My “Sheet Method” Hack Keeps My Living Room Cool During Scorching 90-Degree Summers

You know the old phrase, “if you can’t take the heat, stay out of the kitchen?” That never rings truer for me than during summer months in my home base of Los Angeles. But it’s not because of the cooking I do — it’s because I don’t have central air conditioning.

The lack of central AC is pretty common among older apartments like mine in LA. To stay cool, I have a portable air conditioner in my living room. While this works fine for most of the year, there are a few months when the heat becomes so intense that I need to take drastic measures. I learned years ago that it’s pretty impossible for my entire apartment to stay livably cool during these times, but I discovered my very own summer cooling hack for keeping my main living space at a temperature that’s more than tolerable. Read on for my tried-and-true “sheet method” that helps my living room stay at a comfortable 68 degrees Fahrenheit (even when it’s over 100 degrees outside!).

Three years ago we had an abominably hot summer here in LA — I’m talking temperatures of at least 95 degrees every day for weeks. Even with my 10,000 BTU air conditioner set at 65 degrees and on high speed, my apartment was an oven. I had already decided to sleep on my living room couch, closer to the AC, to try and stay cool — but even with my blinds drawn, I was sweating up a storm. And then, eureka! I had an idea that changed everything.

I’d been trying to make my air conditioner cool the whole apartment, and that meant it was working extra hard (and not really able to keep up with the entire space). Instead, I needed to give my air conditioner a bit of a break.

To do that, I decided to take a plain old bed sheet and hang it up in the doorway between my living room and the rest of my apartment. I hung the sheet across the doorframe with blue painter’s tape, making sure to tape the sides as well so air couldn’t escape around it. Then, I waited. Impatiently.

After about 30 minutes, I could already sense the living room getting cooler. In fact, my accompanying LG app said my apartment had dropped from 86 degrees to a cool 79 degrees. “Okay,” I thought. “Maybe this will actually work.” I waited another hour or so. By this point, my living room was so cold that I needed to get under a blanket. 

Honestly? I was in shock. Not to mention pretty proud of myself for figuring out a way to cool down my living room!

The reason this cooling hack works is pretty simple: Blocking off the living room from the rest of the apartment decreased the square footage that my air conditioning unit needed to cover. That meant it could work more efficiently, so the smaller space got cooler faster.

As much as I love that my sheet method makes my living room, well, livable, I have to admit the method isn’t perfect. The rest of my apartment turns into a sauna even more than before, so every time I walk into my bedroom, kitchen, or bathroom, I’m hit with a wall of heat.

I also end up spending way more time in my living room than usual. I work there, I sleep there, I eat there, I watch TV there. It can get a little boring after a while. But honestly, it’s a small price to pay to have part of my apartment feel cold on a 100-degree summer day.

I’ve brought out that trusty white sheet for three summers now, and I’m happy to say my living room remains as cool as ever. If you only have an air conditioning unit in one room of your home, this is definitely a method to try — and could even be helpful if you have multiple units but want to concentrate their cool air in spaces you actually use, instead of having it leak out into hallways and other less-used areas. If you try it, leave me a comment to let me know how it worked for you!