Thats what its all about IMHO.Le Mouse wrote:but the preps I had (saved money and stored food) have really come into their own!
Anyway. For me things have taken an interesting turn. Since successfully self diagnosing myself with a dust mite and house dust allergy and having done what I can to get my place nice and clean (thorough wet dusting is knackering) and getting the right basic household appliances to help deal with it (dehumidifier, the steam cleaner I have had for a while and a HEPA filter vacuum cleaner, cheapish on ebay), I have now had to deal with the biggest issue, my old bed mattress. A thirteen year old monster that was giving me strange sensations that made me believe that it was infested. I felt things crawling over my skin whilst I was in bed. My parents have helped me to get rid of it, but I have replaced it with an air bed (which cant be infested by as much as one dust mite due to the fact that it isn't upholstered or padded at all) which is bloody uncomfortable. It is just a standard camping style one. And yes I got two to make sure, just in case one goes down, and I will get a few puncture repair kits soon too.
As it was quite so difficult to sleep on being narrow and all, I have now ordered another one that is made of two mattresses (the idea being it can be a double put you up bed) and is actually designed for home use. It should be here tomorrow. The fun inflatable furniture one can get these days is really good looking and eventually I might go totally towards inflatables and away from regular soft furnishings all together. Excellent way of cutting down the dust mite populations!
I have however, discovered that the dehumidifier that I got was wrong for the application at hand. It makes the place rather hot and its 8 liter per day capacity isn't good enough for my flat in that I cant get the humidity down to 40%. I can get close (47% was the lowest I got and that was with humidity over 90% outside). I have now discovered that people use this kind of dehumidifier (desiccant) to help dry the laundry indoors on a wet or wintry day when the line isn't a feasible option or if indoor drying is the only way forward. So I got myself two clothes horses from wilkinsons and have done an experimental full laundry load. It seemed to work ok for that if you place the desiccant dehumidifier in the bathroom with the clothes horses in the bath and close the window. But I found that one needs to carry on going in and moving the clothes and towels around to get the maximum drying benefit. The hot dry air does the most of the work for you, so it is good to expose the clothes to the jet of air.
So at least I can dry my clothes inside without making the mould issue worse, I can control humidity (although I do get hot in the process) and I can use the water from the dehumidifier in the steam iron and steam cleaner thus making them both last longer.
Although the dehumidifier is a useful piece of kit I don't think that it is very energy efficient by comparison to a tumble dryer, but as I cant afford to buy a tumble dryer and i have got the dammed thing now, I might as well use it as a dryer as well as a room dehumidifier.
Anyway, at least I have got myself some air beds. Sure they will come in handy.
