As far as I’m concerned, dehumidifying plants are a necessity in most homes.
When there’s excess moisture in your home, you are bound to feel uncomfortable.
Dehumidifying plants will always make you feel better and reduce the moisture.
They also help to clean up the indoor air which will help you sleep easy at night.
Dehumidifier and other solutions can actually have some effect on your home but using a plant solution is always better.
Dehumidifying plant-spider plant
Wait a minute! Do you know how this plant will reduce the humidity in your home?
How dehumidifying plant reduce humidity in your home.
It’s always a good idea to use indoor plants in your home.
For one, they are an amazing decor and at the same time a good way to stay connected to nature.
I don’t know about you but I love to see some green in my home.
Well, at least a plant in my home will always give me a warm feeling every time I look at it.
One of the most beneficial plants to have in your home is the dehumidifiers.
On top of the fact that they are a good addition to your decor, they are also helpful to your home.
The leaves in any plant are able to get moisture from the air around.
More importantly, there are some plants that are extremely efficient when it comes to harvesting the moisture through their leaves.
That’s something you can use to your advantage.
Since they have a high level when it comes to absorbing moisture, you can use the plant to reduce the moisture in your indoor air.
Hence this makes these plants an essential in any home.
That is because the high level of humidity indoors will threaten the health of everyone inside and at the same time the integrity of your home.
You need to consider taking the below plants in your home to reduce the humidity.
Otherwise, everyone is in trouble!
9 Best houseplants to dehumidify naturally
Boston fern
This plant is one of the most attractive plants you can have at home.
It’s an exotic plant with gracefully arching that is ideal as a humidifier in your home.
The plant is able to take the moisture from the air and utilize it to grow. That makes this plant the best to grow indoors.
The best part is that it is able to reduce those air pollutants that might affect your health in the end.
Some of the unwanted toxins that this plant is able to get rid of include, benzene, xylene, and formaldehyde hence purifying your air.
You can place this fern in a hanging basket anywhere in your home.
But remember to place them in direct sunlight and at the same time keep the leaves with mist to give them a shiny look.
⦁ English Ivy
This is the ideal plant when it comes to people with pets.
If by any chance you have a pet in your home, then the English ivy will help you reduce any airborne fecal matter.
I know it sounds yuck but the reality is that this is one of the problems pet owners will always face.
Luckily, nature has its own way of correcting itself.
Thankfully, the English ivy is a good way to help control such scenarios at home.
Additionally, the English ivy is also able to absorb formaldehyde.
Formaldehyde is more common than what most people tend to think.
Mostly, it’s found in carpet treatment, household products, and furniture among other products.
In addition, English ivy can also remove mold which is common in most humid places.
The best part is that caring for English ivy is quite a simple task.
This plant doesn’t require so much light.
The only thing that you need to do is that you should ensure the soil is always moist.
If you want to make an amazing decoration with this plant, you should place it in a hanging pot.
Also, you need to make sure you place the plant closer to the ceiling so that it can absorb humidity as it rises.
With that in mind, this is the best plant you can use in your home.
Plants that help remove toxins
⦁ Peace lily
This plant will help reduce the humidity in your home by absorbing moisture in the air.
Hence making it the best plant to grow indoors.
The indoor air can sometimes become too humid and that is why the peace lily will be a good addition to your interior decor.
The peace lily uses its leaves to absorb moisture directly from the air in your home.
It doesn’t require too much light so it can easily survive the home environment.
In addition to the fact that peace lily can reduce the moisture in the air, it’s also a good way to detoxify the air.
That is because this plant is able to reduce the levels of air pollutants and other toxins from your home.
You can also keep the peace lily in your bathroom since it can absorb all the moisture.
Peace ivy is able to absorb harmful vapors, for instance, alcohol or acetone.
Unfortunately, this plant has a downside.
It can be a bit toxic, especially when consumed by either kids or pets.
Therefore, you will have to keep it away from pets and kids.
Other than that, peace lily is actually easy to care for and maintain.
⦁ Spider plant
This is another plant that is quite easy to grow indoors.
It has beautiful long arching leaves that make it a true stand out.
The one interesting fact about the spider plant is that it’s said to remove up to 90% in the air in just under two days.
The spider plant is able to also absorb carbon monoxide and formaldehyde from the air.
Hence reducing the toxicity of the air we breathe.
More importantly, spider plant is able to absorb humidity from the same air.
By far, one of the best houseplants with incredible qualities.
The plant is also able to survive under indirect sunlight and neglect.
Make your home more hospitable with this beauty and you won’t regret it.
⦁ Reed Palm
The red palm is a good plant when you want to reduce humidity indoors.
This plant lives in tropical areas where there are high levels of humidity.
To top it all up, the natural environment of this plant is also hot.
That means the reed palm can naturally absorb humidity from the environment.
Just like the above plants, reed palm is able to purify the air from any air pollutants.
Therefore, besides the normal dehumidifying nature of this plant, the reed palm is a good solution if you are trying to reduce the pollutants in your home.
