If you live in a humid climate or if your apartment is prone to retaining moisture, you will know how pleasant a dry flat can be. The only problem is, how exactly do you ensure that your apartment feels dry? Are there any tips or tricks you can use to keep your apartment dry?
Table of Contents
Here are some things you can do to keep your apartment dry:
- Grow house plants.
- Install air conditioning.
- Buy a dehumidifier.
- Practice deep cleaning.
- Open windows and vents.
- Use extractor fans.
- Take cold showers.
- Avoid cooking indoors.
- Improve the airflow.
- Repair damages to walls, ceilings, and flooring.
- Ensure windows and doors are sealed.
Continue reading this article for a guide to keeping your apartment dry. I’ll go through ways of ensuring that the air in your apartment is dry and that no water can make its way in from outside. By the end of this piece, you’ll know all you need to keep your home dry year-round.
Grow House Plants
One of the most pleasant ways of keeping your apartment dry is by growing house plants. Certain species of house plants are excellent at absorbing moisture from the air. They use the water they suck out to sustain growth and development.
Succulent plants like aloe vera and spider plants are excellent at absorbing water from the house. These plants developed to live in arid climates, where water is scarce. As a result, they absorb all the moisture they can get.
Some other common houseplants that are excellent at reducing the moisture in an apartment and keeping it dry include cacti, lilies, and English ivy. However, don’t keep too many houseplants in your house as they may increase the humidity when they transpire. As a result, the humidity levels in your home becomes unstable.
Read: Does Opening The Window Help With Dry Air?
Install Air Conditioning
Air conditioning units are highly effective at keeping your apartment dry. When air conditioners are turned on, they pull out the damp air from your apartment and replace it with cold, dry air. This process dramatically reduces indoor moisture levels and helps keep your apartment dry.
If you already have an air conditioning unit in your apartment, consider hiring an expert to service the machine. This will help with energy efficiency, making the device more effective.
Alternatively, if your air conditioning unit is old or outdated, consider investing in a new unit. While the initial cost of a new air conditioner can be high, improvements to energy efficiency can save you money in the long run.
Read: Mini Split In Dry Mode Vs. Dehumidifier: Which One Is More Efficient?
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Buy a Dehumidifier
Dehumidifiers work by pulling moisture out of the air in your home. Dehumidifiers are excellent at improving the air quality, preventing mold formation, and keeping your apartment dry. On top of this, dehumidifiers are often inexpensive and easy to use.
Check out these dehumidifiers available to buy from Amazon:
- BRITSOU 50 Pint Dehumidifier is an excellent device used for keeping your home dry. This humidifier can cover 3,500 sq feet (325 sq meters), or about the size of a small apartment. This device also offers intelligent humidity control to set the humidity level you want and a dry clothes mode that speeds up the clothes drying process indoors.
- TABYIK 35 OZ Dehumidifier is a compact dehumidifier ideal for keeping one room in your apartment dry. This device is quiet, so you won’t even notice it at work, and contains 7 light settings to help you set the mood in your apartment. To top it off, this device comes at a reasonable price.
Read: What Causes Low Humidity In A House?
Practice Deep Cleaning
If you’ve got a rug or carpet in your apartment, it could retain water and release it into your home. Therefore, it makes sense to give your rugs and carpets a deep cleaning. This will prevent them from continuing to release moisture, provided you can clean them effectively.
However, some rugs and carpets may be beyond help. In this case, you should invest in some new ones. Buying a new carpet can drastically improve the air quality in your home by reducing the dust and dirt, not just the moisture.
Open Windows and Vents
If the air inside your home is humid and full of water, but the outside is dry, use your windows for ventilation. Opening windows and vents will allow the moist air inside your home to be released while allowing dry air to enter.
However, this trick only applies when the outside air is dryer than the air in your apartment. In humid climates or wet weather, this approach will only exacerbate the issue.
Use Extractor Fans
If your apartment is damp and humid, there is excess water in the air. One way that you can help to remove the moist air is by using extractor fans, which can suck out air from inside your home, reducing the moisture levels.
Extractor fans are commonly found in bathrooms and kitchens as these rooms are often the source of warm, wet air. Keep your extracting fans turned on when cooking and showering to keep your apartment dry. But for best results, keep the fans running throughout the day.
Read: How To Heat An Apartment Efficiently?
Take Cold Showers
Taking a long, hot shower is an almost guaranteed way of not keeping your apartment dry. The hot water released from the shower will be absorbed into the air. This moisture may then condense into the water on surfaces throughout your home.
To prevent this from happening, you should take cold showers when possible. If a cold shower sounds too challenging for you, just cut down the time you spend in the shower and keep the doors closed when you’re washing.
Avoid Cooking Indoors
Like showering, cooking food on the stove can prevent you from keeping your apartment dry. When water boils, it evaporates into steam, released into the air. This water vapor either remains in the air or it condenses back into water elsewhere in your home.
The easiest way to avoid this is by ordering in or cooking outdoors when possible. If you must cook inside, make sure there is excellent ventilation and that the extracting fans are turned on to prevent a spike in humidity.
Improve the Airflow
If you want to keep your apartment dry, you need to get rid of some of the moisture held in the air. One of the cheapest and easiest ways of doing this is by improving the airflow in your home. You can achieve better airflow by opening the windows and doors.
Adding fans throughout your apartment is another excellent way of increasing the flow of air. Significantly if you strategically place the fans to maximize airflow in the rooms. Opening ventilation and cleaning out vent covers will also help increase airflow.
Improving the airflow in your apartment will help keep it dry, but it will also reduce the risk of mold forming as mold requires damp still air to fester.
Repair Damages to Walls, Ceilings, and Flooring
A small crack in your walls, ceilings, or flooring could allow water to pass through. The water will enter as a leak, resulting in costly damages or increased air moisture. If you want to keep your apartment dry, you’ll need to seal up any cracks or gaps in external walls, the flooring, and ceilings in your home.
Finding and repairing leaks in your apartment can be a challenging job. As a result, you’ll likely need to hire an expert. A professional will be able to find and eliminate leaks at the source, so your apartment can remain dry.
Read: How To Keep A House Humid In Winter?
Ensure Windows and Doors Are Sealed
Another likely source of water getting into your home is through the seals surrounding your doors and windows. If the seals surrounding the doors or windows in an apartment are compromised, it could allow for small amounts of water to pass through.
Over time the water can accumulate and pool together, harming the doors and windows. Or the gaps between the seals could allow humid air to enter from outside. Your apartment will not stay dry with damaged doors and windows.
To form effective seals around your doors and windows, you’ll need to apply caulk to the damaged areas. This forms a watertight seal that keeps your apartment dry.
Key Takeaways
Keeping your apartment dry can improve your energy efficiency, as less energy is required to cool your home. On top of this, keeping the apartment dry will enhance your quality of life and even help with breathing issues like asthma. To ensure that your apartment remains dry, remember these key points:
- Increase ventilation and airflow
- Use extracting fans, especially when cooking
- Take shorter showers
- Use dehumidifiers
- Grow houseplants
- Repair damage to walls, ceilings, and flooring