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 havent got a drier so always line dry (as long as it isn't raining). In the winter washing gets dried on an airer by the readiator.

I do live on my own though, I might think differently if I had a family and there was 4 or 5 of us.

Just the one load of washing swilling about...pants, towels, sheets, tea towels and sweaty arm pits all mingling?

You wash every item separately then?

You can't have that much washing if you can do it in a single load and put it out/in in 5 minutes!

My machine is large and on almost every day for at least one load. Then there's bedding/towels/ sports stuff / uniforms/ work shirts - no way it would fit in one load even in an industrial washing machine!

Even if clothes aren't entirely dry and need finishing off indoors, you still get rid of litres of water by hanging them out first.

I don't have a drier, so this is pretty important as otherwise we'd be overrun by black mould.

I do think people stop hanging out washing too early because they don't realise that you don't need heat to dry clothes, just for it to be dry (and a bit of a breeze really speeds things up). But I can understand if they use a drier due to lack of time - if you have a long commute then fitting everything in must be hellish.

Haha do people really worry about the hygiene of different clothes being washed together. The machine cleans them all beautifully so it's really not an issue.

I do keep special care items to wash separately though.

YABVU. Towels from the dryer are so soft and plump. Double important in the early days of breastfeeding. Towels off the line feel like sandpaper on my delicate nips.

We have nowhere outside to hang clothes. We do put things on a folding airer but the bit outside our house is like a wind tunnel and it rarely stays up.

Honestly having a tumble dryer has genuinely changed my life. I have a chronic illness and dragging heavy wet clothes about to hang them up was incredibly painful as a lot of my problems are in my arms. And we no longer have damp issues from having wet clothes hanging indoors, which is better for my dodgy chest as well. All round win! My mum actually bought it for me as she realised how much I was struggling. It's a heat pump condenser and it's really fast and efficient, never damaged anything either - I was picky at first and checked everything but now all but a very few things get tumbled.

Much as I'd like to have a big washing line and a garden to put it in, so I could air everything out - and the strength in my arms/ability to stand up long enough to actually hang it - then I'd probably feel differently. :o

YANBU. Driers are shit for the environment and not all that effective ime.

It does cost money, but no more so than other non-essential things that as adults we choose to spend our money on.

I would liken it to employing a cleaner, cleaning the house is a job you can do yourself, but if you have the money, you make a choice to pay so you have more time to do the things you enjoy.

I leave the house at 7.15 each weekday and I'm lucky if I have time to put on a load, never mind have it washed and hang it out
I very often don't return till 6pm
The washing goes on the dryer when I get home

What works for you doesn't work for everyone

I wish I could only do laundry on a Friday morning.

And it's rained up our way every day this week, even when it's started out absolutely gorgeous.

Mine goes out on the airer if it's not raining, if it rains it still goes out but I put it under the patio awning to keep the rain off and get a bit of air through it. If it's not fully dry in the morning it either goes in the TD for a quick whizz or in the airing cupboard on the tank, depending on how wet it is.
I wouldn't use the TD without giving it a chance to air dry first, but my friend does; everything straight in the TD even in the summer and then she moans she has no money! Horses for courses I suppose x

I always find time to line dry. I would put the clothes on the line before I go to work and take them in when I'm back. It actually saves time so I'm not waiting for the dryer to finish when I'm back from work.

I can just grab them.

Yes there's a lot of misunderstanding about drying clothes outside. You certainly don't need sun, you don't need it to be warm. As long as it's not raining the clothes will dry in a few hours. If it's windy it will be even quicker.

Where do you live OP????
Not where i do as it often rains and especially at this damp time of year clothes would not necessarily dry if out all day. And even dry clothes would need spread out to air when brought in. So then you have radiators full of partly dry clothes, which creases them and takes time moving/turning them.

How does it not even take 5 mins to peg out a full weeks worth?

I don't use our dryer either - it takes so long and I'm a bit cheap. We use our airing cupboard a lot.

How long does it take everyone to dry a full load in the dryer?

I do a load most days. (Two young DCs, husband and I) and in the summer it all goes on the line always - I sometimes save up three loads for a day I'm going to be at home which I can do in the summer because I know it will dry in a couple of hours and I have a long washing line, I can also get it all in and folded after the DCs are asleep. But in the winter it takes all day to dry, and the logistics of bringing it in before it gets cold and damp again are too much for me! Last year I used the drier a lot (Edwardian terrace which is cold and damp, jeans and towels etc were taking at least two days to dry and the smell of damp clothes and extra moisture in the air was just awful - think even more mould!) but it is hard on clothes and DH would complain that his shirts are v difficult to iron when they have been tumbled.

