to wonder why nobody ever mentions how long it takes to hang up washing when they tell you not to use your tumble dryer?

[MissClimpsonsTypingBureau]

I've just hung up a full (9kg) load of washing. It took me half an hour.

I may be unreasonably slow (but kids/ babies= a lot of very small items in a load) and I totally agree with the environmental arguments - but why, when people say 'oh, you can save loads of money by hanging your washing up' do they never talk about how long it takes?

(I don't think it costs as much as £2 to run a full load through our tumble dryer. Even if it did, that's £2 to buy back half an hour. My hourly rate is well above £4...)

Takes me about 10 mins to hang out a full load. I'm a bit surprised people seem to be acting like its the worst chore in the world. Its really not- being in the garden is nice, I actually quite like doing laundry.

Now, cleaning the toilets is a real chore- far, far worse than laundry.

I love hanging washing out! But it doesn't take me that long - 10-15 minutes on a load full of small pieces like socks?

In contrast, it takes me longer to load the drier as I sort out what can be washed together but not all of that can be tumble dried.

that is insanely slow!
if you've got lots of small stuff I sometimes just dump it (spread out), on a sunny surface in the house, or leave it in the basket outside in the sun. If there's no wind on a towel spread over the garden table, etc. Small things like socks, underwear, baby stuff, dry fine without having to be pegged out.

I’ve had mine 6 years and it’s still perfect. I don’t have a tumble drier, everything goes on the line. In the winter I might have use the airer to finish stuff off but it still mostly dries unless it’s wet/below freezing.

I regard drying bedding in the tumble dryer as a failure.

When I lived in London there was a rule that we couldn't hang washing up in gardens or on balconies

We rented a new flat in Manchester with a huge* *balcony and there a rule no washing on it - other residents did apparently report if seen.

Wasn't an image they wanted - only answer I got.

Well, no, no one pays me for housework or socialising so my time outside of work does not have any monetary value. That doesn't mean my time doesn't have worth but the theoretical cost per hour has zero impact on how I prioritise things.

It's not that it's a particular awful chore, it's that there's a much quicker alternative literally on top of my washing machine that makes it feel a bit annoying. It isn't some huge hardship that I can't bear, but it is nice in winter when I just bung it all in the tumble drier with zero guilt and it takes 30 seconds rather than 15 mins. If there was a way of making cleaning the toilet 30 times quicker I'd be tempted by that too even if it was worse for the environment and more expensive!

Mine won’t dry overnight, indoors or outdoors, but hanging it on moveable airers the night before does mean I get some benefit of drying outside the next day

If you hang it out at night, just leave it out and get it in say at 5pm the next day. I do that occasionally when we are leaving very early in the morning and I know time is shorter than usual.

Same-its the nicest of all the chores! Beats cleaning the oven or scrubbing the loo! (Or the daily toilet cleaning due to the rest of the house apparently not being able to aim in the loo!)😅🙈

thank you but my way works better for me - it’s not like I’m some twit who hasnt thought about hanging it out in the line overnight - for various boring reasons I do it differently

I'm mainly referring to people saying it makes you a "skivvy" or wouldnt you rather be out socialising? etc as if hanging laundry up for 10 mins means you cant have a social life 🙄

Hanging it out the night before?
Jesus wept, these people clearly don't live in Scotland, my wee Glaswegian granny will be spinning in her grave!!
Washing out beyond 7pm and you're an utter slattern.

I've just hung washing out now and I don't care who knows about it!

I’ll do a lot to save energy, but not using the tumble dryer isn’t one of them

YANBU OP. I have no idea how people say they can do it in 5 minutes, have you timed yourself? It takes me at least 15 minutes. Then there's the fact you've got to take the previous load down as well which takes another 10 or so, so that's 25 mins in total compared with 30 seconds pull everything into basket, across the room to the TD, empty the water and fluff canisters, switch it on.

And my tumble dryer leaves stuff SO soft and smooth compared with my airer which left everything crunchy and wrinkled. I got rid of my ironing board, don't need it.

And my bedroom isn't mouldy any more. And I don't have bloody airers cluttering up the place all the time. And I can do as many loads of washing as I like in a day without having to calculate how much drying space there is left. And I don't leave stuff in the machine because I know I can't face hanging it up now.

I resisted buying a tumbe dryer for so long but I love my heat pump dryer and would hate to let it go now. It buys me back SO much time and energy, and doesn't use that much power. It actually changed my life. I am sure people will say this is an exaggeration, but it's absolutely true for me. Having ADHD I used to have to dedicate 2 full days per week to laundry, frequently missed one so we were never on top of it, now I can just do it whenever I think about it and I often see the bottom of the laundry basket, even with 3 kids.

When the teenagers hang out mine it is done in a few minutes.

the way they are hung though GOD GIVE ME STRENGTH!

Huddled,scrunched. lopsided barely hanging...

I hate taking them down.
Knowing they have to be put away!

I actually like laundry as a chore BTW and don't think it's "the worst thing ever", I quite enjoy the process of handling all these little tiny cute clothes that I've lovingly picked and coordinated etc, but the fact that I had to dedicate enough time in one go to unhanging 2+ loads (so 20+ minutes) and hanging the new load (15 minutes) and then fold it all straight away and put it away (20+ minutes) otherwise it would get mixed up with the dirty laundry overflowing onto the floor, and then had to hang up the next load ASAP or leave it and risk procrastination setting in and then it's 3 days later and needs rewashing and it will still be crinkled and mildewy. It was the constant deadline and relentlessness of it that was the problem and the having to do it all in one go.

If I don't want to fold/sort straight out of the dryer (which I often do, because it being all warm and soft and fragrant and sitting on the floor is much more pleasant than having to stand up and handle wet stuff) I can just dump it into a basket, and another load on top in the same basket, I can collate about 3-4 loads into one gigantic pile and then just sit and sort and fold them all at once, and it doesn't matter if I put this off because they don't get any more fusty for doing that, and if I get fed up halfway through or one of the kids needs me I can just put the remainder in a basket and it stays there and nothing happens to it.

@McKenzieFriend001 I just got the ones from Ikea. I think I need to buy more now after reading this thread!

Above all the other objections. I actually prefer my washing to be line dried. Admittedly our tumble dryer is crap but I prefer the feeling that line dried washing feels fresher.....unless it's darked on of course.

Meh.. Walking out of the cellar (especially seeing as I've no basket to put wet washing in to carry it) and out into the garden and then faffing where to put it before hanging it, as well as mustering all the pegs I need... Then remembering to bring it in before sundown when it then inevitably gets damp.. Too much like hard work... Far too easy to bung it in the dryer right next to the washer 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️ I've put a few big things out like towels and bedding. My dryer is a heat pump condenser, so is one of the more economical dryers around... 9kg washer and 9kg dryer. I struggle enough as it is to remember I've done a load of washing, so for not making it an even harder task, the environment thanks me for not having to rewash my washing a further time or two because I've not "made hay whilst the sun shines".

Laundry baskets are a fiver at Tesco. Why not treat yourself?

As explained... Its still too much faff even if I had the washing basket... I'll save myself a fiver and having to find somewhere to put it when it may only be used once every Preston Guild 🤷🏻‍♀️