Why Does Your Living Room Look Foggy? 3 Common Reasons

Have you ever snuggled into your couch, a glass of wine in one hand, the remote in the other, ready for a relaxing night with your Netflix account, only to realize that your living room had a weird haze of fog floating around? A little alarming, but it’s actually pretty common. 

Your living room looks foggy because condensation has occurred. Condensation occurs when there is a significant difference between humidity levels and temperatures outside and inside your home. Air drying your laundry and improper use of a humidifier are common causes of condensation in your room.

In this article, I will discuss more in-depth why your room might look foggy and give you solutions on how to make the air in your room transparent and safe to breathe again.

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How Does a Living Room Get Foggy?

To understand why your room is foggy, you must know what fog is and why exactly it forms.

Fog is a result of the condensation of water vapor. This means that the fog you see is just a bunch of water drops in the air.

For fog to form, there are two crucial factors: a dew point and the temperature of the air. If their values come close to one another, fog forms.

While it may be a majestic sight to see a familiar scenery from your window covered in a thick layer of fog while you’re snuggled up in bed, seeing a foggy-like presence in your living room may raise a few questions.

Before resolving your misty problem, it’s essential to find out the cause first.

Your Humidifier Is Making Your Room Look Hazy

A humidifier is a lifesaver in many ways. With the proper use of a humidifier, you can say goodbye to the skin cracking and itching from dryness, dry lips, and even a rough, scratchy throat. It’s a necessity for many, especially on cold winter days.

However, if you notice that your room is hazy lately, the blame might lay on your humidifier. 

When you overdo it, your home might be at significant risk of developing mold, resulting in misplaced fog inside your living room and, of course, more coughing and allergies.

Condensation Build Up

Wondering why your room is filled with misty air, all while dealing with that nagging cough that has lasted for ages, can leave you searching for any solution to make it go away.

If you experience all that, plus the air you breathe feels oddly heavy, you’re probably dealing with condensation.

Condensation mainly occurs in the winter days, when your only concern is to stay warm. This may lead to overusing your humidifier or not airing out your room frequently. Incidentally, that same humid air from your lungs never leaves the room, causing even more fog buildup.

Mold will occur if condensation isn’t dealt with and noticed timely.

In addition to your living room looking foggy, you’ll notice little water droplets form on the ends of your window. High humidity may even make your wallpaper look bumpy. Don’t worry though, as the problem is fixable.

Airdrying Your Laundry Indoors

Airdrying your laundry outdoors is typical on summer days as your laundry dries more quickly.

On colder days, however, many people resort to drying their clothes inside to avoid frosting. Some people might not have enough space to dry their clothes so they hang them in the living room, which tends to be more spacious than the other rooms in the house.

Moist clothes can raise a room’s humidity by up to 30%. When the temperature and humidity contrast is major on winter days, airdrying your laundry inside will lead to humid, foggy air.

Moreover, if the living room is poorly ventilated, the clothes will dry out more slowly, increasing the risk of mold building up.

How To Make Your Living Room Look Less Foggy

Mayo Clinic suggests that the moisture in your home should be between 30% and 50%.

If the humidity in your home exceeds those levels, you will notice moisture build-up on windows, mirrors, and even furniture. Excessive humidity is detectable through a distinctive smell and hazy appearance, too.

1. Use a Dehumidifier

If you’ve noticed signs of condensation in your home, invest in a dehumidifier. A dehumidifier is a device that reduces the humidity in your home to a comfortable and safe level.

You should expect your problems to be gone in less than a week. Not only will the air feel less damp and easier to breathe, but a dehumidifier should also prevent mold formation.

If you’re not sure what kind of dehumidifier you should get, check out LAOVER Portable Mini Dehumidifier (available on Amazon.com). It’s not only compact and easily portable, but it has a sleek modern design that won’t overtake the room.

If you must airdry your clothes indoors during winter, switch on the dehumidifier to neutralize the expected spike in humidity.

2. Turn Off or Adjust Your Humidifier

One of the first things to do if you’ve noticed a misty appearance inside your home while using a humidifier is to turn it off for a while and see if there is any improvement.

Humidifiers are meant to improve the air quality in your home, but if you neglect the recommended humidity standard, they might do the exact opposite.

To fix this, you should either turn off your humidifier entirely or adjust the humidity levels until they’re up to the standard again.

3. Clean Your Humidifier

The main reason you’d buy a humidifier is to improve the air quality in your home.

Having air filled with all that nasty stuff and bacteria beats that purpose, right? Sounds like a nightmare for everyone, let alone for people who suffer from allergies.

Not only is moldy and bacteria-filled air a potential health hazard, it’s just plain gross. It will leave you with questions about whether it’s normal to be able to see the air you breathe, which of course, it’s not.

Not cleaning your humidifier promptly and correctly will release misty, foggy air. Its maintenance, which includes proper cleaning, is necessary for a humidifier to continue being a helpful asset in your home. 

To maintain the cleanliness of your humidifier without too much hassle, proper maintenance is the way to go.

Just by emptying the tank of the excess water after each use, you’ll do half of the job as you prevent bacterial and mold growth. By adding white vinegar to your humidifier and letting it sit for a couple of minutes, you’re getting rid of all of the build-ups, and adding bleach after that will disinfect it. It can be as easy as that.

If you want to know how a humidifier is cleaned step by step, you should watch this video: 

Final Thoughts

It’s important to act fast when you notice the foggy formation in your living room. Not only is it unsettling to see a fog inside your room, but it may also impact your health.

Finding out what’s causing the problem and dealing with it immediately should prevent it from persisting and stop it from becoming more severe.