Packing up the apartment for the move and ended up reading a renter’s maintenance guide about furnace filters, not skin related at all, but it kind of clicked for me anyway.
Every fall when the heat switches on for the first time I always blamed the cold air for my skin acting up. Never thought about the process behind it until now.
Stuff that stuck with me from that guide:
– the first run of the season burns off dust that built up in the ducts all spring and summer, and that’s what your breathing in for the first few days
– cracking a window when you first turn it on helps push some of that out instead of just recirculating it through the whole place
– filters that sit unused also collect dust, so swapping it right before the season starts makes more sense than waiting until it looks dirty
– keeping the humidity in a middle range instead of running bone dry heat helps too, since dry air pulls moisture out of everything, not just itself
Doing a filter swap and a vent check before we move into the new place. Also washing the blankets and pillows before they go in boxes since dust is already an issue around here this time of year.
Curious if anyone else times their filter change to the first day they run heat, or if that’s overthinking it.