How to Keep Your Room Cool in the Summer

When summer heats up, so does your home. And some days, it can be brutal. We live in an older home, so we don’t have a central air system. We rely on window A/C units and fans to keep the house cool, but even with our best efforts, some days, the heat wins.

Keeping your home cooler is a little more complicated without A/C, but with a little dedication, you can enjoy a comfortable room all season long.

If you’re like us, you’re probably looking for tips on how to stay cool in the summer. I’m here to help you by sharing some of the tricks I learned over the years.

Want to know how to keep house cool in the summer naturally? Open some windows at night. When the sun goes down, temperatures go down, too. Take advantage of the free, cool summer evening air by leaving your windows cracked open at night.

If you have ceiling or box fans, turn those on to circulate that cool air.

Check the weather before you do this. If it’s going to rain or temperatures will be balmy that night, keep the windows closed.

In the morning, don’t forget to close your windows to trap in that cool air. Try to close them before early afternoon when the sun really starts to heat up.

When we know it’s going to be a cool night, we open all of the windows and turn on all of the fans to create a cross-breeze. This keeps us cool all night long. In the morning, shortly after we get up, we close all of the windows and get ready for the day. It’s become a part of our routine, so it doesn’t feel like we’re going out of our way to keep the house cool.

One of my best tips for how to keep cool in the summer is to keep your windows covered during the day. When we close our windows in the morning, we also close our blinds. Yes, it darkens our home, but it also keeps it cool.

Radiant heat that enters your home through your windows is absorbed by the floors, walls and ceilings. Then, it gets recirculated throughout the room. That’s why rooms with uncovered windows feel so much hotter than rooms with covered windows.

If you’re the type of person who needs to have sunlight in their home, this tip may not work for you. But most people can benefit greatly from keeping their windows covered until early evening. If you work all day, keeping the blinds, curtains or shutters closed shouldn’t be an issue at all.

I recently asked a friend for some advice on how to keep my house cool in the summer, and his suggestion wasn’t exactly revolutionary: buy an oscillating fan. My first thought? Duh.

Running an oscillating fan in any room of your house will automatically make the room feel cooler.

We have at least three oscillating fans in our house, and we do run them. But strategic placement of your fans can keep your house even cooler.

My friend’s trick only works at night, but it’s a good one. At night when the air is cooler, open your windows. Place one fan in front of the window facing outward to direct hot air out of the room. If you can, shut off the oscillating feature to allow for direct movement of the air.

Place a second fan facing in your direction. We have ours facing towards the bed at night, which really helps eliminate face sweating. The second fan will circulate the cool air.

The two work together to remove hot air and recirculate cool air to make your space feel comfortably cool at night.

My top tip on how to keep your house cool in the summer is to invest in a portable air conditioner. I didn’t put this at the top of the list only because I know that some of you may not have the budget for a portable A/C unit.

But I want you to know that portable air conditioners are much less expensive than they used to be. They are worth every single penny you spend. We bought the Blaux Portable AC and we couldn’t be happier with it.

The reason we love it so much is because it was inexpensive to purchase and it doesn’t use any electricity to run. It charges up using a Type-C charging cable, so while it’s running, it doesn’t use any of your home’s power. All you have to do is add water to the unit, insert the filter and turn it on.

Another great thing about using this type of portable A/C is that you don’t have to deal with exhaust hoses or complicated set-ups. Just power it up and enjoy the cool air.

Most of my tips on how to keep a room cool in the summer revolve around using fans or other electric devices. However, there’s one thing you can do that will naturally keep you cooler at night without costing you money.

Switch your bedding.

What type of sheets and blankets do you use? I’m willing to bet they’re made of microfiber.

Synthetic fabrics like these are unbreathable and hot. Make the switch to cotton bedding, and you will feel cooler instantly and naturally.

If you have an attic in your home, one tip on how to keep an attic cool in the summer is to install an attic ventilator. Attics can get up to 150 degrees in the summer. An attic ventilator fan will push this hot air out of the house.

I’ve had a lot of readers ask me how to keep the upstairs cool in the summer, and this tip works for this purpose, too. If your bedrooms are on the second floor, an attic ventilator fan will help keep these spaces cooler.

I’m always looking for new tricks on how to keep my car cool in the summer and how to keep the garage cool in the summer.

I’ve found that a powerful box fan is a good solution. But if it’s really hot, I’ll bring in my portable A/C for a while. The two can work together to cool down the space quickly. I keep the door closed unless it’s early or late evening when temperatures are cooler.

These are my top tips on how to keep your house cool and how to keep your car cool in the summer.