By Slanted Light

Trouble is, I don't have anywhere to move my bookcases to... I do keep them off the walls - in fact it's not possible for them to be right up against the walls, because either the wall or floor slopes enough that there's an inch or so gap by the time you get to the top! Even at the bottom the skirting board stops them being flat up against the wall. I open the window for at least an hour every day, to try and help air circulate, but the way the house is designed (windows on one side, door through to bedroom/kitchen on the other) means that you can't really get a through draft, which would help the air to move. There's perhaps something of a through draft (though barely) if I open the front door too, but only because of the size of gap that makes! But it opens onto the street, so I don't really want to do that all the time. And not in winter, either!

Trouble with a dehumidifier is that it uses even more electricity, and I'm already paying an awfully high bill - and the house isn't even warm as a result! Plus the noise would drive me batty... I'm going to try and find some dehumidifying plants - apparently things like English ivy, cacti and spider plants are good at sucking moisture out of the air to use themselves. Not that there's an awful lot of room to put them!

I've had my bookcases in every house I've lived in though, and I know other people have them too (!) - I should be able to have stuff along the walls without them becoming covered in mould, if there was proper ventilation and heating in the room. I don't think there'd be a problem if there was better air flow in the house, or a better heating system... I just can't afford to be spending £200 a month (cUS$260) on electricity because the landlord didn't want to pay out for a heating system... *sighs*