This year I have bought a dehumidifier with a clothes drying function and it's amazing. I put the clothes up on the rack in a room with the window open and near to a radiator (heating not on yet though) and jeans and towels dry in half a day. I haven't compared the energy usage between the dehumidifier and the drier, but the clothes are easy to fold and apparently easy to iron (I wouldn't know!). And with the window open they smell pretty fresh too.

I have a north facing garden. It rarely gets sun and stays damp unless summertime. Add to that lots of trees and a plethora of pigeons and I'm lucky to have dry clothes free from pigeon shit even in Summer.

I love my dryer.

I'm going to assume the people who would never consider using a drier don't work full time, and certainly don't both leave the house and get home when it's dark outside in winter.

I love the smell of line-dried clothes and hang everything outside when the weather is nice, but life is far too short to peg out a wash, take it back down, and then end up putting it in the tumble drier anyway because it's all still wet when you get home.

I think that's fine if you have 1 load. DH and I are both out of the house all day during the week, so Saturday tends to be a day of load after load of washing to keep on top of it. Unless it's sunny or windy all t he clothes simply are not dry by the end of Sunday (i.e. the following day) so at this time of the year we try to do both.

Funnily enough yesterday the tumble drier went on the blink. The two loads that went on the line yesterday are still not dry, and we now have 2 other loads of wet clothes that we've put on clothes airers. There are more clothes still to wash, but we simply have nowhere to dry them so can't now wash them today. Luckily next week is half term so we'll be able to catch up, but in a normal week, this would simply mean we spent our evenings overwhelmed with washing.

OP, your first 2 sentences appear to contradict each other. If you have a lot of laundry to do each week, how can you possibly fit it all into one wash? I don't think anyone would consider one wash load per week a lot, no matter how full you ram the machine.

I line dry outside when I can, usually March to October inclusive. Things don't dry outside in winter here. I am lucky to have a south facing conservatory so on wet days and winter, I dry the clothes on a rack out there but they can still take a couple of days. In winter I tumble dry the bedding and towels as there isn't space to hang them. If I didn't have a tumble dryer, we'd have a mountain of unwashed bedding by the end of winter!

You say you have a lot of washing to do but the amount of washing I do each week would not fit on a standard washing line on one day.

I also have a north facing garden and categorically there is no way the washing dries, even if left out all day, unless it's a warm sunny day.

I have a friend who does this, but she always smells a bit damp and musty......

Same as Francis. Line dry when not raining, on the clothes horse or radiators when it is raining. No mould in the house other than inside one of the cupboards, so doubt that has anything to do with laundry. From my experience with tumble driers in holiday lets or friends houses, they take ages and definitely shrink clothes

Obviously a no to washing clothes item by item

but no way is everything properly clean if it's all swooshing about at minimum temp, crammed in with every other item that the OP owns, no matter how large her machine is.

towels and sheets need 60degrees if not more
really dirty stuff will need a longer more thorough wash than a t shirt or lightweight clothing that's been worn about the house, it really is BASIC common sense

but hey, if it makes the OP feel better to heap scorn on anyone who dares to use their dryer in any thing less than a week long monsoon, then she should be brave enough to take a small critique of her own laundry habits

I like mine to be properly clean and properly dry...line dried or tumbled, and not left to malinger about the house to cause damp and mould.

I wish I had a drier. My washing machine will need replacing soon-ish and I was thinking about a washer/drier, but I've not heard great things about them and I don't have the space for 2 separate machines. We line dry a lot - I've got a load out there just now because it's sunny and windy, but we're in Scotland and the elements are often against us. I hate putting the indoor airer up. It takes up space we don't have and the clothes end up taking ages to dry. I'm very guilty of putting the heating on for an hour and hanging clothes over the radiators - dry within an hour and easily scooped up to put away. Only problem is I know this can sometimes cause damp.

I think people have come round to the idea of dryers so much more now because lives are busier, folk have less time on their hands to faff about with laundry and the machines are more efficient and cheaper to run. Each to their own. Line drying might work best for you OP, but that's not to say it will for everyone else. You can often dry a load for as little as 30p. It's really not that much money to ensure your laundry is dry and ready to put away/on quickly.