AIBU to ask you about drying clothes :)

[smoldragon]

Hi! Sorry this is a bit of a stretch posting on AIBU but I've been struggling with a design course identifying different problems, different people might have and possible solutions (existing or ideas).

My current pet peeve is drying clothes indoors. being a student, I live in a small pad. It's not ideal with space, condensation, etc. Transport to a launderette is troublesome and I have no outdoor space for a rotary or indoor space for a tumble.

I'd love to know if you guys have similar issues or maybe different ones but to do with drying laundry. Maybe its the ease of setting one up, or you find them really ugly? (Please tell me all the things that irritate you about drying clothes!) (Or maybe some things that you enjoy?)

Maybe you have managed to circumvent these issues or have found some awesome new product that has made it so much easier for you!

I are looking at clothes horses/drying racks particularly at the moment.

Any feedback is welcome. Thank you!

I've had a JML dry buddy for years. I can't stand washing around the place and can't afford a tumble dryer. It folds down really easily.

Heated clothes airer ALWAYS WITH a dehumidifier. Perfect combo in my experience.

My DD has the more square type. She has more bedding/towels, with having young children and heavier clothes than me.

I have a thing that you pull up into the ceiling. It's great as laundry is out of the way and drys within 24 hours.

Heated airer from Lakeland.
best thing ever.never had a tumble drier

Watching all these ideas! I’d never heard of a dry buddy, they look great.

We have a massive clothes airer in the back bedroom that’s the bane of my life and takes over the whole room and irritates me.

Never had a tumble drier, don’t have space for one.

This sounds interesting! Do you have a pic/link of where you got it?

So, you're a design student asking Mumsnet AIBU for help with your project?

Yabu.

I have two instahangers over a plug in heater. Also have a set of wall hanging racks but I dry as much clothing as I can on hangers over the heater as no creases and can go straight in wardrobe. I have a rectangular shape socktopus for socks and I can also use for pants.

Do you mean a Pulley Maid? I would absolutely love one of these but our ceilings aren't high enough.

In one place I lived there were fitted wardrobes and I'd open the doors and put thick bamboo canes across the top and then hang stuff from them. It was a pretty good method.

Just wanted to say thanks for all the solutions so far! Just to clarify, yes I am a student. Part of our project is identifying day to day problems and asking a group of people about their individual needs/experiences and products that help them.
This is also a bit of a personal issue for me too, so this is useful for me personally too.
Again, thank you for the replies.
The advice and ideas are really, really appreciated!

We have airers and a dehumidifier. Works a treat.

Airer +a dehumidifier in a small room does the job on cold / rainy days. Otherwise I put it outside to dry.

A combined washing machine and tumble dryer.....been around a while now 😂

We have a heated airer / dehumidifier combo too. It's great! And I love that the cover over the airer means nobody can see our underwear 😅

OP I think this is a really important topic, I'm glad you picked it!

I have to dry indoors because I live in a set of flats that bans washing lines, even though we have a large garden area. I think this is really wrong and should be banned ! (i.e. you should be allowed to dry washing outside if there's space, housing orgs etc should not be able to stop you). I own my flat, it's not even a rental term.

Anyway, I have a washer-dryer but only use the tumble dryer in emergencies, as it's expensive and bad for the environment. I hang the washing on airers in the kitchen and use a dehumidifier, which still uses electricity but not as much. The ceilings are too low for an overhead pulley to work, as the washing would be in my way.

The drying racks are annoying, but luckily there is space for them (just about) and we're used to them now. But I would love it if we could have high-up washing lines that you access from a window, like you see in Italy and other places.

I love seeing washing hanging out and don't understand why anyone has a problem with it, but they really do! It's a climate change issue and I think that's more important than being offended by seeing someone's pants. But some people in my block have a horror of washing "spoiling the view" (of some other flats!).

To me the ultimate solution has to be using the natural power of the sun and wind to dry your washing - but it's getting people to accept that that is hard.

I use a spin dryer after the clothes have come out of the washing machine. It removes at least a pint of water (that's over 500mls to you folk who think in metric) from each load and so speeds up drying.

All designers do market research, so they know what issues people want solving about the thing they’re looking to design.

Very common in Scotland, particularly in tenement flats with their high ceilings - and my parents had an original one from the 1930s in the kitchen of their house. We just call them pulleys.

I think it's lack of space for most people, isn't it, as who wants to sit looking at a clothes horse. Currently, we have a tumble dryer for towels and sheets etc. but also a clothes horse for more delicate items. Fortunately we have a garage and put it up in there ( and clothes do dry even in winter, maybe because it's well ventilated). We can close the door and forget it's there.
In previous properties where we didn't have much space, the clothes horse would be in the bedroom in the daytime, then carried into the sitting room at night to continue drying. Total pain.
I've only just discovered that heated clothes airers exist ( after a neighbour in a 1 bed flat ordered one, and as they were out when it was delivered, we took it in for her). I haven't asked her whether it's effective, although obviously posters up thread have said they're great.
I think what you generally need is something quick (so you're not lugging it from room to room like we used to) and maybe you can hide it in say a bedroom while it dries or else space saving/ not ugly. Good luck! Oh and PS can't be in a kitchen due to picking up cooking smells.

I love the idea of a rack that can be hoisted to the ceiling (they have a name but I’ve forgotten it) and individual room controls to basically run a dehumidifier.

I saw this on a thing about Japanese apartments and it just looked so amazing - really efficient without taking up loads of space or requiring masses of power.

In the past I have had those frames that fold onto a window frame on a balcony. They’re also good if the balcony is sheltered.

@RoseLunarPink Thank you so much for this thoughtful input. I hadn't considered the scale of impact regarding climate change and I definitely agree that the environment should have priority over undergarment sensibilities!

I'm actually genuinely surprised they can ban the hanging of washing out to dry!?!

Food for thought none the less.
Thank you again. Super grateful for your reply! :o)

Something that can be hooked up near open windows would be good.

We are lucky that we have a utility room where the washing can hang on clothes airers but when we had an extension built, we left the water pipes for the heating open on the ceiling, rather than boxed in, and the clothes dry so much more quickly now without any additional electricity. The window is also vented so we don’t have a problem with condensation. Obviously not everyone has this type of space available but the concept is similar to the heated covered airers if you could find a way to utilise the heat that’s already being generated in the house.

When I was with my ex husband he had rigged up a small fan from a computer to a power source and it hung from the bottom of the airer and circulated a breeze through the clothes. It was very effective. He got it in the divorce though 🙁