⦁ Areca Palm
Areca palm
This is another common plant in most homes.
The areca plant is able to absorb moisture from the air in your home hence making the air conducive.
In other words, it can typically filter the air in your home.
That means you don’t have to suffer the problems of using a humidifier in your home (more on that topic below).
These plants can survive under direct sunlight.
However, you need to watch out not to expose them to too much sunlight.
That is because too much light will scorch the leaves.
More to that, you should not over water them since they survive in a moderate environment.
⦁ Tillandsia
Well, in case you are wondering tillandsia too is a great dehumidifying plant in your home.
This is one plant that you just need to place in front of a bright window in your house.
This is because the plant needs ample filtered sunlight for it to survive.
Also, the plant may require watering at least three times per week.
This is a very delicate plant that may have more concave leaves in case it is under water.
Tillandsia
The best thing about the plant is the fact that it can still thrive well without a root system and without a lot of direct sunlight.
This makes it even easier for the plant to survive in the indoor conditions.
This actually advantageous to any room because the plant has the capability of absorbing moisture as well as nutrients from the environment through the leaves.
This is a win-win situation since the plant will help to solve the issue of too much humidity in your home.
Also, it could be a better replacement for most of the other indoor plants which play only a decorative role in the house.
This is because such plants are more likely to release more moisture to the air.
In that case, if you are dealing with any of the humidity issues in your home.
It would be wise for you to replace most of your existing indoor plants.
with such categories that will actually help to keep the rooms dehumidified.
Other plants that you can also consider using as a dehumidifier in your home include;
⦁ Cactus
⦁ Orchids
But what about buying a dehumidifier?
That’s a question that you are probably asking yourself right now.
However, there’s a reason why using a plant as a natural dehumidifier is the best solution for you.
Why using a Dehumidifier is a bad option?
Using a dehumidifier is probably one of those bad ideas that actually sound like a good solution at the time.
We are in an era where we solely depend a lot on technology.
Ask the people around you what is the best solution on anything and they will shove you to technology.
Technology can do a lot but sometimes the downside overwhelms the advantages. For example, using a dehumidifier as a solution to reduce moisture in your home.
The dehumidifier is actually not a good idea when dealing with humidity.
Unfortunately, there’s a lot of dehumidifiers in the market today that you will never lack a quick fix for your problem in tech.
The problem is that you might end up buying more than just one humidifier when you want to deal with all the humidity in your home.
That means you will end up spending a lot of money and electricity bill simply to deal with an easy solution.
More importantly, you will also need to make sure that the machine is constantly running so that it can supply the needed humidity.
Can you imagine how much you are going to use on electric bills simply by keeping this machine running all through the day?
Now picture a scenario where you only need to trim and water the plant when needed?
How to get rid of humidity without dehumidifiers
I don’t know about you but I think that plants make better natural dehumidifiers when compared to the artificial electric categories of dehumidifiers.
If you are curious which are the benefits that will push you to make a change, here is a list of the benefits you of using plants as natural dehumidifiers.
⦁ They are purely natural
One of the most essential reasons why plants make better dehumidifiers is because they are natural, unlike the electric dehumidifiers.
This means that the plants are entirely friendly to the environments and can have no harm to nature.
⦁ They are decorative
Besides helping with dehumidifying, these plants play two roles at a go.
The plants could also be used to decorate the house while still performing their primary functions. They bring in that undeniable natural feeling in your home.
The fact that some of the dehumidifying plants have flowers, this means that the plant will enhance the outlook of your house in even more ways.
⦁ They are pocket-friendly
The other benefit the plants offer is the fact that they are cost friendly.
As with the plants you will not have to worry about your electricity bills like when using the electric dehumidifiers.
They do not need any source of power for them to function their functions.
All in all, you may have to invest a few bucks in caring for the plant which is not as much as buying and maintaining the dehumidifier.
All you have to worry is whether the plant has enough sunlight for it to grow indoors.
More to that, you also need to water the plants on a regular basis and fertilize them once in a while.
Those are just the basics that should worry you, nothing more.
Hi, I live in a 1 bedroom apartment (around 750 sqft) where unfortunately the relative humidity is around 70%, which is a host environment for mould. how many plants do you think I should put to dehumidify the house ? I’m thinking of getting the Boston fern, peace lily and Areca palm. I’m also a little bit confused as to the size needed, as apparently there about 3 size options for each.
I Would be very grateful for your feedback ,
Thank you ,
Best,
Hened
Hi Hened! Thanks for the comment. I am sorry to hear about your situation. Based on what i have read on the Nasa Clean air study you would need 1 plant for every hundred square feet of living space. Without seeing your layout i personally would get various sizes and possibly lean towards 8 if your budget allows. It may seem like a bit much however 70% humidity is a lot to deal with. Some other benefits of having so many is that they become a natural way of removing toxic agents from the air. Benzene, Formaldehyde and trichloroethylene are just some. Here is a link so you can read it for yourself.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Clean_Air_Study
I hope this helps! Good luck and all the best… Herminio
Thank you Herminio, that was very helpful!