Entire room taken up with clothes drying racks

OP, regarding the dehumidifier and extension lead, you don’t have to have the dehumidifier inside the room for it to work well, it can stand in the doorway and do its job.

I definitely wouldn't go putting extension leads into a bathroom. The laws are there for a reason, and if something goes wrong it's not going to be a minor incident.

However could you partition the bathroom so you have a separate area for drying clothes?

This is what I have, but bought on Amazon. It's great.

Just bite the bullet and use the dryer. If used correctly it shouldnt shrink anything.

We have such a room I heat it separately with an oil heater. I’m guessing as it fits much more than a dryer it’s cheaper that way too.

Ceiling mounted airers?

😂 if we are getting competitive here..

We are a family of four including two sporty teenagers, the washing machine is on most days. We have no garden / outside line, no tumble drier and only a corner of the hall where we have an upright (unheated) drying rack. But somehow I manage to get everything dried 🤷‍♀️. The drying rack is four racks high. I tend to put all tops on coat hangers (which also means they rarely need ironed). Sheets and towels can go outside on a small rack attached to the window sill, but only one set at a time.

so I’m not sure why you need to dedicate an entire room to drying clothes 🤷‍♀️

Do a load a day out on airer outside move into utility downstairs loo at night or raining finish in dryer if a bit damp

Normal changing. It is mainly me who is peri menopausal and sweats a lot at night, so many tshirts and sheets , washed daily . I wash towels , two of them every day also

I agree - I calculated it was cheaper to run than the dehumidifier. I sometimes just do items on a low heat or short cycle and then air them to dry. I find also then a quick shake and a hang up reduces ironing.

If you have space for a separate vertical spin dryer they have a much faster spin and are more effective at drying than a spin from most washing machines.

I have one of these in front of the top floor landing window. We have three floors so visitors can’t see this and with the window wide open it dries in a few hours. I do at least a load every day but everything goes outside when not raining all year round. Bedding and towels are tumbled if it’s wet out.

https://amzn.eu/d/fOwH3mA

This is a good point too. My machine has a 1200 spin, I almost always put on a separate spin cycle once the wash is finished.

I have a north facing garden and nothing dries out there in winter.
I use my tumble dryer all winter. It doesn't add much to out energy bill much at all ( the smart meter shows orange when it's on)

We're in a similar position, only worse I think! Our home is quite small and so we don't have any spare rooms - the 'dining' area of our kitchen/diner is home to a big clothes rack and there is hardly a day that it's not up and full of clothes drying! We have a dehumidifier and I'd be lost without it. It's cheap to run and an entire load of washing will be dry overnight. I do have a line outside, but with both of us working, I've often come home to wet clothes because it has rained unexpectedly during the day so now I only use the line if I'm home and able to run out and bring stuff in if it rains! We do also have a tumble dryer but like you I find it shrinks some things and it is definitely a lot more expensive to run than the dehumidifier. I tend to use it to finish things off if they're just not 100% dry on the rack. In some ways I look forward to my teens leaving home so that we have less laundry and I might possibly have a nice dining area back!!

Just the ones we already had. They concertina down as opposed to the three part gate like ones. Tbh, the biggest issue was clearing out the cupboard!

Thanks! Have a lovely day.

Kind of pointless you coming on to comment at all then really, wasn’t it? Oh, sorry, I forgot that some people just like to use Mumsnet as an outlet for being smug and self-important. Hope you enjoyed yourself.

Genuine question: How many times a day do you change to manage a full load for each person every day?

Can you get one of those clothes rails you hang up clothes on coat hangers on.

Hang up clothes - wheel it outside and wheel it in when done. I find that it often means clothes don't need ironing either so win w8n! That takes all but trousers which should fit on a pulley overhead or 1 airer.

Given it's 2024 and you either have a mobile phone in your hand or you're in front of a computer, I would think you can figure out how to find this information for yourself. Google "using a dryer properly." It's not hard and most of it is common sense.

Heat pump tumble dryer is a complete game changer. MUCH more efficient and economical than a standard one and it’ll not shrink things as it’s not a high heat.

We have no separate space for a drying rack and I find it is all about timing. Sports clothes go on a short cycle (30min for “dirty sports” like rugby and freshen up cycle -15 min for gym clothes). Everything else on a hour cycle. Laundry is done last thing at night and put either on a heat drying rack or on a normal rack by the radiator if the heating is on. Then we put it away in the morning. What my partner also started doing is going to the gym in the morning and then wearing the same t-shirt to work (construction) which massively cut down on washing. I reware a lot of my clothes. I managed to cut down to 4 loads a week.
During dryer months, I wash in the morning and put it outside. And you don’t need heat. When I was growing up, my mum dried everything on a balcony in winter at -20 degrees. You would get stiff icy sheets which you then bring next to the radiator for 20 minutes to finish them off.

How about some advice on how to use it correctly then?