How do you dry clothes?

[mrsjimhopper]

Tumble- dry towels pants socks joggers and bedding and most t shirts.

Everything else on an airer. It can take DAYS, especially as we have no heating on.

I hear of people who tumble dry everything- what is this witchcraftery that leads to no shrinking?

I'm trying to be energy efficient too hence (no central hearing on and I'm trying keep it off but we do have a nice big log burning stove and we aren't cold at all)

Tell me your secrets!

Outside or on racks 99% of the time. Clothes outside on rack in morning if dry, just bring rack inside to finish if not dry outside fully in winter

Even if just dried indoors on rack with no heating on, everything, including washable nappies is dry in 12-24 hrs.

Only ever use tumble dryer for towels and bedding in winter

@FruitPastilleNut actually I do that with the clothes airier a lot, in and out of the patio door! Only because I’m retired though, wouldn’t have had the time or inclination to do that when I was working.
I haven’t had any problem with smelly clothes indoors, they rarely need more than a day to dry.
I think having an old fashioned airing cupboard helps though in my house.

3 loads out on the line yesterday. Got 95% dry, the inside on an airer for a couple of hours.

If inside drying required, an extra spin on the machine, and don't do towels or bedding until a dry day (unless it rains for more than 2 weeks solid- but you can usually get a couple of hours outside most weeks).

I have a dolly maid airer in my kitchen with a 3m high ceiling even without heating on it drys clothes in 12-24hrs - I presume over the stairs would have a similar effect (air currents due to heat rising)
Make sure everything is spun well though as that makes a massive amount of difference to drying times.

I line-dry as much as possible, since the tumbler is very costly in electricity. If possible outside, otherwise inside. Tumble-dry only towels and pijama's. Tshirts, pants, shirts and blouses on a clothshanger, then a quick iron. Underwear and socks simply folded when dry.

@StillNotWarm me too, I only do bedding and towels on “ a good drying day” as my mother would say.
Obviously I realise that’s not possible for those with small children.

Modern tumble dryers are far more economical. Plus, if you're buying heated airers, dehumidifiers, and leaving the heating on, that's going to cost.
Plus woman hours. (It's usually the woman's job!)

We don't use the sensor settings or fancy programmes on our tumble. We put it on for 30 mins or 60 mins on the lower heat setting. That seems to minimise shrinkage.

I still don't like to use it much. If I'm going to spend money on heating things, I'll put the central heating on rather than shivering in 3 jumpers while the washing gets all the heat.

If you can afford to run the tumble dryer more, you can probably afford some heating instead, which will in turn help the washing dry. We put things on hangers over doorframes to get them up high. They dry really well like this overnight - but in a house that's had a bit of heating in the evening.

extra sin to reduce drying time whichever way you dry your clothes.

we have a washing line in the attic. it's drafty up there and clothes usually dry within 24 hours.
if I need things to d ry more quickly I put switch on the heated airer.

Yes! If a child has vomited all over their bedding, you don't want it sitting around for a week until the weather brightens up!

Can’t remember how I dried terry nappies . I think I did a 15 min boil wash in the twin tub, spun them madly, hung them out in all weathers except rain, and put them on the radiators to finish off. I know I only could afford 18 so had that flipping twin tub out every other day! I can clearly remember doing them Christmas Eve so that Christmas Day could be a laundry free day.
One of my more affluent friends had a tumble dryer and on occasions she dried them for me, what a good friend she was and still is. I shall have to remind her next time we meet up!
I was so glad disposables were freely available for child number 3!

I live in the north east of Scotland. You could wash clothes outside more than dry them. I’ve got a heat pump tumble. The only folk that line dry here are retired housebound old women who can run in and out every 20 mins when it pissing down

@Maireas absolutely! I do recall those incidents well. Nowadays I would just switch on the washing machine and have spares in the cupboard.
Im very aware of how much things have changed over the last 40 years re the laundry process! My mother must have hated bed accidents, with sheets, blankets, no spare sets and a twin tub! No wonder she didn’t work out of the house, she wouldn’t have had time!

A really good shake helps with the creases. I kind of flick. And get things out as soon as they washing machine has finished.

As long as the ground is not wet I dry outside. It takes longer but things do dry. If its wet all week I can usually dry clothing inside but bed linen and towels go to the laundry. We have a washer dryer and the dryer is inefficient and expensive.

I would rather my husband leave me than have no tumble dryer to use

Only as much as drying anything indoors.

Opening a window makes your house cold though.

Same with my mum. We were a family of 7, and laundry was a real labour for her. It used to hang up on one of those pulley racks in the kitchen.
I'm going to say we didn't get sheets and towels changed that often.

On a dry day, I hang on the line. In winter, I usually have to finish for 10 minutes in the dryer.

On a wet day, I hang on the airer inside a south facing window. Finish in the dryer for 20 minutes every evening.

I have a ceiling airer in the utility room and a wilko over the door airer.

I live somewhere in the uk where it's very wet so unless it's forecast to be a dry day, the stuff is put up inside.

I have my utility room window open all the time for the cat and I don't have a mould problem.

I put things on hangers and hang them up on a line in the gazebo. This takes the worst of the damp out, I then hang them up on a rail in the en suite and they dry overnight. Towels and underwear go on the clothes horse and dry in the warmth of the house. We don't use the central heating at all, but have a multi fuel stove in the lounge. The house is small and well insulated and there's three of us.

If I was you I'd put the clothes horse in the room with the wood burner and shut the door overnight with the windows on the vent.

I decided many years ago that drying clothes was no longer going to be a faff. I was so fed up with the whole stupid palaver:

Hang washing on the line, take in and finish off indoors, put it all in the tumble dryer (apart from the 50 billion things that you aren’t supposed to put in the tumble dryer), get a heated Lakeland airer that takes so many hours to get things actually dry you might as well use the tumble dryer…!? Enough.

I will only now deal with laundry once a day, usually in the morning before I go to work. I will not be fannying about watching for rain and moving things and rehanging them somewhere else later thanks very much.

summer routine:

I take laundry out of machine in the morning.

the clothes are put on a clothes horse (in spare room) and left.

The next morning, they will be dry and get taken off and put away and the next lot goes on the clothes horse.

Repeat. Get on with life without having to think about laundry again that day.

winter routine:

as above, but instead of clothes horse, we have two massive “over-radiator” airers in the utility room, out of sight of most of house.

all the clothes go on these. The airers are two tiered, so one on top near ceiling, one a bit lower down over the radiator.

the radiator is coming on in winter anyway, so it’s not costing us any more money.

the clothes are all nice and dry each morning.

repeat the next morning.

So, yeah enjoy your pegging outside even on a freezing day in January if that’s what you like, I’m having none of that faff about rain and getting darked on etc any more I tell ya!

I like to get washing dried on the line whenever possible. If it's not quite dry when I bring it in i finish it off on the airer.

From now though everything gets put on the airer in our back bedroom. I leave the window open a bit. I think I might get a small plug in fab heater for when it does get cold just to try and speed up the process. It's better now that we've both retired as we don't seem to generate as much washing as we used to - no work shirts for DH for a start.