If you want to wake up in the winter looking and feeling less like a dried up raisin, apparently you need to run a humidifier. It looks like monitoring air humidity levels is another thing to add to the list I keep on my fridge of “stuff to remember to do because you’re an adult.”

I used to think stuff like this was “poppycock”; only for weak invalids. Then I had a cough for a month during an incredibly cold period and decided to do some research. Turns out I was wrong.

After purchasing this $9 hydrometer on Amazon I realized my apartment had been coming in around 20% humidity, possibly lower on some of the cold days. That’s low. I bought this humidifier which runs quietly and stores a lot of water and now I’m sitting pretty around 34%.

My lungs/chest/innards are back to normal, I’m using less Chapstick and my hair is more alive, less straw-scarecrow-frozen-in-a-fieldy.

All good things.

Maybe being an adult is pretty okay.

Ignorance is not bliss.

Here’s a great guide to interior humidity from a source that wrote a far more comprehensive post on this topic than I: