Drying clothes in winter

[Primarkcouture]

I have the heated airer, the dehumidifier and no less than 3 socktopuses. But no tumble dryer and no space for one. Spring, summer and into Autumn I'm line drying then finishing off in the heated airer and dehumidifier. Both taking up space in the living room.

AIBU for not knowing where to begin drying clothes in the flipping British winter?

Tempted to build an outbuilding for drying purposes or failing that moving to a hot country where I can dry my clothes outside all year round.

Like this

Is the dehumidifier inside the airer? That's where it should be. Especially if you're opening windows. You want the air around the clothes as dry as possible.

Open the window afterwards.

This would tempt my cats too much I'm afraid. And I just want all washing out of sight!

I know. I can't abide laundry hanging about the place anyway! Get a tumble dryer. Game changer. As pp have said, a condenser dryer, just try to find a spot somewhere, it's totally worth it.

Really feel for you that have the drying problems. If it's any use I always make sure I've purchased a good quality washing machine - almost top of the range expense wise but not quite Miele ) my spins are amazing & items come out really light as in definitely not soaking wet. My top spin is 1400.
I put my dry soon heated airer in the small spare bedroom upstairs & it's usually warm ish in there ( heating thermostat is 18 degrees ) if I've had the Lakeland airer on all
night that little room (single bed room) you can feel the heat hit you when you open the door it really does get that warm with the airer on.

In regards to washing machines I tend to go for the German brands, had a Bosch which was fab & took some right hammer, current one is Neff which is also German brand.

I'm washing a full load of jeans today so I will report back with exact drying times.

I have an airer and dehumidifier on the landing, so it’s out of the way. I close all the doors upstairs and stuff is dry within a few hours. Sometimes it can take a bit longer if it’s a bigger load of washing. I always do an extra spin in the washer as well - and then a good shake before I put the stuff on the airer as it helps the creases drop.

I wouldn’t have anything in the kitchen as you’d get cooking smells. If you can get a tumble dryer, that would be good for a lot of stuff but there is still stuff I wouldn’t put in…like cotton t shirts for example. That’s the sort of thing I put on the airer and then stuff like undies, towels, bedding etc goes in the dryer.

My mum recently did that (bedding and towels) for the first time ever, and she was really pleased with it.

I've started going to the laundrette once a week, it's been fantastic.

Maybe this is a stupid question, but how does ventilation work when it's usually raining outside? Surely you're just swapping inside wet air for outside wet air?

Yes if it's pouring with rain it's pretty pointless.

I still open my windows for a bit daily though as we like the fresh air and can't stand a stuffy house - there are benefits beyond ventilation just for humidity's sake.

If it's dry I leave the windows open for as long as I can, and our bedroom window is always on the latch, and in the kitchen I open the window a little whenever there's steam. We have a dehumidifier in the bathroom so it's actually one of the driest rooms in the house.

It doesn't matter if it's raining outside honestly! Open the windows.

It's all to do with relative humidity and temperature. Basically even when raining the relative humidity outside is probably lower than the relative humidity inside.

The way I eventually explained it to myself is that outside is HUGE while inside is tiny.

Obviously if the rain and wind is pushing the rain inside the house close them but normally it's ok.

Around here there's very little difference between inside and outside (but we live in a very old house).

Do you have an outhouse or space for a shed you could run electric to? Not sure how safe a shed and tumble dryer would be but we had a brick outhouse we connected electricity to in our old house and stuck the dryer in there!

Ok so I'm going to bite the bullet and buy a tumble dryer.

Please send recommendations, I have a good budget of around £500. I'm unsure about a condenser or heat pump?

The last time I had a tumble dryer they were still the vented ones of the 1990s!

I've a heat pump, a Candy. Works really well. And it takes 9 kilos.