To think putting clothes in a dryer is a complete waste of money unless it's raining outside

[emmeline25]

I have a lot of laundry to do each week. I bought a large washing machine and dryer so that I could do one load of washing a week. I do my laundry every Friday morning.

Friday morning, as I was putting my laundry on the line, my new neighbour mentioned that it was only 10degrees celsius today. I explained that as long as it's not raining, my laundry goes out on the line. When I got back from work my clothes were completely dry. It was only 10 degrees but the wind had dried them.

If I know it's going to be raining on Friday I put the wash on, on a different day. If the forecast is for rain all week I use the dryer. The dryer has been used about 10 times in the two years I've lived in this house.

Even in very cold weather , clothes will dry. It doesn't have to be a hot sunny day for them to dry. Yet among my friends and neighbours the dryer is used weekly and clothes only put out in the summer. Some of my friends use the dry on very hot days!!!

I lived in a flat for two years and had no choice but to use a dryer then. I hated it and ended up putting a communal washing line in the grounds.

I find when I do use a dryer, even on the lowest setting it can shrink and damage clothes. Clothes definitely don't last as long as when line dried. Driers also cost money. Okay it's only 30p-50p per load but still, if you can line dry I just wouldn't bother. I also absolutely love the smell of line dried clothes. I have always been brought up with line drying though.

So, AIBU to think if it's not raining and you have a garden with space for a clothes line, putting clothes in the dryer is a waste of money?

I have only hung clothes out about twice in my entire life. Love my dryer! I don't feel remotely guilty, it's the top energy efficient one and we also don't iron as clothes come out wrinkle-free.

I'm not a climate change zealot particularly but if it's a nice day and I'm around like yesterday it will be put out. It is quite windy in my garden and it faces NW so it works but today would be hopeless

Sorry not read whole thread, but it doesn't not "just" need to be dry to get washing dry. Depends on atmospheric pressure and humidity. You can hang washing out in a south westerly airflow for days and it will stay damp.

Anyway there have probably been a million arguments and character assassinations by now.

Pinky
Followed by tips on making toys with egg boxes and backpacks with laundry detergent boxes

Apart from the utter tediousness of this, do people not have jobs (paid or not) to do?

Anytime the few times in my life I have pegged out washing, it would stay out there for five days getting lashed by rain and high wind. I would then take it back it and put it back in the wash. And then the tumble drier

And all this 'running home to take the washing in before it rains', really, fuck that shit

I know I don't have time to fuck about with egg boxes!

I once loved in a ground floor flat and the NDN had a whirlygig. The one time he used it head in December and it snowed that afternoon. He left his clothes on the line for 2 weeks!! They were frozen solid! The walls were only a foot high between yards so I had to see it every day going to the car park.

Yes reader I was one of those NDN who popped a note through his door asking him to take his washing in it was driving me mad!

Oh, virtue signalling...

OK, I use my drier if it's too cold / I'm too bloody busy to peg out, but for the sake of global warming I'll skip St Lucia this year, do I get a gold star?

And bearing in mind how much time and effort goes into chopping enough wood to heat the house all winter, I'm not fucking it up with damp laundry, blocking all the heat from the woodburner and making the wallpaper fall off.

These threads are so bloody annoying, is my drier-use better or worse than air travel/buying too many things/Starbucks coffee? Is there a scale of virtue I can refer to?

14 pages (so far) of women arguing about how they dry their laundry.

Who would guess it is such a sensitive issue. I hope MNHQ relocate the thread in the "feminist section". Absolute classic.

My Nan always said to me 'if the road doesn't dry the washing won't dry' and I've always found that absolutely right. My neighbour has washing out every day of the year! (Absolutely true) but I can't be faffing with putting it out if I've still gotta get it in & dry it! That said I don't use my drier really terrified the bloody thing will catch fire! A clothes airer & radiator does the trick

YADNBU, we don't even own a dryer, never have. I think they're bad for the environment - clothes dry on a rack and on radiators. If we had an outside line, I'd use it (but that doesn't seem to be a thing in the country I live in, weirdly)

Followed by tips on making toys with egg boxes - so you can then throw away the eggbox covered in glitter and googly eyes. Yes, much better for the environment.

