Do you 'air' your house every morning?

[Angryosaurus]

Please help settle an ongoing dispute between me and DH! I admit I'm a bit obsessive about it but I really like to open the windows in the morning before work! Especially bathrooms after showers, bedrooms and the kitchen. My husband thinks I'm insane. He says he doesn't have time to open and close a window. Every winter we have the same disagreement every single morning. I used to just do it myself, but with 2 young DC to get ready we need team work in the mornings! Should add we live in a radon area if that makes a difference...

Yes I usually do even if it's not for long. It's good to get some fresh air flowing through the house.

Nope. Our house is old and the windows aren’t double glazed. We can’t open most of the windows. If I kept my bedroom window open all night, it’d be absolutely freezing in winter. It’s bad enough sitting at my desk just in front of the window, with the window closed and the curtains shut!

I air every day but not for long in cold weather. Just 5-15 minutes of windows open after getting up, after cooking or after a bath or shower.

I definitely don't have windows etc open when the heating is on. Usually air during the day and have heating on in the evening.

We sleep with the bedroom window open. Except in the last storm as the curtains were blowing in on the horizontal and we decided that it was getting a bit too chilly even for us.

I open the other windows regularly but not necessarily in the morning as there are loads of other things to get done like washing in and dishwasher on before leaving house.

I love opening the windows. Like getting a through draft. I prop doors open to stop them getting blown shut.
I have agreed to do it when the hearing is off.

Bedroom windows every day, even during winter. If it’s very cold we’ll close them at night but still open them every morning.

Downstairs, the back door is open pretty much constantly (DH works from home) from March to September, at least.

Re letting heat out, obviously I’m not opening doors and windows when the heating is on

We don’t have heating on overnight at all and have bedroom windows open overnight all year round

In the new house the small room at the front started to smell fusty even after a brand new carpet. We had the carpet cleaned which helped.
A builder told me the house needed to breathe. The steam from the downstairs shower was finding the coldest spot - the front room

So we closed the doors in the evening and open the windows the the front room every morning. Problem solved :)

Kitchen and bathroom windows get opened every morning as I like fresh air in and stops condensation.

Your husband is indeed wrong.

Yep, our windows and th bathroom ones are opened in the morning (and closed when we go downstairs). I wfh so the downstairs ones are open in the day.

I’d like to do this more, don’t usually have time plus most of our window vents are quite high and I’m super short so it often involves climbing on a windowsill or fetching a step! So not a quick and easy thing. Bathroom window is usually open to be fair.

My parents never opened their windows. Literally never, except the bathroom window after people had bathed/showered. (Tbh I am wondering how that worked wrt mould now). I used to open my bedroom window and my mother disapproved. Then I came to Germany, where they're obsessed with it. Magazines regularly publish guides telling you how to air 'properly'. Dh frequently complains about 'the air' and opens a window.

Oh wow. What do they say you should do to air properly then? I usually have a bedroom window open, the kitchen one if I'm in it, bathroom after a shower - so often it does get aired but only formally "air" once a fortnight!

DS1's bedroom window is open as soon as he leaves for school teenage boy stench

Bathroom windows open pretty much all day. Rarely open any windows downstairs, unless it's the summer

We live on a headland on the North East coast. During winter I do not 'air' the house.

Yes. We have the windows open for at least a short while on winter mornings at least. Bathroom window is open as soon as the first person goes in.
DS1 is obsessive about his bedroom open and is constantly reminded to shut it in the evenings when we have the burners or heating on!

No chance. Given the houses's temperature drops rapidly with an open window and we can only regain 1DegC per hour with the heating on it would be mad environmentally, financially and comfort wise.

stick when I lived in germany my rental contract had an 'airing table' attached. but rule of thumb was to open windows for one min per person per hour.
so bedroom of 2 people, 8 hours sleeping = 16 min windows open.
but generally advice is to open windows wide for a few min a couple of times a day,
window vents are non existant, and a draft is seen as downright dangerous

Yes. Bedrooms and bathroom opened on rising and closed mid afternoon when heating clicks on. Rooms smell much better for it.

Oh yes, the Germans are always opening the windows!! It was not fun going to the bathroom after coming back from class or shopping or whatever (on year abroad) in the middle of winter and finding that the room was utterly freezing!!

We open the bathroom window when we have a shower, and leave it open til I am dressed and ready to leave the bedroom, before going to work. I don't open any other windows before work though.

No, I just leave them on latch all year! Then we have constant air circulating, if it gets hot I will open them further.

DH likes to air out our bedroom in the morning, I suspect he actually does it to force me to get up out of bed and into the bathroom where it's warmer. He doesn't do it in other rooms.

In Germany they are obsessed with doing this. This is because a lot of houses don't have proper ventilation so it's necessary. I've never done it in England, never had to.