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We’re all familiar with the notion that excessive moisture/humidity in one’s household leads to a variety of problems such as growth of mold, dust mites and fungus. However, it is also worth noting that extremely low amount of humidity is also calls for issues such as irritated sinuses and dry throat. Ideally, you should be looking to find a healthy balance in humidity levels to live a good life.
According to Therma-stor, humidity levels in one’s households should sit at up to 50% during the summer and between 30-40% when it comes to winters. But how exactly do you control the humidity levels in your home? Well, that’s what we are here for. We’ll be giving you 13 measures you can take in order to humidify your home naturally.
Why You Should Humidify Your Room
Just like how high humidity levels can be damaging to your life, low humidity levels also come with their fair share of problems. Here are some of the ones commonly noticed:
Eyes
One of the first body parts that gets affected with low humidity levels are our eyes. As the levels go down, tear drops from the eyes start getting evaporated. At 72°F and humidity levels between 15-25%, you can even start noticing the buildup of eye mucus. Due to this, your natural instinct is to get irritated and blink numerous times in the day which can further damage the performance of your visual activities.
Respiration Issues
Low humidity levels let a variety of micro-organisms survive within the vicinity of your household. Therefore, if anyone in your house gets sick, all the bacteria they release through sneezing or coughing will stay in the air indefinitely. This makes other members of the household more liable to get sick. Not only that, this is also combined with tremendous dryness causing problems such as dry throat and irritated sinuses.
Skin
As low humidity levels cause dryness in the atmosphere, you are likely to suffer from dry, scaly, and itchy skin especially during the winters. But it doesn’t end there. In some cases, the dryness faced is so brutal, it starts to suck out moisture from the insides of your body so much so that you could also face severe infections.
What Is A Humidifier?
As its name suggests, a humidifier is a device that is used to increase the humidity in a particular room making it more moist and healthy. Humidifiers are usually electrical devices and come in a number of categories depending on the size of the area that requires humidifying. For single rooms, we suggest going for a product such as the GENIANI Top Fill Cool Mist Humidifier as it can efficiently humidify places of priority. However, if you are targeting your whole house or an office, we’d suggest picking up the Aprilaire 500 Whole Home Humidifier.
13 Ways To Humidify Your Home Naturally
1. Get some plants
Though plants are mostly known for their dehumidifying traits, there are certain plants that do the opposite. Usually, plants that come with large leaves are ideal to increase the humidity of your room. Some commonly found plants in this category include Areca Palm, Bamboo Palm, Peace Lily, English Ivy, etc. These plants are effective because they absorb much more light and carbon dioxide to perform photosynthesis compared to those with smaller leaves.
2. Indoor Cloth Drying
A great hack to increase humidity in your room is to hang your wet clothes to dry inside the room itself. As wet clothes contain an extremely high amount of moisture, the drying process will create evaporation of moisture which will then spread across the room making it more humid. However, you must keep in mind that you mustn’t dry too many clothes in your room as it may lead to extreme dryness and even mold buildup.
3. Hot Showers
Hot showers contain a tremendous amount of steam. Hence, it is recommended that you make use of their humidifying properties. Just allow passage of steam outside your bathroom and it shall help humidify your whole house. Of course, this majorly works in smaller households but it is also mildly effective in increasing the humidity of larger ones.
4. Put Water-Filled Bowls On Top Of Registers
This is a personally tried and tested trick. Simply take a medium-sized metal or ceramic bowl and fill it with plain water. Now, place it on top of your floor register or the heat radiating unit. Once, that’s done, wait for about a week and the evaporation shall create increase in humidity.
5. Start Drinking Tea
Most people today are coffee lovers. Though we don’t recommend going out of your way and forcing yourself to drink tea, it is still ideal to drink tea if you are looking to increase humidity in your room. This is because unlike heating a mug in the microwave, a teapot on the stove creates a ton of steam in your room which as we all know results in the improvement of humidity.
