To ask how you dry your laundry in the winter?

[Marie0]

I seem to do washing every day - there are only 4 or us that seems too much.

Any way - although I do have a tumble dryer I’m reluctant to use it because it’s quite expensive- so just in ‘emergencies’.

But I don’t really like washing on the radiators all over the house - just doesn’t look nice.

I currently have a de-humidifier plugged in and 2 clothes airers set up.

But they take up so much room and because I wash every day - they are in constant use so a bit of an eye sore.

How do I overcome my laundry challenge?

This

I fling most of mine on doors - tops and skirts go on clothes hangers on door handle, longer stuff gets flung over the top of the door. Doesn't take up any space or cost anything, and if I plan it right, the DC just remove their stuff from their bedroom door so I don't have to fanny about sorting the dry laundry out . Underwear goes on a rack in the cupboard that houses the boiler.

@anothermanicmumday - I’m definitely going to try the dry towel in the tumble dryer idea!

Yes, towel in the dryer sounds fabulous thanks!

5 of us here, with 1 swimmer & DH gym wear, plus his work clothes. Wash at least 1 load/ day, but sometimes up to 3loads (kids have eczema so bedding & clothes get greasy easily).

Used to have a tumble dryer & really miss it for things like bedding/ bath towels/ DH's sports socks/ puffy jackets (esp feather filled) & kids' soft toys. Although admittedly tried to hang washing out & finish in TD.

Nowadays it's outside if possible. Hang on hangers & hook over doors until bed, then they're transferred to shower cubicle rail. Towels & bedding over banister, DH's socks on downstairs radiators, pillowcases, bras & tights on upstairs radiators, rest of undies using small clippy airers. Everything on shower rail gets hung in 2 airing cupboards overnight.

On the radiators
(PigletJohn would kill me)

Pulleymaid, heated dryer and tumble dryer.

We seem to get through a ridiculous amount of washing.

I think we all spend far too much time with laundry - if only clothes and bedding were self cleaning!

On radiators. We don't have room for a tumble dryer.

One of the Community Educators told me she has one & it is fab: her clothes never get caught in the rain. Plus it folds/ collapses like an umbrella so no messing about with removal once it's fitted onto rotary drier.

I hang my clothes in the winter outside on a line and my husband's clothes, and bedding, and towels is tumble dried. In the summer as we are not at home, I wash everything by hand and drip it dry on a line outside. It dries in a couple of hours.

I think we all spend far too much time with laundry - if only clothes and bedding were self cleaning!

TBH I spend almost no time on laundry. Every few days I do a few loads - wash, tumble dry, remove and put out for people to take their clean laundry to fold and put away.

I suspect I am actually a man disguised as a woman.

www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-partners-3-tier-heated-indoor-clothes-airer/p2427279

I have the John Lewis heated airer. It is cheaper than Lakeland and same 300W. It takes a large load or 2 small loads. It can be covered with a sheet for quicker drying. I have a dehumidifier next to it. I used to put on radiators but got a mould problem.

I put bedding, towels and DH large t-shirts in dryer and rest hang to dry outside or heated airer.

I put a rail in airing cupboard and hang shirts there as don't want a crease across the middle.

I put a dry towel in with the items drying in tumble dryer, cuts down the drying time.

We were fully intending to get a tumble dryer once we got our utility room done, but we bought a cheap second hand clothes rack on a pulley. It's been incredible. The room is small and houses the boiler and a small radiator. Clothes dry on it overnight, even when the heating is off. We never got round to getting that tumble dryer!

I use a combination of the tumble drier and a maiden which is on a pulley from the ceiling.

There's a winged heated airer coming to Aldi tomorrow.

I use the line when I can, even in winter. I'll finish off in the tumble dryer if items are still damp. If the weather's bad it all goes in the tumble. For stuff that doesn't like the tumble, it goes on the big Lakeland heated airer, with smalls on the rack under the bedding.

People that dry on radiators - isn't your house cold and damp? I visit a friend who dries soaking washing on her radiators and her house is freezing and damp even when she has the heating on flat out. She has no problem spending money on coffees out every day, but moans she can't afford her gas and about the mold growing on her walls! For the price of a couple of coffees her washing would be dried in a drier, preventing black walls.

I don't get some people.

Following

Using the radiators doesn’t effect the heat of my house. I’m a cold person and it seems to make no difference to the house temperature if the radiators are used or not. I don’t have damp or mold either.

What's a heat pump tumble dryer? Is that the same as a condenser one? TBH, I thought that was the only sort you could get now.

I must admit that the conservatory is brilliant for drying stuff on screens as it faces south west. There are lines up in the loft from previous owners so am hoping to get a proper stair built rather than a Ramsey ladder.

Not sure what you folk who say tumble driers shrink or ruin clothes are doing or what you are using, as I've never, ever had that happen to a single garment in something like 22 years of owning tumble driers.

Whoever it was who said about the top of the stairs being the warmest place in the house - it isn't in our house, we don't heat stairs / landings / hallways above 'just taking the edge off'. Why would you keep rooms you don't sit in at the higher temperatures ?

@Goldilocks3Bears - you and me both

So, to the converts that use the heated airers, how come you don't just get a line of dryness where the garment has been on the warm rail, and then, 'still damp' for the 95% of the garment that isn't touching the heated rail?

I can't remember where, probably on here, on a previous thread but I've read, and seen the link to reserach that showed that keeping your heated airer on for long enough to dry the same clothes as you might put in a tumble direr, actually costs as much as to put them through the tumble drier. Surely, though you are still keeping all the moisture that comes out of the clothes, in your room - thus creating damp and eventually mould - unless you also buy and run a dehumidifier, or you open windows, which, when the heating is on in the Winter, means you are just heating the sky. I can't see how it is better than a tumble drier.

The condenser ones collect the water and you don't need a vent. Air pump ones recycles the hot air so it's not constantly having to heat more up

BackforGood

Whoever it was who said about the top of the stairs being the warmest place in the house - it isn't in our house, we don't heat stairs / landings / hallways above 'just taking the edge off'.

Unless you keep all downstairs doors closed all the time (or have a door that closes off the stairs at the bottom) the heat from there will escape & rise up the stairs to the landing ceiling

We do keep the downstairs doors closed - keeps the rooms warm.

I have a heated airer from Lakeland Plastics. Works a treat but then i do have a spare room i use to dry laundry.

There's often a few dry hours even in the winter when I try to peg out washing in the line. Much nicer to let the air blow through it even if we need to pull it and put it onto the clothes horse, at least it's some way to getting dry.