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?

Does it really matter? 😕 if people want to stick it in the dryer and have it dry alot sooner than all day out in the cold then so be it. I do so much washing it wouldnt all fit on the line sometimes 😂

If it is raining, blame me, I must have just pegged out my washing. There can be a clear blue sky but by the time I put the last peg on, there are big black clouds looming! 9 times out of 10 - no joke!

Oh so it's your fault Catty
Seriuosly as I said upthread if I hang laundry out the gulls swoop and drop guano on my sheets so I have to wash them again. That's not eco friendly its gull shite delight !!

Depends how.much you value your time. Pegging out takes me a lot longer.

in addition to gulls and pidgeons I can offer cats who pull down and shred sheets.

It's LeChatelier's principle, Catty Your washing has increased the moisture content of the air, so in order to restore equilibrium, it has to piss down to get rid of that moisture.

Pick I did not know this!

I wonder if I could have one not only in the bedroom with me but in my bed so I could cuddle up to a warm dryer and then just pull my clothes out in a morning. Wouldn't even need to leave the bed to get dressed!

DH can have the sofa, generous wife I am

Using a drier is NOT fine. It's environmentally unsound. The sheer hypocrisy of people that, for example, recycle but use tumble driers nauseates me. Carry on drying outside :)

How, doman, when it's -30 out and two hours of daylight a day in winter.

It's all very well if you live somewhere warm. If not, most folks dry outside if it's sunny/time permits and inside when it doesn't, surely?

So by your reckoning Doman we all have to either be 100% green in every aspect of our lives or have all the environmentally unfriendly mod cons and never recycle and send everything to landfill, otherwise we're hypocrites? There can't be an in between?I'm assuming you wash your clothes in a barrel and beat them before they go through a mangle which is situated outside your eco friendly mud hut in the woods which happens to have an Internet connection?

I refuse to feel guilty about having a dryer when it pales in comparison to large corporations and their unethical ways. Use dryer owners are just easier to pick on that's all

*us not use

pinky you made me laugh

I use dryer daily and radiotors. I have 4 kids and do at least one wash per day but mostly 2/3 washes as I do bedding weekly but on a rotation of one bed per day iyswim x

I only ever use the drier for sheets, towels, socks and underwear IF it's raining. Everything else either goes on the line or a clothes horse.

Daistpong - I have a dishwasher. We've been married for over 12 years, now :o

Daisypond

Mrs, DV, best pass on the handmade bucket, fabricated from upcycled shoe leather, just to avoid making an expensive and environmentally unsound mess on the jute flooring.

A tumble dryer upsetting a poor mumsnetter stomach oh dear

My washer is 9kg and I still have a number of loads. There's no way I would get everything in a 15kg. Loads are:-

Whites
Black clothes
Underwear (mostly darks)
Bright colours
Pastel colours
Towels
Our bedsheets
DD's bedsheets

Every week.

How on earth am I getting that dried on the line in the autumn/winter when we both work full-time? In the summer fair enough.

I use heated clothes horses in the laundry. Drier for only certain items as I agree they shrink clothes.

I can't imagine your whites are very white if everything is getting shot in the same load!

I find that towels in particular are really rough if you put them on the line, they are much softer if they get tumble dryed. Just wish I could have one.

LOL@ nauseated

I'd choose a drier over a dishwasher as I don't want clothes draped everywhere and the place getting damp plus it saves me ironing!

What is this shrinking clothes business? I've never known it with my dryers!

Although now thinking about it, maybe I haven't been getting fatter all along, maybe it has shrunk my clothes and I still have the body I had when I was 18

Lol at Doman

I've just put the dryer on and taken the recycling out. Get your sick bucket!!