Opening our windows

Trouble with open windows is the pesky spiders come in. I've got plastic mesh over the window openings but they still get in. Stupid spider phobia.

I open the bedroom window while I make the bed in the morning and a door or window briefly to air the house.

At this time of the year I wouldn't dream of leaving them open for more than five to ten minutes. My heating bill would never stand it.

I do appreciate the point about airing the indoors of houses, shops, buses etc. but I should hate to go anywhere in a bus or train in the winter if the windows were open!

It might lessen the risk of contracting covid19, but what about pneumonia?

Open all my windows for an hour everyday,come rain or shine. I love the smell of fresh air blowing through the place for a while.

I open windows plus patio door and front door,freshens the whole house,hopefully blows the dust off everything as well !

I am an open window person DH is not we are not allowed to open windows because our house recycles the air or something it’s quite a new house but as I often point out why are there windows which can be opened if we aren’t supposed to open them! I open when home alone quickly close again when I hear him coming in.It’s only usually the bathroom window and the bedroom window or I would be breathless running round closing more.

EllanVannin

We had ice on the insides of the windows at home The most beautiful fern patterns left by Jack Frost,. Then huge icicles hanging from peoples gutters and/or burst pipes. You don't see or feel that sort of cold now.
Thick fogs which nobody appeared to be any the worse for suffering them.

I remember the jack frost pattern on the window EllanVannin when I was little. No double glazing then was there. Our house had metal window frames and when our dad lit the coal fire and the house warmed up the frost melted only to freeze again on the window sill.

I've always opened all the windows in our house when I get up. When I get dressed I open the kitchen back door so the fresh air goes all through the house. Now it's getting colder I close them about 4pm but in the summer they stay wide open until bedtime.
I live on a main road with lots of traffic and quite a bit passing during the early hours. I have to have complete silence when I go to bed so even when the weather's sweltering in the Summer I have to keep my window closed.

There's no better feeling than having a gentle breeze on your face throughout the night when sleeping....

123kitty

Trouble with open windows is the pesky spiders come in. I've got plastic mesh over the window openings but they still get in. Stupid spider phobia.

I know how you feel Kitty. I have had an insect net fitted but they still get in. Sadly, they only way for me to air the home is stay on spider watch, for the time I open each window one by one.
The person who discovers a real spider deterrent will be a billionaire. Conkers etc., don’t work.

loislovestewie, I enjoyed your Three Yorkshire Men context to this discussion. My house is colder than your house and I'm dead hard

I have poor circulation (Raynaud's) and the older I get, the more I feel the cold. Having said this - I open the windows in the morning for a good few hours. In this horrible covid world, if my adult children call I let them into the big kitchen area, open the velux, the ordinary windows and the patio doors. Our GP surgery has all the windows open - if they believe that ventilation helps, so do I.

I do air my home but I do not enjoy being cold. When I was a child we lived in a house that just couldn't be a reasonable temperature, I got chilblains every winter and would cry with the pain of them. Later I remember the sheer joy of living in a house with central heating where I could be warm in winter, No more chilblains, no more wearing a jumper to bed, taking a hot water bottle with me and still feeling cold. It almost feels like self flagellation to want to be freezing and boast about it.
I'm off to turn the thermostat up!

My bedroom and bathroom window are always cracked ajar, I can't bear sealed rooms (and would never choose to live in a house without a proper chimney). I open the kitchen window when cooking or when I sit at the table, and I leave the french doors open for a while after letting the cats and dog out in the morning. I like to hear the birds but just feeling the air moving is good.

Window wars here. I love them open, husband always cold so goes around muttering and closing them ? We need them open in the spare bedroom as that’s were the clothes airer is I’m fed up of explaining. My neighbours windows are never open, must be very stale.

I love opening windows, you have to give the house ‘a good blow through’. North wind today,lovely. Once the house has had its blow through I will light the stoves and get it all cosy for my DH who now feels the cold!

This thread has reminded me of a corny joke from years ago...

When is a window not a window?

When it’s ajar!

The mention upthread about Germany is quite right. Airing the house and hanging the bedding out is definitely a thing here. Houses are built more solidly, though, and soon warm up again. This also has the advantage that they are cooler in summer. Apparently Americans find the idea quite alien.

youtu.be/asP8hdFh_5Q

hanging the bedding out is definitely a thing here.

I sure I read that in a Heidi book when Heidi went to stay with Clara in Frankfurt.
It's a long time since I read it, though.

I'm sure!

Oh yes it’s nice to see all the big fluffy duvets airing from the windows. I think they are usually duck or goose feather. The pillows are also large and Square rather than rectangular the ones we have here.
There is an art in making the beds and the quilts are folded in half and then laid sideways down the bed so it continues to get a bit of an air.
I first came across these duvets in the early 60s, visiting my aunt and uncle in Germany, we were still using sheets and two or three blankets. Took a while before we caught up.

I put our bedroom window and bathroom window on vent during the winter months but only for a while - I can’t stand being cold. Other windows generally remain closed unless I feel a room needs a bit of an airing for a while, but, no, they are never open all of the time during the winter. Now summer is a different matter...

Kitty - conkers arranged along the windowcill really does stop spiders crossing them. Something to do with the smell
The only reason I used to have net curtains in my bedroom, was so that I could keep the small windows at the top open most of the time without having to worry about flying guests inviting themselves indoors, The rules always were (round September-November - no lights allowed to switched on until all doors and windows were closed.

As it has to be practically freezing for me to have my heating on during the day, I am quite happy to open my bedroom and living room windows open once I am dressed each morning. (Bathroom and en-suite are both internal, no windows at all).

I can feel the draught from the chimney right now - I had the windows open earlier and it was quite a breeze and cold with it!

Talking about schools having windows open all day and fingerless gloves, it occurred to me that it is far easier for children to dress warmly in other countries where they don't have to wear school uniform. Hoodies for example would fit the bill!
(When I taught in Zürich the pupils were asked to wear their (fluffy) slippers all day, so that could be a good idea for warmth here too!)

Once the heating is off in the morning, I open all windows and fold bed linen back to air the bed. Also, side by side pillows are placed with slip openings facing out to allow fresh air through pillows too.

As a student nurse, the benefits of fresh air were highlighted often, on the ward and in the home. I’m a fresh air freak!

A famous cure for TB too - Mountain fresh air in Switzerland.

biba70

A famous cure for TB too - Mountain fresh air in Switzerland.

We had to read Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain based on a sanatorium in the Swiss mountains.