I had enough nice bread go bad to come up with a strategy.

Freeze half the loaf if you can. With a Toaster you can defreeze and toast at the same time. For my toaster i vary between full blast for whole grain like spelt or rye and mid/high for softer types like multigrain with more wheat, may even go lower on those soulless wheat loafs that don't taste like anything except empty calories. Leave the rest out and it will be ready to eat the other day or next meal. I mean, the bread is stale by day 2-3 anyway so toasting it is kind of a no brainer for me.