A lot of my clothes can't be put in the tumble dryer so I do hang outside until winter as I hate clothes drying inside. It gets to the point where they just don't dry though so I hang them inside and then spend a fortune on dehumidifiers etc. Whether or not they ever get dry perhaps depends on where you live e.g. in the West of the UK it rains a lot more than in the East.

Katharina not at all, my teenagers love the google eye egg boxes and have specifically said that they don't want an Xbox because it's not nearly as fun. I imagine they'll be taking them to Uni

I don't have a machine dryer, and I try to dry wherever possible without electricity because of climate change. But I am in a rainy, cold part of the UK and have a north-facing garden. Once it gets below a certain temperature, the clothes just hang there wet all day. They just won't dry.

I have a sunny garden, I live in the east, my clothes still wouldn't bloody dry in this weather. And I have no fucking room for the clothes horse, I'd have to wait until DS went to bed to put it up and then hope the clothes are dry until he wakes up.
Not to mention I have sciatica and stretching for the line doesn't help.

Saying that, I do think people should try and protect the environment where they can, whether it's drying clothes outside, having more showers than baths or not washing everything after 10 minutes wear on 90C. You know, balance.

14 pages (so far) of women arguing about how they dry their laundry

How do you know it's all women?

Because the men don't have time to argue about silly things like this?

/me runs, very very fast!

YABU. We are a family of 4. Which even with my 13kg washing machine means roughly 5 loads a week. One is towels and one is bedding. It takes a good half hour to peg out a 13kg load of clothing. Also the line makes towels awful!

In summer we use the line but spring, late autumn and winter. No

I haven't use a tumble dryer in 5 years. I peg out all the time, family of 4.

I've never had a problem in getting stuff dry.

Like FrancisCrawford and dementedma (and other Scots on this thread), I am Scottish and I too prefer to line dry, even in winter. I have a North facing garden and if it's still, I might have to finish off the drying on a clothes horse in the loft (where the boiler is) or on the radiators.

We have a washer/dryer but I only ever use the dryer in emergencies (maybe 2 or 3 times a year). I'm seriously considering when we replace it just getting a "plain" washing machine. There is a dryer in the loft that the previous owner left behind that I presume I could press into service if I had to (although it hadn't been used in the 17 years we've been in the house )

I love the "freshness" you get from line-dried clothes and resent the cost of using the dryer

Yikes|! I didn't expect this thread to get so many replies!!!! Just want to clarify, I don't judge those who use dryers. I think they're a waste of money and wouldn't use them. But if others choose to use them, that's fine, as long as they can afford using them. They are expensive. 60p per load if you're doing 3 loads a week soon adds up. Around £156 pounds. People just don't realise.

I waste money on lots of things. But I prefer to use my money on other things, not getting my laundry dry when the wind does a better job and is free. Also, when I did use a dryer I found it took longer. So many things can't go in the dryer so I had to sort out the things that couldn't and hang them up to air dry.

I wouldn't dry wet clothes in doors though, that's terrible for the house.

If others use dryers though that is upto them. The only think I couldn't get my head around is people using them on a really hot sunny day. That is crazy as clothes dry in about 30 mins in hot weather, quicker than in the dryer.

My dryer is on just now, it's the second load today and anything that I know will shrink gets put on a clothes horse with the kitchen window open for. I line dry in the summer just because it makes sense cost wise and better for the environment but have at least 2 loads of laundry a day that is mostly tumbe dried saves quite a bit of ironing. Clothes fade quickly outdoors too and towels are not comfy.

Where do you live and how many people are you washing for?

There's no way washing dries in my garden in 30 mins not even on a hot summer day

Where do you live that washing dries in half an hour? I reckon we have about two weeks of weather like that a year! And yes if it's like that I put stuff out on the line. Unless there's dust from building work. Or too much pollen. Or BBQ...,

150 quid a year sounds fine to me - electricity where we live is cheap and generated by our eco incinerator plant, so I have zero guilt about using my dryer...

According to you you do one load a week. Which is 60p a week to dry? Or £31.20?