Wake Up Rooms With the Power of Fresh Air

Rough Linen I couldn't agree more, must have been born in a tent! I am lucky to live in California, great weather and not many bugs and I tend to have the windows open all the time, even when it rains. I HATE being cooped up in an airless room - even worse when the curtains are drawn!

Amy Renea We are open air sister Tricia!! I loooooove the doors open when it rains!

midmodfan Same here! I feel choked in closed rooms.

sgcastle Our windows are open year round. The only thing that prevents it is extreme heat and humidity - oh yes, and below zero temps. Love the way this article encourages that connection with the world outside!

kennedytarheel I've got my living room door open right now to the screened in porch....breathing in cooler, fresh air is refreshing!

tcufrog I would love to however my family's outdoor allergies forbid it.

Lanie Brown Of course, all we houzzers have times when windows and doors must be open to air out fresh paint. No matter that it's in the 80s in Houston!

JAN MOYER Fling them open! You will find your home smells better, and you will see a reduction in colds and cooties. The airless environments of todays homes drives me crazy. I can honestly say most clients never open them, and on the most beautiful spring or fall day, will look at you with surprise when you greet them with "isn't it a gorgeous day??!!"
These are the same clients whose children are perpetual "snot factories", as they are NEVER outdoors. I will add one tip: Use your deck and railing! Take your decorative pillows out for a sunbath, do the same with scatter rugs. If you're stripping your bed, take your sleeping pillows out too! A day spent in sun will smell just like that when brought in at days end!

patricia beharry Moved back to the tropics just for the outdoor living. We had to screen all our doors and windows because we are sharing with the mosquitoes and I really cannot sleep with them singing in my ears or waking up with stings. Never got used to it like most people do. also, the birds would fly in and got stuck in the highest point of the house which is twenty feet high. The sound of the rain on a metal roof is the best. Plus you can actually smell the rain.

itsmeleisa I live in Florida where it is humid and extremely buggy. I am in air conditioning 10 months a year. I would love to just throw open the windows and listen to birds.

Amanda DeCort A window zipper aka deglazer is THE go-to tool when someone has unscrupulously painted your windows shut. Start with a sharp utility knife, then insert this little guy and wiggle it up and down. You'll have the window open in no time!

Pine Street Carpenters & The Kitchen Studio Timely article for autumn, Amy - and thanks for including a Pine Street master bath!

beverlynn The weather here in North Carolina is simply beautiful today! When I got home, I opened all windows including the sliding glass door. The air flowing through right now is wonderful!!

jemorela thanks for the reminder - to open the door and let the fresh air in! This is what I've been missing.....

mrsben Yes open those windows and air your home out particularly prior to showing your house .... if it is up for sale!

Britastina Here 90 miles northwest of Houston, there is very little open window time. My windows were open for about 3 weeks but now it is back up in the 90's. I'll open them at night only until the cooler weather comes (sometime in November or December). It felt heavenly while it lasted! The kitchen with the butcher block counters and that huge window over the sink is just about the loveliest thing I've ever seen. I would become a professional dishwasher if I could stand there all day.

olldroo I am a fresh air freak - feel almost claustrophobic in a closed up room. I love winter snuggled under the doona at night with the window open and the cold air on my face. Sleep like a baby. I haven't had so much as a sniffle in the last 6 years since I retired and stopped commuting on air conditioned public transport and absorbing everyone else's germs.

Pat Wiegert Like most of the other comments here, I feel claustrophobic without an open window nearby when I sleep. Even in sub-zero weather of Wisconsin, there was a window cracked open a bit! Put on the screens & open the windows. House may get dustier but so what? Outside noises remind me of the world around: kids playing, traffic noise, owls hooting at night, crickets, birds enjoying a pool party in the bird bath. Love it all. Hermeticly sealed houses are not healthy in my book.

Britastina Pat,

If sub-zero temps were the problem, there would be no problem. But when it is 110 or so degrees with 80/plus humidity there is no sleeping, let alone breathing. I grew up in Massachusetts and lived with open windows year round. Here around Houston, that is a distant dream. If there is a breeze and the temperature is below 90, the windows are cracked. Love the frogs, crickets and softly chirping birds. My windows are open now and will stay open (cracked) until April. After that, "Katy, bar the door!" We do have advantages though. Bet we have a longer vegetable growing season than you. We take what we can get.

Truth be known, I envy your open windows. Sleep well!

olldroo Britastina - I think you can get a little spoilt with air con, I don't have it and the way our power prices are going doubt I will be able to afford it. We don't quite make 110 - YET - but we seem to be heading that way and humidity gets worse each year. Despite that, I am still happy to sleep with all windows open to keep air in the room fresh and have a ceiling fan over my bed. The movement of the air in the room and around my body, is very relaxing and I can sleep very well.

The way I look at things too is that if all the theories on global warming being caused by pollution are correct, then as our world heats up we are going to become more and more reliant on air con which then requires more fuel, which causes more pollution, which heats the atmosphere even more. I think if we really want to be serious about our planet then we have to toughen up and condition our bodies, cut back on our use of resources to reduce the pollution and hopefully help the planet repair itself. That's my soapbox speech for the day.

Britastina groovygranny,

I agree wholeheartedly. But! My husband suffers pretty nasty allergies and at certain times of the year it is brutal. Ceiling fans aside (and we have them throughout the house), (please, designers need not chime in here), there are times when heat and humidity can be a serious problem. Sleep deprivation is not something I want to deal with. I will open the windows, crack the windows, close the windows according to the weather. Of course I would like to keep them open all the time, but that simply is not practical. Being spoiled has nothing to do with it. My husband lived most of his life without airconditioning and I had never met anyone with it until I moved here to Texas. Yes, we have become "conditioned" but it allows us to function during the summer here. Plus, it prevents our house, furniture and clothes from moulding away (another allergy problem). Oh, I forgot! It prevents us from killing each other.

