Entire room taken up with clothes drying racks

[butterplates]

AIBU to seek another way?

We have a second room off our main living room and adjacent to our kitchen. It looks out via double doors to the garden and is a pleasant room though a bit cold in winter. We have a sofa in there and a small table and chairs. I had envisaged it being used as a den by teen DC for when their friends are over but for now they tend to congregate in bedrooms. The small table is occasionally used for homework.

But- I usually have 3 drying racks of clothes on the go in there at any one time. Between work clothes for two adults, school uniforms for teenagers, endless sports and swimming gear, I do a load of laundry every second day. I have a tumble dryer that I mainly use for towels and bed linen. My reasons for not using it more for clothes are partly cost when electricity prices went up and partly because I find the dryer always shrinks things a bit. But I feel we are basically wasting an entire room on clothes drying. I would be so keen to hear what other people do and how you manage this? DH and I have talked about putting some gym equipment in there such as a rower and exercise bike but he actually asked me, what about the drying racks and it seems ridiculous that this is coming before something we could do to be more healthy.

Interesting about drying outside year round. We are often out during the day so I can't leave stuff and go given the amount it rains. I had also presumed it wouldn't dry without heat but maybe I need to experiment more.

My mum used to say if the paths have dried up the washing will dry. She was right.

Me too. I am constantly looking at the weather forecast and plan my wash days around it. If the night before a sunny day looks dry, I wash and hang out before I go to bed. That load is usually dry soon enough to do another load and get that out mid morning. The only time I dry indoors is if rain is forecast for the next two weeks. I use a humidifier then.

Anything that goes on a hanger gets hung up on the upstairs curtain rails with the window cracked open (in the respective bedroom of the person it belongs to).

I find it the perfect system. They're upstairs out of sight and up high, out of the way so don't impact the use of the room. In summer the windows are just thrown wide and they get plenty of heat/sun/breeze. In winter the windows are cracked open to let the moisture out and they're hanging directly above the radiator so still dry quickly. When they're dry, just move from the curtain rail to the wardrobe in the room.

This’s something I’m going to be struggling with this year so I’m looking up a local laundry service. Mainly for the harder drying items and bedding/towels. I’m weighing up the cost of electricity and having the already damp house made worse.

I was going to say this, when we re do our kitchen/ utility room we're getting these installed!

If it's really impossible to dry outside (usual default) we put laundry in the kitchen after dinner (when basically we've finished using the kitchen apart from making drinks etc) with the dehumidifier. Most of it dries overnight. On days when everyone is out/busy during the next day, it gets left until they are back and definitely is dry!

I do the hanger thing too. It makes them quick to put outside and bring in if there is rain. Hanging them on the curtain rails means they get some fresh air and being high up they get the most of the house's heat as it rises.

Gulp! 😬 I saw a couple for £600 which didn't seem too insane price wise which was the only reason I mentioned it, but on further googling the sites look a bit dodgy.

I live beside a loch in the west of Scotland, so even when it's not actually raining (which is quite a lot of the time), humidity levels are generally always high and drying stuff is a bit of a challenge.

I am fortunate enough to have a pulley and a utility room as well as outdoor space, but the game changer was buying a dehumidifier (a Meaco one, on the basis of Mumsnet recommendations!).

It's like MAGIC - stick washing on pulley, close doors and windows, fire up the DH (which costs pennies to run) and a full load dries in a few hours.

I have never in my life turned clothing over to make it dry, and it doesn't seem to take an age - usually just a 'long' overnight (ie. 7pm - 10:30am) or maybe until lunch time if it's an especially thick item.

I’ve never owned a heated airer that dried any part of the clothing other than the bit touching the airer! Which ones are you all using?
I also don’t tumble dry most clothing, I find things bobble and fade much more quickly if they are tumbled regularly. Can’t fit ceiling racks due to my oddly shaped house and so far the dehumidifier has been underwhelming.
The racks are the bain of my existence!

Can't dry outside all year here as it rains180 days on average here well average for city and I think just under the hills we get slightly more than center.

We have a condenser drier - dry buddy and clothes horse and dehumidifier in kitchen dinner and Folding Wall Mounted Clothes Hanger next to clothes horse and dehumidifier. I think in next few years as kid leave for uni may get to take clothes horse down sometimes.

Saw a beautiful one in wrought iron like this one on TV in tiny New York house - Wall drier but when up and down looked more like an art work than that one can't find it now but some pricy.

Would love one of those ceiling racks but have false ceiling in kitchen and would take some work to find joists. We have a washing line in garden that can hoist up and means we can dry and use small garden without losing ground space - so love that more in the house.

I just checked the prices. Mindblowingly expensive!

Dry buddy - not sure it's great electricity usage wise but thing that can't go in condenser dryer than need finishing off or needed quickly works well with.

we do 3 washes daily, and is only 3 of us also. Goes out or on top of one big massive rack and dehimidifier underneath it, 12 h plugged in. The rack takes 1/2oth of my living room

1/20th ok, not 1/2

We’ve got a bit of a DIY version of that. We have two drying racks and a full curtain rail in a large double cupboard. We put a small oil heater and a good dehumidifier in there. Not 45 mins but it dries a load in a few hours and keeps it out of the way. I love it!

I hang things on coat hangers fron the curtain pole and they dry really quickly and tumble dry all underwear and towels. I live in a flat so no garden.

I’ve got one of this on the first floor landing, so it gets benefit of the high ceilings and air rising, but doesn’t take up a room. I hang shirts and T-shirts from it on hangers, so you can fit quite a lot on it.
I also have mini racks over radiators for overflow.
If the weather is OK I use the line outside.
This combination has worked fine for 5 of us for years- I very rarely use the tumble dryer.

Wow, Angharad78, that sounds impressive. I'd love to do something like that myself. Can I ask which drying racks you used to make it?

When I was a child we had 2 of these in the kitchen. Ideal for constant loads of washing but never in the way. Even better in a room you are not using for cooking.
My DD lives in a tiny apartment. She has a dehumidifier that she puts on to get the washing dry. It doesn't cost that much to run, dries the washing quickly and keeps the room dry.

I can't dry outside because of allergies. We do have a dryer I use for bedding towels PJ's and underwear. But the rest of it's hot I hang on an airer in the porch. It gets really hot in there. I also have an over the door airer in my bedroom. When I have the CH on I hang on radiators.

Can you you create a covered area outside to allow for year round outdoor drying? A simple wooden loggia type affair.

If it's naturally a cold room in the winter then it'll hinder the drying time. I had a back room that literally took three days for t-shirts to dry in because it was never warm in there. Any way of switching the washing to every day? I find you need less airers because some stuff likes sports stuff dries really quickly overnight. You just remove the next day and replace with some other wet stuff. More work in reality but gives you a little more space.

You need one of these

www.clothesmaid.com/product/sixer-airer/