Babe, wake up, a new ridiculous social media trend just dropped in which a normal thing (in this case, opening the windows in your home) is given a hip, hashtaggable name (“house burping”) and turned into a ludicrous lifestyle fad!
Yes, you read that right, we’re calling opening the windows now and then “house burping,” and it’s the hottest new housekeeping trend on TikTok. And while that sounds, and is, ridiculous, experts say it does have actual benefits, especially if you are the type of person for whom opening the windows is, for some reason, a rare event.
Inside ‘house burping’ and why everyone is doing it all of a sudden.
If you’re a person who already regularly does the completely normal and unremarkable practice of *checks very serious journalistic notes* opening the windows in your home, congratulations: You are a major trendsetter!
“House burping” is all the rage right now, with practitioners swearing that circulating the air through your home works wonders for comfort and maintenance, “even if it’s just for five minutes,” in the parlance of one viral video about it. Opening the windows is apparently so rare, so heavy a lift, that people need to be encouraged that “just five minutes” is still worth it, I guess.
Anyway! The practice is supposed to freshen the air in your home, a thing any normal person could have told you is the purpose of windows in the first place (well, that and letting light in, but still). Next, we’ll have influencers making videos about how your refrigerator can actually make your beverage cooler than the ambient temperature if you place it inside and close the door! The world is full of miracles to those willing to notice them!
‘House burping’ is derived from the German practice of ‘lüften,’ where it is often mandatory.
I’m perhaps being unfairly sarcastic about “house burping,” but that’s partly because it is a phrase that manages to be both gross and among the dumbest ever coined all in one go. And most of the Germans who’ve encountered it would agree with that sentiment.
“House burping” is based on the German practice of “lüften,” a cultural practice so cherished that it is often written into apartment leases as a way to prevent mold from growing due to moisture accumulation.
And it does have very real benefits: German Chancellor Angela Merkel famously promoted the practice as a way to lessen the risks of Covid during the pandemic by allowing potential pathogens to be aired out. Fun fact: New York City radiators are so farcically hot for the same reason: to induce tenants to open windows and keep air circulating in the wake of the 1918 flu pandemic.
There are also different types of “lüften” in Germany: “Querlüften” is for the cross ventilation you get when opening windows on opposite ends of a room or the house in general, and “stosslüften” describes the bracing rush of cold air you get when opening windows in winter.
Some experts say ‘house burping’ is actually a good idea for America’s sealed-up houses.
“Do Americans just not normally have your house windows open?” one Redditor recently asked of the trend. “Maybe I am just too Canadian for this.” See, I’m not the only one who thinks this trendified version of a totally normal thing is weird and absurd!
But that Redditor isn’t really wrong: window-opening really is something of a novelty in the US, due to our love affair with air conditioning and central heating, both of which are rare in most of the rest of the world.
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Speaking to The New York Times, Albert Einstein College of Medicine microbiologist Dr. Joshua Nosanchuk said “house burping” is actually a good idea to clear out all kinds of accumulated airborne substances, including germs. “Part of the problem is that we hermetically seal our houses,” he said. “We don’t want the air conditioning to get out, and we don’t want the heat to get in. No one opens their windows.”
Which is something I’ve never understood, personally, hence my mockery: Not wanting fresh air in your house is weird. It’s weird! We are animals like everyone else, we are not designed to be sealed up in giant Tupperwares any more than the beasts of the wild are! Open your dang windows now and then, you weirdos!
And as an added bonus, you’ll apparently go viral nowadays if you do, and if that’s not motivation enough to adopt the hip, fashionable new practice of allowing air into your home and then breathing it into your lungs, what possibly could be? (Just please stop calling it “house burping” for the love of God.)
John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.
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