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A few years ago my husband and I, along with our two young daughters, spent time living in Africa and Latin America. Both countries were hot, hot, hot in summer. Not only was it hot, it was also humid.
I remember one night in Africa we were sleeping (or should I say trying to sleep) in an upstairs motel room. There was no cross ventilation, and I daresay the temperature was close to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. It was also damp. By some miracle, the girls went to sleep well. My husband and I, on the other hand, were spinning around and around desperately in sheer sweaty exhaustion. We couldn’t sleep for nothing, we were so hot!
Finally, our desperation spawned a plan. We got a pair of socks and soaked them dripping water into the sink. We then proceeded to put those soggy socks on our feet. Surprisingly, our bodies cooled down considerably and we were able to sleep for a couple of hours, until our socks were dry. We got up, soaked them again, and repeated the process for the rest of the night. Without a doubt, our despair had become the mother of invention.
We now live in the good old United States of A. However, we don’t have one of those nice, comfortable new houses with air conditioning. Ours is an old farmhouse with enough insulation to keep the mice in the walls happy. So how do we stay cool here? Let me share some of our tips. Maybe it will save you a few horrible sleepless nights.
1. We have trees that shade our house. Now I know it’s a long-term solution, but planting a tree is a lot cheaper than tearing down walls and re-insulating.
2. We open the windows AFTER dark and put box fans on them to keep fresh air in the house throughout the night. In the morning, just when we get up, we remove the fans and close the windows tightly to keep out the hot air.
3. We keep windows covered. It’s amazing how much heat a window can let in. We keep blackout curtains over the windows that let in most of the sun, even during the day.
4. We put window air conditioning units in the bedrooms. It is too expensive for us to condition the air throughout the house, but we found that operating a couple of units at night is affordable and makes sleeping much more comfortable.
5. We move most of our activities during the day to the coolest part of the house. Our master bedroom is on the east side and therefore does not get as hot in the afternoon sun. We moved the television and even my office to the master bedroom and spent a lot of time there. If it’s too hot, we close the bedroom door and turn on the window air conditioning unit for a while to cool it down.
While we’d love to have a well-insulated and air-conditioned home, it’s just not feasible at the moment. However, using these little tips has really made a difference in being able to enjoy the summer, get a good night’s sleep, and be comfortable.