It's cold out and you are trying to stay warm inside. You turned on the heater and before you know it your glass windows starts collecting water...from the inside! Soon it starts to trickle down at the bottom of your window at first and if it collects enough amount of water, down to your floor.
Or you are about to go to the office and since it is cold outside so you thought it just logical to close all our windows and doors (leading outside) so when you come home from work, it won't be as cold as outside. But as you enter your doorstep from a hard days work, you found your floor slippery. You sit down on your sofa to relax but it is cold and quite damp. Same with your bed.
Why? This is because of air moisture, also called humidity, inside the house. The more moisture you have, the greater amount of water your windows can collect or the more damp you will feel.
So how do we reduce moisture inside our home?
First we need to understand the sources. All activities we do contributes moisture into the air. Cooking, taking a shower (specially a hot shower), leaving containers of water open, and even by simply breathing. To give a more concrete example, let us say you are making a hard boiled egg or simply boiling some water for coffee. When the water starts to boil, some of the water turns to its gaseous state or sometimes we call it as steam and is released into the air and stays there until it comes into contact with a cold surface condenses and turns back into its liquid form.
This is the same principle as leaving a glass filled with cold water on the table and after several minutes you find the outside of the glass "sweating". Nope, your glass has no tiny holes where the water has sipped out. Rather, moisture from the air that made contact to the glass condenses because it is cold. Remember your science subjects back in grade school?
What you can do then is follow these simple tips and you will find that you have a more relative dry environment from before.
1. Don't breathe, the faster you breathe the more moisture you release into the air. hehehe. Just joking. There is nothing we can do on that one so we are all forgiven on this but what you can do is to try to "aerate" your home. Meaning try circulating air into your house. You can do this by simply turning your air conditioning on and put it to fan mode and it would be better if it gets the air from the outside. Do this for 10 to 15 minutes then you can turn it back off. You can also try to open your windows (if it is not too cold outside) so "new" air gets in and moisture filled air gets out.
2. When cooking, turn on that exhaust fan so those steam gets sucked out.
3. After a bath, leave your bathroom exhaust on for several minutes until such time that moisture due to your showering is gone. No need to wait for your bathroom floor to dry out although it would be best if you wipe out all surfaces including the floor before leaving the bathroom and remember close the door.
4. If you don't have bathroom exhaust, don't fret. Just open the window in your bathroom and if your door has those small opening at the bottom, you can simply cover that up and remember to close the door when you are done. Sure it might take more time for your bathroom to dry out but it is better to have a wet bathroom than a wet living room floor. But this might lead to the formation of molds in your bathroom that is why it might be wise to wipe surfaces and floor in your bathroom when done.
5. Always cover containers with water because water evaporates into the air.
6. Always wipe any water on top of tables and on sink for the same reason as number 5.
7. Don't hang wet clothes (washed and sweaty clothes) inside. Dry them outside.
8. If you have dehumidifier, use it. You will soon see how much water is actually in the air.
9. You may also use silica gel packs on your closets to absorb moisture on your clothes although sometimes I find this unnecessary if your home is not that humid. Just open up your closet to circulate air inside as well.
There you have it, try them and let me hear from you if it made any difference by posting your comment below.
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