To think I will be surrounded by wet laundry forever?

[DC1214]

Family of 6 here, 3 school age kids and a lovely late baby who thankfully is well but has reflux and several allergies and vomits throughout the day requiring frequent clothing changes. Along with uniforms, towels, bedding and sports clothes I’d say I’m putting machine on at least 4 times a day. Tumble dryer is rubbish - it’s a replacement model for previous one that kept switching off mid-cycle but it’s doing the same thing and I think it’s just not up to the job rather than faulty. I dread to think how much fuel we’re wasting trying to dry everything. Upgrading to a more efficient model isn’t an option any time soon.

Live in a particularly rainy part of the country so opportunities to dry outdoors are limited. House is a reasonable size but no spare rooms as such with open plan kitchen/diner/living area. I’m guessing laundry on radiators isn’t going to be cost-effective this winter anyway. We’re destined to be surrounded by dank smelling laundry for a long time, aren’t we?

@NellyBarney these are the details for our dehumidifier- the electricity unit price seems to be reasonably up to date and nothing like the figures you mention.

They don't cost anywhere near that much to run - nor do they use anywhere near that much electricity 🙄

I’d say I’m putting machine on at least 4 times a day.

Thats an awful lot of washing even for a family of 6. That’s more than 4 loads a week for each person! In contrast I do 2 loads a week for myself! And presumably some of their clothes are quite small. Also assume you have 5 rather than 6 lots of bedding. Agree with others about changing clothes, towels and bedding less frequently.

I live in Scotland but do dry outside throughout the year, though realise you’ll need a much larger drying area for your size of family. One thing that also really helps is to give your washing an extra spin after the normal spin is finished.

We are only one child shy of you, and we do a wash every other day for clothes. If you include towels, bedding and extraneous washes it may average out at 1 per day. So God knows why you are doing so much washing! That's the first thing to rationalise.

Secondly, unless it is actually raining, hang outside. If you need to finish off in the tumble after for 10 mins so be it.

Put a clothes horse in a corner.

Probably cheaper to take to laundrette and dry it there.

That said Muslim cloths for sickly baby are fantastic, and you can hand wash them and they dry fast.

Sometimes, I go to the local launderette and use the ginormous dryers to try and get on top of it.

I do this too! It's controversial but I don't separate laundry. I just throw it all in together. It's fine as it's the soap that gets everything clean.