Clothes drying woes

[Finallyfree2026]

I’ve recently left my family home due to domestic abuse and am currently living in a rented property with my children. What I didn’t realise when I accepted the house was that there is no room for a tumble dryer. I’ve managed fine during the recent sunny weather as I’ve been able to hang the washing on the line, however now that the rain is coming in, it’s made me wonder how I will manage through the winter months. I have never lived without a tumble dryer. At the moment it is too warm to put radiators on to dry clothes and the radiators here are so close to the walls I won’t be able to hang anything over them to dry anyway. The house is small, so although I’ve considered a heated airer, where it could actually live to dry clothes I do not know…. Then my parents have suggested getting a tumble dryer and putting it outside in one of those little garden bin storage boxes. Just looking to see how other people manage either without a tumble dryer at all, or whether they’ve put one outside with a similar setup and made it work. If people are using airers/dehumidifiers, where are they putting them in the house if you have limited free space? Any advice welcomed.

Is it that there's no room for a tumble dryer or that there is no where for one with a vent? I have a Hest pump tumble dryer that collects the water in a drawer (located where the detergent drawer is on a washing machine) so technically it could go in a bedroom, living room, etc etc.

I have one and it has helped enormously. It was always such a nightmare trying to get washing done before with a lack of places to dry clothes.

Get a tabletop tumble dryer, put it on the worktop and the pipe out of the window

Two options:

-Dehumidifier combined with a heated airer. You’ll basically be running both for multiple days I think!

-A condenser dryer that doesn’t need an external hose. Can be plugged in anywhere. Personally I can’t live without mine.

These people talking about line drying in winter are in another world to me, a tiny East facing garden in 2 degrees is not drying my washing!

A heated airer with a cover. Ours goes in the spare room but it’s not massive and could go anywhere really. It dries a load of washing in two hours.

Ive just come downstairs and he's done it again, the dehumdifier is on with the washing, unnecessary because its not wet and its not cold. The problem with a dehumdifier is it warms the room up, its baking in there now.

Assuming you have a washing machine, can’t you swap that for a washer dryer combo?

Lakeland heated airer is incredible - get the cover too and it’s dry in no time.

https://www.awin1.com/cread.php?awinmid=1751&awinaffid=158638&ued=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lakeland.co.uk%2Faround-the-home%2Fhousehold-electricals%2Felectric-dryers-and-airers&ref=ed_direct

Important tip for drying clothes, which you may already know, is to run the spin program on the washing machine once or even twice. That will remove half the moisture in a few minutes.

Many people don't have driers these days, nor spare rooms to put up airers and the like - we have to make do.
Autumn and Spring are tough because, as you say, too warm for heating, but often not fine enough to line dry. I don't have a dehumidifier, but do make sure the windows are open as needed.

I find as soon as the heating needs to come on, I can make do with airers near radiators, my airing cupboard, strategic timing of washing.
How old are your children and how much room do you have?
If they are primary age you'll probably do OK. If you've got teenagers (bonus points if they do a lot of sport) it's going to be tricky.

Heated airer and a small dehumidifier? The airers fold when not in use

How on earth would you connect the tumble dryer to the mains if its in the garden though?
if you use any kind of clothes horse/heated dryer inside you really need to use a dehumidifier too. Damp and mould love this time of year!

Washer dryers as so ineffective an expensive to run though.Takes hours to dry the lightest of loads

I love my heated airer. We lived in a caravan for 2 years (during a house build), 2 adults, 2 kids and a cat so limited space, but we had a small heated airer and it worked fine. We put it on overnight and it was all dry in the morning, and the living room was nice and warm too in the winter. Since we moved out of the caravan I bought the larger model.

Our dehumidifier doesn’t warm the room in any way. And it is set to only run when the humidity is over the max we set it at - so the damp washing makes the room more humid as it dries, and the dehumidifier captures that moisture so it doesn’t make the room damp.

OP - agree with those saying heated airer with cover, plus a dehumidifier. Hard to advise where to put it if we don’t know the layout or options in your house. Ours is in small spare room, but when we have guests in there, we set it going either in our bedroom during the day, or downstairs in the living area overnight.

Some washer dryers are good too - I like ours, an old John Lewis model (I think it’s zanussi under the hood). Yes it takes a bit longer to tumble things than a standalone vented one, but it’s better than having to hang it all up to dry when there’s no space.

Yep, that’s what I do too. Airer next to radiator below window.

I’ve never had a tumble dryer and actually don’t know anyone else with one either. I hang things on an airer or outside.

You can often dry things mostly outside and then use an airer to just warm them up/dry the final 20%, if you are at home to keep an eye on it.