since I’m using public transit more, trying to be concious
It’s best if you don’t wash your things first, as some fabrics could be damaged or shrink if they go into a hot dryer while they are wet. Put your dry clothes and sleep gear into the hot dryer for half an hour. Then if you want to wash things do it according to label directions after the heat treatment.
I bought Hanes Mens Big Tall Crew Socks, 12-14, White from Walmart. These are not the same as the “Cushion Crew” socks I got from amazon; they don’t have gray on the arch and they have the word “Hanes” on the bottom.
I hear clothes typically shrink in the dryer when wet. Site recommended that, for clothes that aren’t designed for high temperature, kill bed bugs by drying them when dry.
Now gotten in the habit of wash->Normal dry->Normal->Medium then dry->Manual/High.
Seem to have made the laundry more manageable by cutting down on all the misc. stuff, by hanging up a specific pair of e.g. p.js, pants, etc I wear when at home for short periods - that way stuff that has only been worn a short time gets reworn.
I officially cannot get socks from anywhere except amazon.
Hanes does not sell direct to Canada. maybe I could get from Mr. Big & Tall specialty store in person, I would need to . I bit the bullet and stocked up from amazon.
putting hooks on the wall, and putting already-worn pjs and “utility” clothes for after shower, and being deliberate about when I throw stuff to get laundered and recognizing that not everything needs to be absolutely clean in a tradeoff with the amount of laundry, has helped a lot
I should turn dress pants inside out before washing - getting this weird kind of wear and shrinking on the outside of the fly area that is the main thing that makes me want to take the pants out of circulation
So because I’ve been taking pants on the bus, I’ve gotten in the habit of washing on Normal straight after getting in, then drying on Low or Medium to dessicate any possible bed bugs / eggs.
Because I get only one use out of each set of clothing, I usually end up doing an average of one load of laundry every day or two.
But recently I was going through my power bill, and I burned 258 kWh for this month. Not a huge deal, but surprising.
I read now that the high setting on the washer is often just about enough to kill bed bugs. I also understand the dryer is usually what shrinks clothing.
The physics of this makes sense that it would be more favorable. The dryer takes 30 A to briefly heat air and then blow it outside in one pass, and the washer just heats up a pool of water a few degrees beyond what the building boiler puts out.
So I’m going to try washing everything on Hot and see how that goes.
Potentially I’ll go back to air-drying as well.
Generative AI policy: Text on this site was written by a human except if explicitly marked otherwise.
