The other day I was at a garage sale and the woman was sweeping her garage and chatting with another woman. One woman asked why it was so dusty and dirty in there when she had just swept yesterday and the reponse was that the wind was stirring everything up. The other woman replied that was exactly why she never opens her windows in her home and hasn't once since she bought the house 12 years ago. It made me stop in my tracks. Never open your windows?! I guess I never considered the possibilty that some people don't open windows.Well, wait, I take that back. Years ago when one of my aunts bought a house she exclaimed that the windows had all been painted shut. We all wondered who would paint windows shut, as it was just a given that in nice weather you open the windows. Only a physcopath would close themselves off from the fresh air, right?
Okay, when I now actually think about it I get the reasoning that some people wouldn't want dust/dirt to get into their house. But studies have shown that the air inside our house is up to 70% more polluted than the air outside. One of the ways to offset the polluted air in the house is to air it out...just 15 minutes a day of fresh air entering the house can reduce that pollution in the air by 50%. Everything around you in your house can produce off-gassing; from your furniture and carpet to the paint on your walls. Add to that the chemicals that you clean with and fragrance sprays and plug ins and your house is swarming with unhealthy things in which you breathe in. We also spend almost 90% of our time indoors, breathing in these contaminates. Isn't that enough reason to open the windows?
The fact is, I don't open the windows in order to cut down on the indoor air pollution. It was only in the past couple years that I learned how unhealthy our air indoors is. I would do it for that sole reason if I wasn't already opening my windows but I've always opened my windows. From early spring when the weather reaches around 65 degrees to late fall, I have my windows open. I love to hear the birds chirping, the car tires on the street, the smell of rain, and to feel a warm breeze wafting through the window. There is nothing like when the neighbor's tree (I don't know what kind), which is right outside my bedroom window, is in bloom with thousands of little flowers that smell heavenly. The smell drifts into the bedroom window and makes the whole room smell like a bouquet of flowers. No need for artificial room sprays when you can have the real thing. When the weather is hot, but not hot enough for the air conditioner, I love to cool the bedrooms off in the evening by sticking a fan in the window and drawing in the cool air. Even on a summer night the fan bringing in that fresh, cool air can make it downright chilly in the room - and there is nothing better than snuggling further into your blanket and sleeping like a rock and waking to the sounds of birds chirping.
Yes, there are health benefits to airing your house out. But I think this is one of those things that benefits the soul even more.
i have come to hate open windows. i've spent the past 10 years living in england. there seems to be no such thing as window screens in this country. while there are no screens there still are bugs! my inlaws are compulsive window openers- even in the dead of winter. i can't tell you how unpleasant it is to sit on the toilet that's under a window in 30degree weather. as much as i hate it, our windows are open from late march to mid october. if not everything would turn to mold.
ReplyDeleteI like to open my windows, BUT lately with the horrible "yellow snow" here in NC, I have mostly kept them closed. Which kind of defeats the feel of Spring, but man, my allergies suffer something awful if I don't keep 'em closed!
ReplyDeleteWe rented a house where the windows were painted shut.
ReplyDeleteWe live about 3/4 of a mile from a hog confinement of 6000 sows. I really wonder just how safe the air outside really is. Some neighbors a good mile away from here built a new house with state of the art fire alarms - that went off one night because the stink from those confinements. One night, I had left the windows open and I woke up with this horrible cough and feeling like I couldn't breathe. It took me a moment to realize that horrific hog pit stink was in the air. I shut the windows, and then was fine. Just this morning, when it was so calm out, the stink was so bad my son wouldn't walk down the driveway to the school bus, we had to take the car.
So, I don't know. I like having my windows open, but sometimes its not worth it. And we were here a good 12 years before they put those confinements in.
I <3 open windows, and if I lived in world that I felt was totally safe, I think I would keep ours open 24/7 from May until Sept. The smells of nature, the sounds, all of it. I think the perfect home for me would be out in the country, I grew up that way, but live in the suburbs now! But I must say, you have to have good screens, the buggers just aren't any fun!
ReplyDeleteI love to open windows BUT I do NOT! Our house sits about 50 yards from a gravel road. The dust is unbarely! I only hang clothes and open windows after a rain.
ReplyDeleteWhen we go to Northern Minnesota for vacations, there is no dust and we leave the windows open 24 hrs/day. That is heaven!