You know those mornings when you wake up, open your curtains, and your window looks like the scene of a cheap movie about a ghost? Yup, condensation all over the place. Not the vibe when you’re trying to wake up with a cup of coffee. Apparently, there are some ridiculously easy things you can try to get out of those issues and it just so happens one of them comes from Lynsey, aka The Queen of Clean, and she put it on TikTok. I’ve now learned it and couldn’t help but think ‘wait, was fixing it really that easy to begin with?’
The Soap Hack
So, here’s her simple trick: liquid soap. Just that, soap. All you have to do is dry off your window (rubbing in liquid soap on wet glass is only going to cause a mess), use a cloth to rub a tiny amount of soap on the glass and voila! The soap leaves an invisible layer that prevents the window from fogging up. It’s like giving your window a facial. Strange, but it works.
However, and here’s the thing, I wouldn’t go mad with it. Soap isn’t magic; it doesn’t make condensation disappear. All that water that was trapped somewhere on the glass has to go somewhere. If you keep applying soap day after day, you could force the moist air into undesirable areas: walls, ceilings, timber frames. Hello mold, water stains, and basically a host of new headaches you didn’t ask for. So yes, it works, but not as a permanent solution.
The Salt Trick
Now, if smearing Dawn on your windows isn’t really your idea of weekend fun, there is another old-school hack: salt. Grab a couple of bowls, fill them with salt, and leave them on your windowsill overnight. The salt extracts the moisture right from the air, so come morning, the glass isn’t covered in droplets. It seems like magic, but really it’s just chemistry.
The Baking Soda Option
And because TikTok is TikTok, people immediately jumped into Lynsey’s comments with their own takes. A number said to skip the salt, baking soda works even better. Same basic idea—it absorbs the excess moisture. So if you have that giant box of baking soda in your pantry (the one you never really use unless your fridge smells weird), here’s your invitation to actually put it to use.
Longer-Term Fixes
Beyond the quick hacks, there are more boring but longer-term solutions, like:
Ventilation. Honestly, the easiest one. Crack a window open, turn on an exhaust fan, allow the air to move. Condensation happens when warm, wet air has nowhere to go, so movement is your friend.
Dehumidifiers. Not exciting, but if your house just runs humid all the time, a dehumidifier will keep the air dry enough that condensation isn’t a daily fight.
Look for leaks. Sometimes the problem isn’t the air at all—it’s your windows. Tiny gaps or deterioration in seals can let outside dampness creep in. Resealing might take care of more than you think.
Insulation. Thermal curtains or clear insulating film you can stick on windows in the winter will even out the temperature on the glass. Less temperature difference equals less fog.
So yes, you indeed have options. Soap for a quick fix,. Salt or baking soda for a cheap DIY hack. Then there is some more useful stuff if you really want to solve the root problem. None of it is rocket science and that is kind of the point. Foggy windows are annoying, but not impossible to fix.
So in a nutshell? You do not have to walk around with a haunted-house look every morning. You can, indeed, see out your windows again with a few simple hacks. Which is a good thing, because that is why we have windows.
