As the mild autumn days fade into frosty mornings and chilly nights, your home can become a playground for condensation and water build up in the home, which results in mould forming in various hotspots of your home.
To tackle this, there are some ways that you can prepare your home for winter. Read on to learn the ways that you can prevent mould build up in your home.
Reduce mould in your bathroom with these simple steps
Bathrooms are a breeding ground for mould as it’s the wettest room in the home and if not decorated correctly and fitted with correct materials, mould can be a recurring issue.
Install an extractor fan to ventilate the bathroom
Having an extractor fan will help reduce the amount of moisture in your bathroom. As you take a shower or bath, the steam from the water rises to your ceiling and on your walls. Even if you have windows and open them straight after showering, moisture can still linger on your walls hours after and will turn into water which will create mould in your home if not wiped away.
Open windows after showers to help escape excess water
It may sound simple, but opening your windows in the bathroom after a steamy shower can quicken up the process of ventilating your bathroom. Try to keep your windows open until all water has been removed from your walls. Furthermore, if you can keep your windows open (even if a little) while you shower this may help reduce moisture sticking to your walls longer than needed.
Use water resistant paint to avoid peeling walls and build up of mould
Most bathrooms will have elements of painted or wallpapered walls and tiling, make sure to use water resistant paint when decorating your bathroom to avoid moisture build up. Also, if you use regular paint on bathroom walls, you’ll find that the water and moisture will start to make your walls peel. With water resistant paint or paint designed for bathrooms, this won’t happen, the water will stay surface level, unlike regular paint where the water will soak into your walls.
Reduce mould in the bedroom and living room
Place moisture traps around your home to reduce mould and build up of water in the air
Use moisture traps around areas in your bedroom and living room that gets regular build up of condensation. Especially in the winter and colder months, build up of condensation in the might and morning will occur more frequently due to the cold temperature outside verses the warmer temperature inside. If this starts to happen, buy moisture traps or collectors and place them in condensation hotspots in your home.
These typically cost around £1.60-£5 per trap and some come with refillable options so you can reuse them.
Wipe down windows regularly and use fairy liquid to create a water trap on your windows
If you’ve not seen the Fairy liquid window hack on tiktok then we’ve saved you the trouble. We’ve tried this hack ourselves and have found some pleasing results.
The tiktok fairy liquid window hack method:
Simply wipe your windows down so there’s no water or moisture on them. Then, get a dry cloth and squeeze a small amount of fairy liquid or any washing up liquid onto your cloth. Wipe down your dry windows with the liquid and leave it. Come the next morning you’ll notice a difference of moisture build up on your windows. This will last a few days, so it’s not a permanent solution but it certainly helps moisture lurking on your windows throughout the night.
Reduce mould in your kitchen
You may not think it, by cooking and washing machines/dryers can contribute to mould in the kitchen. See below for some of our handy tips to eliminate moisture build up in the kitchen.
Open windows and use an extractor fan when boiling food
Boiling pasta, veg, rice and other foods is a main cause of moisture build up in the kitchen. As you boil water, steam will rise and if windows aren’t open or extractor fans are not being used, this can lead to a build up of moisture on your walls and ceiling which will eventually turn into mould.
To prevent this, make sure you ventilate your kitchen well, by using an extractor fan or opening your windows. Furthermore, keep your kitchen doors closed when cooking as the moisture will find its at travelling around your home too!
Maintain your washing machine and regularly check for any leaks that may occur
Washing machines are generally good at running themselves however it’s wise to regularly check that no small leeks happen behind your washing machine that may run down behind your cupboards and fittings.
If a small leak does start to happen you may not notice straight away if it’s slowly dripping behind your appliance. If this does start to happen, you’ll usually see some spots of mould occur near the washing machine which will be a sign of a leak.