Whether you're experiencing a dry, windy winter or have the AC going during the summertime, here are ways to increase the humidity in your home which helps you and your houseplants feel more hydrated indoors!
1. Water Bowls:
Place bowls, pots or baking pans of water around your home in sunny windows or near heat/air vents to increase humidity through evaporation. Choose containers with wide mouths over narrow deep ones, the larger the surface area, the more evaporation occurs.
2. Hang the Laundry:
Instead of throwing your clean clothes directly into the dryer, hang them up indoors and allow that moisture to slowly release into the air. Once clothes are mostly dry, pop them into the dryer to finish them off for a few minutes which will soften them up nicely while saving on your next electric bill!
3. Leave the door open:
After bathing or showering, be sure to leave the bathroom door open to allow all that humidity to flow into the rest of your home.
Tropical houseplants and air plants will thank you for bringing them into the bathroom while you shower too! Allow them to soak up that ambient humidity and help them feel more at home in yours.
4. Boil water and herbs:
Our favorite wintertime ritual to instantly increase humidity during dry and windy days. Add citrus peels and dried herbs like bay leaves, mint, roves, star anise, cinnamon for added aromatherapy and cleansing. Be sure to keep an eye on window condensation build up and clean the sills if mold appears, which can happen during colder winter months.
5. More Plants:
Another excuse to bring more green friends into your home! When plants “drink” from their roots they bring water and nutrients up through their stems (like a straw) through the stomata in their leaves releasing it into the air (kind of like plant sweat!) which naturally increases overall humidity in the air. The drier the air, the higher the rate of transpiration!
Isn’t nature just so amazing?
Hope this helps you to create more humidity in your home during those bitter cold, windy days of winter or the hot days of summer if the AC is cranked up!
Happy growing,
Karina and Team SE