To give in and buy a tumble dryer

[Am1beingUnreasonable]

At my wits end!

There is myself, husband and two children (1 and 5) in the house. I can keep on top of the washing but drying everything is driving me insane!

We have a small apartment in the town so that kids are close to the school, and a holiday home out in the sticks by the coast that we are at most weekends. The holiday home is much bigger, but no garden. The apartment we are in most of the week also has no garden. So drying outdoors is out of the equation.

In the holiday home I have room to dry more clothes on airers but the holiday home is colder even with the heating on, so clothes don’t dry over the weekend whilst we are there, so doing laundry there doesn’t really work.

The apartment is warmer but I only have room for one small airer, which isn’t enough for the washing for a family of 4!

Ive tried my best to avoid having a tumble dryer because of the rising costs but I’m at my wits end. We tried a dehumidifier on the laundry setting and it barely made a difference. Same for heated airer.

Does anyone have any magic ideas about what might work before I just cave in and buy a tumble dryer?

Also, what are your costs vs benefits like? I’ve worked out it’s going to be around £2 a load for washing, which will be £10-12 a week for us which isn’t horrific but obviously not great if there’s a cheaper way of doing this I’m not thinking of.

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@CastleTower most socks and pants have "don't tumble dry" logo in/on them. And jeans. And tops with images. Honestly I bet if people looked at the labels of their clothes many would say don't tumble dry!

In fact the vest, top and body warmer I'm wearing today all have the don't tumble dry logo on them.

I remember when I was considering a dryer and I decide to check what I owned that could be tumbled. Very little was the answer so I didn't bother.

People put them in the dryer anyway! Clothes song last as long or look as good if you do that of course.

I dry almost everything in mine tbh - nothing with vinyl logos, nor bras, nor full lycra type leggings (shiny ones). And i don't tumble dry knitwear. But otherwise, it goes in and is fine.

Couldn't live without ours, our whole house was getting damp from washing, even when using heated dryers, dehumidifiers, etc, and a sickly baby and toddler meant more we were washing than we could dry.
I still hang stuff outside on dry sunny days and finish indoors, but use the dryer 2-3 times per week. We have a heat pump dryer.

This is hilarious, you have a literal country house that you decamp to for the weekend but you want people to feel sorry for you about the cost of running a tumble dryer? Try joining the real world love

Look at it in terms of the value of your time.
For a couple of quid a week your laundry is dried easily in the tumble dryer, freeing up your physical and mental energy for your family. No more faffing about shuffling clothes on airers and checking if they are dry or need more time.

I would get one in a heartbeat..

As pp have said, there's no "giving in" about it. It's a domestic appliance that will save many woman hours and a lot of hassle.
You won't regret it!

It’s not a country house, it was inherited and is a money pit that we can’t sell for many reasons for another few years, actually. I’ve had to have a tiny apartment in the town my daughter is at school so that I can get her there every day as the other one is in the middle of nowhere and I couldn’t get the child to school, otherwise I’d just live in the rural one. Every penny is accounted for, I budget meticulously and getting a tumble dryer is actually a big purchase for me and I’ve done 6 years without one because of the cost! Not everything is black and white but I’m glad you find it hilarious 🤷🏼‍♀️

It's a holiday home, you said so yourself, and you absolutely could sell it if you wanted to, let's not kid on here.

But yes, buy the tumble dryer.

Get one with a sensor.

@RomeoOscarXrayIndigoEcho OK, that's your clothes though! As I said, I always check before buying. All our underwear, socks, t shirts, jeans etc are tumble dryable. All my children's clothes are. All the towels and bedding. All the cloth nappy inserts. All my husband's shirts. Some need to go on the "low" setting, but that's fine.

I have some jumpers and leggings that aren't, but that's a tiny proportion of the washing.

we don't have the space or money for one, but q one last ingenious idea would be this.
Do you have a window that opens in the bathroom and a bath or space to put a clothes horse? I've started putting my clothes horse in the bath and leaving the window open, and the bathroom door shut if it's cold, and the clothes are drying in half the time.
I had the same problem as you and really only an open window (and spare sets of uniform for emergencies) helped. I remember the days of drying uniform with a hair dryer (well only yesterday but that's my inefficiency not the open window trick)

I know you said you're in a flat BUT if you're children are too small and you're worried about open windows you could buy a lock for the putrid of the bathroom door and put it high?

I'm just thinking with prices going up so dramatically the last thing I would want is extra money going out the window.

oops another hack but takes a little bit longer- with jeans or thicker items I flip them over so on Monday jeans will be laying with the button facing out, then Monday evening I will flip the jeans so the back pocket is facing out and that usually dries everything way quicker. I don't bother with tshirts or anything.

op I totally get that things aren't black and white. an acquaintance of mine inherited a house from her grandparents but she was too young so the parents basically had what you have, a house they 'inherited' that they couldn't sell because it belonged to their daughter and she wasn't yet 18 or however old she had to be in the will to take charge of it. (very aware this could have been bull)

We wouldn’t be without our condenser dryer.

When we first got together DP, now dh didn’t want one. He wasn’t used to it and thought hanging clothes to dry was fine.

However, after I insisted, when it broke, he was the first to rush out to get a new one

We have a Samsung Series 6 heat pump drier which I think is A+++ energy efficiency (we recently moved from an apartment where we had an awful washer drier). This one is incredible compared to what we were used to. Our unit rate is 28p so maybe slightly cheaper that way but typically around 85p ish to run for a full load of washing. You also don’t have to have it plumbed in so if you are short on space in apartment kitchen but would rather have it in apartment instead of holiday home, you might be able to squeeze it into the bathroom or a storage cupboard somewhere!

Just bought a drysoon heated airer but wish I had got a heat pump!

how is everyone able to cost their drying cycles?

twitter.com/martinslewis/status/1579362831329538048?s=46&t=5HXR_5zK5toJGFVS_TStpg

Above post was for @Stopsnowing

Are you on a prepaid meter? The price cap rate is 34p/kWh.

An electric fan (on cold) moves the air and considerably speeds drying. Alternatively get a stove top fan (free to run essentially, as it sits on top of a radiator or stove and uses the energy from the heat to run) blows warm air over your airer.
Also consider a heated dryer.

Rent out the house? Use the money for a dryer

We bought a heat pump one last year after the condenser one died.
I love it. I compared so many different ones but ended up with a grundig express dry. It uses so little energy I have no issues using it all the time. My sanity is worth it.
It dries on a lower heat too so I put pretty much everything in now apart from the kids football tops with the sponsors on.
Because they reuse the heat they don't make the room damp. The old condenser one was often like walking into a sauna while it was going.

OP, my tumble dryer packed up last week. I found a a++ Hoover heat pump dryer on John Lewis with added 2 year guarantee and free delivery for £459. Currently with a £75 cashback offer! Can't wait uill Saturday when it's delivered!

We have a bosch heat pump. Its excellent. It was expensive to buy but its cheap to run.

I got a tumble dryer a couple of years ago and I am late forties so many years without one. Like a pp said you don't have to use it all the time. We live in a flat too and without it, we would be permanently surrounded by clothes airers in winter (there are 5 of us).