6. Let Your Dishes Air-Dry
Just like clothes, freshly washed dishes contain a decent amount of moisture in them. This is something you can witness personally if you open your dishwasher before the heated cycle, as it flashes you with a hot whoosh of air. Therefore, it is recommended that you let your dishes air-dry after their last rinse cycle in the dishwasher.
7. Wait for bathwater to cool down before draining
Similar to the shower humidifying hack, you can use this method while bathing. Simply refrain from draining our your bathwater immediately after your bathing session. Instead, let it cool down completely as that will transfer humidity into the nearby rooms.
8. Get some fish tanks
Installing fish tanks into your household helps a lot in increasing humidity. Not to mention the aesthetics that they come with. To use them to full affect, simply keep its lid open at all times. The water inside will evaporate and will lead to a more humid atmosphere overall. Now, it is worth noting that this might lead to faster contaminant buildup inside the tank which might create frequent maintenance constraints.
9. Spray water on curtains
Humidifying is all about increase moisture so that it evaporates. One of the best areas to do this is on your curtains. Since they are usually close to sunlight, the evaporation is quicker as well. Just get a spray bottle, fill it with water and spray it all over your curtains.
10. Make a sponge humidifier
Daily life hacks are good but they can hinder other areas of your lifestyle. Hence, getting a humidifier is always recommended. However, some people don’t see humidifiers as a worthy investment. If you are on the same boat, making your own homemade sponge humidifier can go a long way. Here are the steps you need to follow to create one:
- Step 1: Get hold of a 1 gallon capacity freezer bag and place it on your kitchen counter (or any other level surface).
- Step 2: Puncture numerous holes all one inch apart on the bag allowing passage of air.
- Step 3: Get a large sponge (one that also fits into the bag) and soak it in warm water. Once soaked, squeeze and get rid of excess water that is dripping.
- Step 4: Place the sponge inside the freezer bag and close the bag.
- Step 5: Place the bag on a basic or a similar place that doesn’t often come under human contact.
Note:In this method, you will have to remove the sponge each day, place it in the microwave at high seconds for 45 seconds and then place it back. This is to avoid mold growth in your household.
11. Use your candle warmers
Though candle warmers aren’t the most popular utility in American households, a lot of people still have them. If you personally do, use them to humidify your rooms. If yours is an electric, simply place a glass filled with water and let it evaporate. If it isn’t, you’d have to use classic candles which also works but would need constant attention so that it does not become a fire hazard.
12. Anti-ventilation for humidity
This is pretty much as natural and fast as it gets for increasing humidity in one’s household. All you need to do here is remove the ventilation tube in your house. This will release moisture straight into your home instead of letting it go outside. However, it is worth noting that is quite a fast and continuous process. Hence, you will need to monitor the humidity levels in your household as too much humidity may lead to a variety of issues.
13. Increase the frequency of cooking at home
Americans usually have the habit of ordering their food from local restaurants. While that is understandable, it is not the best option when it comes to the humidity levels of your home. We recommend stove top cooking every now and then so that a good amount of moisture is released which again, results in the increase of humidity.
Frequently Asked Questions(FAQs)
Q. Do open windows help with humidity?
No. In fact, if you keep your windows open, the outside air will lead to a decrease in the overall humidity of your household.
Q. Are there any risks of using a humidifier?
Yes, similar to any other electronic device, humidifiers do come with certain risks. Burnt skin is one of the most common injuries that people face while using humidifiers. Therefore, we recommend keeping kids and pets away from them.
Q. How to humidify a hotel room?
Though the resources are minimal, it is possible to humidify hotel rooms. Simply hang wet towels and let them dry.
Q. How much humidity is too high?
Anything over 50-55% of humidity levels opens breeding grounds for molds and bacteria growth. Hence, we recommend keeping it to a figure below that.
Q. Can dry air make you sick?
Yes, it can. If the air is too dry, it can lead to respiratory issues and a variety of other problems.
A Final Word
Managing humidity levels of your household can be a tough ask especially considering you always need to keep it at a neutral figure. In the USA, it is common for people to face low humidity levels. Hence, using homemade hacks to increase humidity makes the most sense. In this article, we discussed 13 ways you could do so.