Love all your posts!

patricia beharry Oh how soon we forget. When I first arrived in the US, a mere forty something years ago, we initially lived in an apartment in Brooklyn.-----NO AC.---- After a few years, bought a small house in the suburbs----NO AC---- Then moved to a Mac Mansion with central air, all bells and whistles. Now I am back on an island 90 degrees year round, high humidity ----NO AC. open windows. Our grandparents and great grandparents a mere sixty to eighty years ago lived with no AC, yes, even in TEXAS.By the way they wore corset, crinolines, wigs, tall boots, the men with all kinds of frills and hats and fru-frus. Our generation is running around naked and complain, complain complain. Most of the world is not air conditioned, China India, Africa, South America, Korea, even Great Britain is just getting AC. They live through it. Go figure.

olldroo Kinda like, if it is there and you can afford it have it. If you can't, put it on credit because the neighbours' have it.

Britastina Nice discussion. I'd join in but have a busy day ahead single-handedly destroying the planet.

olldroo Britastina - I owe you an apology, firstly your comment re your husband's allergies, etc only came up on my computer this morning for some weird reason and secondly, I didn't word my comment very clearly, I was not making a personal attack on you, I was just expressing an opinion as food for thought. Generally speaking though, I just can't help but wonder if today's mod cons are too readily available and accessible and if we are being just a little to quick to pull the trigger.

I definitely do understand and sympathise with anyone with allergies, they are definitely on the rise as is asthma which can be fatal for many people. How much of that can be blamed on our environment, food production, additives, pollution, is another story altogether and another issue that is still the subject of much speculation.

I am not a radical "save the earth" Greenie by any means, I just try to keep things realistic. Sadly each year I age, my body and it's needs change and the way our summers are getting longer and hotter and more humid I will need to seriously consider air con just to survive - heat exhaustion is a major issue for elderly people, although I am still coming to terms with thinking of myself that way. We all have to adapt to our own little part of the world and the problems and issues there and do what is necessary to allow us to function and live our lives and protect our health. Our weather is crazy at the moment, we seem to have lost Spring these days, last week I had summer clothes and fans on during the day to stay cool and winter clothes and the heater on at night, it was so cold. Wonder why I was violently ill all weekend???

I know what you mean about mould - we had a terrible summer last year, it rained incessantly, I was even checking myself for mould and now we have just been warned to expect severe weather patterns and devastating storms this summer. Great!!! But then that may ease the threat of predicted devastating bushfires because of the rain last year.

Oh, and I loved your comment on ceiling fans too - I think they give a house a lovely, relaxed, informal look - and isn't that how we would really like our homes to be.

Britastina groovygranny,

Absolutely no offense taken! I grew up on a farm and have no allergies. My husband grew up raising rice and cattle and has nasty allergies. We are both in our 60's. Go figure! My husband also works outdoors in far west Texas so when he comes home he wants frigid temperatures. To say that this is a challenge would be stating it mildly. I'm happy with 80 degrees in the house but he wants 68 degrees. As a compromise, we installed a zoned air-conditioning system. Since he's gone most of the time, I win! When he is home, he sets his office for his comfort and leaves me alone in the rest of the house. Also, when he's gone I open the windows. They're closed when he's home. Oh well. Not for you but for those out there that think I have caved in, I drive a VW Beetle, have a clothes line, a rainwater system, a vegetable garden and a compost bin. We do what we can. The temperatures are dropping here! Yeahh!! I even fixed pot roast one evening and chicken and dumplings the next. Heaven!

Again, love your posts!

olldroo Thank you for you lovely words Britastina, you sound like you have a lovely lifestyle. I am a country girl at heart so can very much relate. Sadly, I have a few years on you but I think our age group has gone through one of the biggest periods of change during our lifetime that has really kept us grounded. I am really grateful for that and have always tried to keep my daughters grounded and appreciate the value of today's technology and luxuries.

I have a daughter who married a Yank and lives in LA where she is known among neighbours and friends as "the Aussie girl who hangs her washing out to dry". You can take the girl out of Aussie but you can't take the Aussie out of the girl!!!

Britastina I love it! You are a very lovely lady and your daughter reflects that. My cousin Bud met and married an Aussie back in the 60's. He moved to Australia and never looked back. He and his wife Mari visited us in California before they moved to Australia lo those many years ago and introduced us California provincials to Rhein-Pfalz Liebfraumilch. They brought us 4 heavy clay bottles of it. Those (empty} bottles still have a pride of place in my kitchen. Hang tight with these climate changes. We oldies have what it takes.

olldroo Britastina - Thank you, I am meeting some lovely kindred spirits on this site and thoroughly enjoying it as much as the home ideas. Sadly housework beckons. I'II check out that wine!!!!

Britastina Don't know where they got it. It was probably bought in California but the bottles always bring back that summer in 1966, their stories of traveling in Europe, how they met and how much we were going to miss them. Life is so wonderful.

joseeephine I live in Quebec, Canada, and even in winter (which btw are getting softer and softer by the year), there's always a breeze going through the house. First thing I did when we bought it was asking my hubby to install a screen door to the front door. It allows those pesky mosquitoes to stay out (as well as spiders!) and not only I get this lovely breeze, but so much more daylight as well. I don't care if I get a little extra dust to clean, I noticed there isn't much sickness in the house with my 3 little ones.