serious.
That’s no fun. Consequently, my time practicing has diminished significantly and I’m not happy about it. But I’m 67 years old & don’t recover as quickly as when I was 57. So today & everyday keep chanting “One day closer to spring!”
Or I’ve just made up Excuse #1,001
The good news is when I do pick it up, I’m surprised that I didn’t forget anything.
While I may be a wee bit rusty at first, I still know how to make that stinkin’ F chord shape! 
Winter Practice Is Difficult
It’s been said and proved many times to be correct that an instrument that sits out, will get played much more than one that lives in it’s case! I think we all go through that… I know I do!
Is there a place in your home where you can designate an area or even a spare room to be your music room? If so, you can hang your instruments on the wall or set them on the floor in stands and install a humidifier. You’ll walk in, the instruments will be out begging to be played. It creates an atmosphere where you want to play as soon as you walk in! Having a room like this or just a simple area in a room gives you something to look forward to. It’s kind of like your happy place… No, it IS your happy place! (At least one of them).
It doesn’t take much and doesn’t have to be fancy or expensive… it just needs to be “your” place to sit and enjoy playing music. I promise, if you or anyone else does this, you will play more and it will be much more enjoyable!
BTW, my room/area is only 9’ x 11’. It’s my office with a large old oak desk and a very large horizontal filing cabinet (these two taking up most of the space). That gives me less than half of the room for guitars (hanging on one wall) a table under the guitars for a workbench (I tinker and repair amps and guitars in this little room as well) and an antique NCR cash register cabinet with lots of drawers for tools and parts… and it works… a little cramped but it works!
I highly recommend everyone that plays an instrument to do this. I used to sit on the couch and play while my wife and I “tried” to watch TV. This is way better… And, I’m right next to a computer where Banjo Ben lives!!!
Good luck Joe and sorry, you’re on your own regarding the snow! Ohio must be like Florida compared to that! At least around Dayton.
I pull mine out of the case in the morning and return it at night…I do this with my fiddles and they are super sensitive to humidity changes. …works fine.
Banjo is probably the least affected of the instruments.
That sounds like a good idea. Thanks!
I do have an old homemade banjo that cherish, but the resonator split from lack of humidity. Forced me to buy a new Sierra!
I have such a place, and it sounds similar to your set-up. But it is a chilly corner of the house!
Pity we don’t live in a perfect world.
Since I started playing again in 2018 the winter has been the season for me to get practice time. I have a little wood stove in the basement man cave. There I keep my Twanger on the trusty Cooper Stand sitting within reach of my chair. I have my music stand, music, bluetooth speaker, capo, etc. all there.
Today is the 3rd day I’ve had off this year. I’m ready to work on the timing of P&C and a few other tunes.
1: Work out and build endurance for removing snow.
2: Buy a sprinkler system to melt the snow as it comes down
3: Hire Ben to come with his plane and use the propeller to blow the driveway clean
Hope this helps!!
I agree with @jw11 with leaving the instruments out if possible. I’ve got a home office where I leave my banjo on a stand and my guitar on a hook. I’ve got a desk chair with a music stand on one side and a desk behind where I look at lessons on my laptop. It’s currently 3 degrees in Greenfield, Indiana - been cold the last week and we are expecting -10 by next weekend. I’m looking to stay inside, so in the winter I practice more. 
- Work out & get in shape? You make me chuckle
- Sprinkler systems are for making hockey rinks. I don’t need a hockey rink.
- Ben’s airplane. You mean that doesn’t come with a Lifetime Gold Pick membership? I thought all I had to pay for was the gas!
I’m exactly opposite. I own a hobby farm (but am retired) and stay fairly busy from March - Dec so Dec through Feb are my pickin’ months.
To put things in perspective…
During the busy months I still try to pick guitar 1 hour every night at a min. That doesn’t always happen but during a week I’ll get in 12-15 hours. During the winter months I might get 12-15 hours in a single day. I knock of cabin fever with my guitar. During the winters I can stay back here in the woods and sometimes don’t even leave here for 2-3 weeks at a time.
I’m learning to despise winters and I live in the Nash area so winters are not bad here and really never get ver 1/4" of snow (typically melts that day) but the mud! This is clay country so when it’s wet you just do the min to get by (tractor work, outside work, etc) and wait until it warms up a bit and dries out. Clay is nasty stuff when it’s wet.
Oh, I am familiar with it! Many moons ago I lived south of Nashville in Lawrenceburg. We were usually disappointed in what they called “winter” in the Volunteer State! 
“I’m Dreaming of a Muddy Christmas!” somehow just doesn’t put me in the holiday mood!
If I lived up there in snow country, I’d get a snow blower. Those homeowner tools can be pretty convenient. I don’t have much of a lawn, but I have a gas powered lawn mower. I also have a log splitter and that greatly reduced the amount of time and level of effort expended splitting firewood. Looking back, I should have bought the log splitter years ago. Spend a little bit of that stimulus money on a snow blower and you’ll be picking the banjo, sipping coffee, and looking out the window with amusement at your neighbors shoveling snow.
Around here, snowblowers are more common that Chevrolets! Of course I have one, all my neighbors do and we all start them about 5:45am.
Once the plow goes by, you have a snow wall 4 feet high and 6 feet wide, packed solidly, at the end of your driveway. If you’re not careful, the wall will destroy your snowblower.
You’ve heard the expression “When Hell freezes over.” This is “Where Hell freezes over!”
I am originally from S Ohio - right on the river across from Ashland, KY and Huntington, WV…so we were use to having snow laying around for months in those deep dark “hollers”. Was perfectly acceptable to drive on top of it for months with tractors and such. Then you stopped when it turned to sludge and mud. As you well know it’s always sludge and mud around Nash. I’m S of Nash also. Not as far S as you (Between Murfreesboro and Franklin off Rt96). Might as well just stay in the house, keep the fire burning, drink 10 cups of coffee a day…and of course do a lot of pickin’.
Oh happy day! My grandson found my banjo mute. It was under the seat of his Thomas Engine ride around toy… Along with missing tools and keys. The mute is a must if I am going to play before sun rise.
Whenever I lost something, my mother would say “Where did you leave it last?”
Somehow I don’t think that advice would have helped in your situation.
My wife always asks me, “where did you find it”. I usually reply- the last place I looked. 
Well we are having real winter weather down here in ME Louisiana and our entire area just closes so may i can get into the new lesson breaking down a hymn
Where in LA are you? I’m in SETX, about a 10 minute drive from the border to LA, and need someone to pick with…
I’m up in NE Louisiana in Monroe. I do have a cousin down around Sulpher but I rarely make it down that way.