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...)

We've had l weeks of sunshine here in Wales, haven't had any rain for at least 2 weeks, so why an earth would I waste electric and use the tumble drier. It takes barely 15 minutes to put it out and it's nice to get some fresh air too. It's been half term this week, so my 9 year old dd will happily empty the washing machine and bring it out to me😁, saving me those extra few mins..

It takes me 5 mins

God knows what you must be doing to take half an hour to hang out a full load of washing. That's ridiculous.

@CeeJay81 I was in north Wales last weekend. I can confirm that it was, indeed, glorious. However it’s been cold, dull and wet in Essex where I live for weeks and weeks. The heating kicked in on Thursday! Definitely no drying weather to speak of. I’m thinking of moving. 😬

Because it doesn't take most people half an hour. I have a 12k machine it takes ten minutes at the most

I agree. I love hanging the washing out, and don't even own a tumble drier. When I did I rarely used it.

I’m so quick at hanging out washing it takes me negative time, I actually get time back.

What takes time in our house is: wrestling the basket out of the back door, which only stays closed with a contraption on it, through the hateful back porch (previous owner DIY job), navigate the treacherous steps down from the side return, dodge the neighbour’s cat poo on the lawn, pull the lines out from the retractor thingy and put the rotary dryer up, search for the pegs that DP puts in different places every week (ADHD), placate the baby in the sling after dropping wet knickers on his head, untangle all the things DD and DP put in the wash inside out/bunched up – wet balled-up socks are the bane of my life. When I could step directly into the garden and hang my own washing it took 5 minutes; with these ingrates and circumstances it’s longer.

My American friends tell me that it's an income thing - you only hang out your washing if you can't afford a tumble dryer. It;s associated with poor/lower class areas so many "nice" communities have rules around it.

Completely bonkers.

One way to cut down time is to leave the pegs on the line rather than collecting them into a peg bag. Much quicker and I've never had a problem with dirt on the pegs. I put everything away in the colder wetter months because they will get dirty and nothing ever dries anyway.

Alternatively hang the large items on the line like the towels and clothing, and pop underwear, baby stuff and socks into the tumble dryer, as you only need a short dry.

I'm with you OP, the time it takes to hang it up, bring it in, iron it all. And if it starts raining you have to run out and get it all in.

I will save energy in other ways but will always use my tumble dryer! It's dry within an hour and as long as I don't overload it, no bloody ironing!

Line dried washing smells nicer than tumble dried or indoor dried washing IMO.

As someone who only ever tumble dried until the about a month ago when we installed a washing line because we now have a garden and weather is lovely...YABU.
How on earth did it take u 30 mins? I did a load with school uniforms, my clothes, millions of kids socks and pants and some of my own. And still..10 mins?
I'm actually struggling to see how it could possible take you that long!

I've just hung out a full load of towels (8 kg) and just over half a load, so 5 kg? of clothes including a full socktopus of bits.

The air fryer was running at the time, so I used that as a timer. Our garden is down a staircase and I took out the loads one at a time, so I was up and down the stairs twice.

It took 8 minutes and I also got to listen to the birds, be active in the sun, and watch the kittens playing in the garden while I was hanging the washing out.

I can now go out and get on with my day instead of having to hang around for the dryer to finish and none of the clothes will need ironing afterwards.

I have no idea how much the dryer costs to run, but even if a single load isn't very much, it will still add up to tens/hundreds of pounds a year if you use it all the time.

I’m amazed how many people have tumble driers! Never had one, they’re so expensive to buy and run.

However, I also don’t hang stuff out in the garden, got rid of our washing line when we moved in. I love sitting in our beautiful garden and having a load of multi coloured washing blowing about everywhere would ruin it for me.

The main reason I don’t like washing on the line though is the potential bird crap and all the bugs that inevitably end up stuck on each item.

As a result, we dry ours upstairs in one of the bedrooms on clothes horses.

OP, if there’s a lot of small, fiddly bits in the wash then it can easily take me 15-20 mins. So YANBU. A wash with a few towels and t shirts takes no time really but if it’s a big load with lots of small items too, then yeh, it does take time.

I've been hanging out washing for about 30 years and can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times that a bird has crapped on any of it. And for the last two decades we've lived on the edge of greenbelt and there are millions of birds around here.

You could have an entire fashion parade in that time, I am genuinely curious how it takes that long

@BitOutOfPractice i wouldnt risk it. Probably another 10 years before you get over 2 weeks without rain in Wales lol.

We have 3 big oak trees and 2 big ash trees in our garden, dotted about, we’re very rural too so get a lot of birds in the garden nesting in the trees and flying between them. When we first moved in I hung washing out maybe 5-6 times and had stuff crapped on twice and omg, the amount of little bugs on things were ridiculous. After that I said no more. Plus, drying inside I don’t have to worry about it raining!

Sounds like you need more practice OP!

Plenty of socktapuses from IKEA, a laundry bag big enough to fit everything in and a peg bag and you're set.

I do at least one wash a day and although it takes a little longer to hang it up outside than in, bringing in sun dried washing is so nice.

@CeeJay81 you may be right but if you could get your spare room ready for me anyway…I’ll bring my wet washing 😉

Just timed myself (never have before) 6 minutes to fill four sides of large Branantia Rotary. Pegs in a hanging tin which I move along as I go.

Same-garden surrounded by trees, loads of birds and probably stick something back in the wash once a year (with bird poo on). I dont know how people use a tumble dryer all the time as the few times we use it in the year (either rainy days or to give clothes a final dry after being on the line in winter) they still shrink! I buy clothes to last a long time so never put in any adults clothes or most of the kids clothes.

This makes no sense. Surely you need a basket even if you’re using the dryer. How do you transport the clothes to the cellar and back?

Er, carry them.. I manage just fine doing what I'm doing... No other plastic tat needed

Time to hang out clothes - 5 mins
Time to bring clothes back in 40 mins in later when it looks like to lash rain - 5 mins
Emptying other items off indoor clothes horse - 5 mins
Realising its not actually raining, just threatening so abandon clothes horse job and rehanging clothes on line - 5 mins
Noticing it looks like its going to lash again but thinking ha ha I wont be fooled twice - 1 min
Realising its now actually raining and clothes are getting wet, so frantically taking clothes off line - 5 mins
Chucking now wet clothing into dryer cos you can no longer be arsed with clothes horse - 3 mins
Running upstairs to change your own now wet clothes - 2 mins.

Yes, I hear you now OP!!