To wonder how on earth anyone copes without a tumble dryer?

[Bumbles55]

Ours broke yesterday and I feel like I’ve lost a limb! Having to wait an entire day or more for washing to dry (and having to put the heating on full blast 24/7 in order to facilitate this) is torture. I’m so used to washing uniform etc at night and being able to quickly chuck it in the tumble dryer in the AM whilst we get ready. Washing loads take proper pre planning now! Despite it being only DD and I at home we easily get through one full wash per day so the house is already absolutely covered in clothing drying on radiators etc.

The new one won’t be delivered for 2 weeks - unsure how I’ll survive in the meantime 🤣

I miss having an airing cupboard ☹️

my good friend used to have a lovely big house with oil heating & an Aga.in the muddle if the house was a room that housed the oil heating unit & backed onto the aga, lines rugged up & airers - perfect for getting all the washing dried & a cosy couch for coffee & chatting or reading 😍 miss those days.

We have one now but it is rarely used. We are lucky that we have the space for a pulley airer. School shirts etc get hung on hangers on the curtain rail. It's just getting in a different rhythm so doing laundry in the day and hanging in the evening. Curtain rails above radiators means it dries quickly while hearing is on overnight.

I do agree that there are times they are useful. Often it is the in-between seasons yay it gets used most for us. When it is too rainy and damp for stuff to dry outside but not cold enough to have the heating on. That's when it takes too long for clothes to dry.

We were solid fuel heating and hot water in our previous house so even with 2 in cloth nappies we didn't need a dryer because everything dried overnight on the pulley above the stove.

No you weren't asked if you'd considered using deodorant rather than washing your clothes more than once a week.

i commented after you posted no wonder BO seems to be a real issue in public..! in response to some people wearing tops more than once.

stop twisting things.

Not worked up, not aggressive, not ignorant.

YOU are the one accusing others of being smelly.

It wasn't a rude or smart arse response in reply to her accusing others of being smelly because they were a top more than once.

& no more a waste of time than any other post on here.

But you're right in that I'm not at all worked up

just been in the garden bringing in my dry washing. Which smells of... fresh air. 😊

I've got a mini one in the garage. I can count the number of times I've used it over the years. I hate the feel of tumble dried stuff, especially towels. I line dry everything or if not possible heated rack in conservatory with dehumidifier. I'm retired without kids at home so I can pick when I do washing and don't have to worry about stuff not being ready in time for work or school.

1 wash per day for two of you is madness. There's four of us and I do about four loads a week. As is putting the heating on to dry the clothes. I don't use a tumble dryer and whenever I do the clothes come out smelling burnt. We line dry and then when it gets cold have a heated airer and dehumidifier.

I don't use any kind of softner/fragrance product. I line dry them almost all the time (indoor airer if it's raining every day) I shake them then hang them up. I shake them before I fold them when they're dry.

they're fine for me. I don't like people's towels when they're super soft & fluffy. Hotel towels are ok though.

maybe try shaking them?? it's the only thing I can think of?

I think the key is shaking and straightening out the clothes so they're not scrunched up.

i don’t think a wash a day for two people is ‘madness’, more than average perhaps? But not madness?

monday - bedding
tueaday - towels
Wednesday - gym gear and underwear
thursday - whites
Friday - darks
saturday - more towels
sunday - colour cottons

I’ve never had one and manage OK. I’m put off by the cost (personal and environmental) of running them and also because they’re awful for clothes.

I only use ours if there is a sickness bug going around the house and I need bedding quicker.

Ours goes on an airer in front of the radiator and the dehumidifier is on next to it. We only do 5/6 loads a week and there is 4 of us and I think we are low users so no idea how you do a load a day for two of you.

YANBU. I didn’t have one prior to meeting DH and it was the first thing he bought when we moved in together! He said he had no idea how I’d coped and tbh he was right, I don’t know how I did. I always had clothes hanging around the house to dry. I live in a very wet part of the country so hanging outside doesn’t often work and in winter forget it, it can hang out all day and not dry in the slightest.

I can cope without a dryer but my life is so much easier with one. I only dry underwear, towels and bedding regularly in the tumble dryer in winter. The rest goes on the heated airer. Where I am the flags have only just dried today (despite being sunny all day) and it's too late to put anything out as it'll start going damp again in half an hour or so. Then it's forecast to rain all/part of the day for the next 10 days. Realistically around work and DCs extracurriculars, I'm not going to see daylight during the week for the next four months, let alone get washing out into the sunshine!!

Ah it’s the baby so no food being eaten

Ok, so just consider why you do all this.
Why do you use a towel for your hair? I have long hair but use the towel turbans - literally so small and lightweight but dry hair so much better.
Hang it up after use on the end of the heated towel rail and it can be used lots of times? You are only putting it on freshly washed hair? Ditto with towels? You are using it on fresh washed skin. Why feel the need to wash it every other day? Hang it on radiator or heated towel rail after use and it’s good all week. It doesn’t smell, it’s not dirty and you are not going to die of botulism from a towel that only you have used on clean skin.
Why are your trousers so dirty after one use? Do you have a medical issue?
You are wearing casual clothes for just a couple of hours and then washing them? Why?
Honestly - people make so much unnecessary work for themselves and then often complain that the washing pile is never ending (not saying you complain, but many do)

I don't have one.
There's not many days in the year l can't hang washing out on the line.
If it's still damp l have some shelves in my airing cupboard, finish it off in there.

As a teenager my friends house burnt down from a faulty tumble dryer. They coped without the dryer, it was more the loss of all their other possessions that was difficult.

Ive never owned a dryer and never will. I make do perfectly well with a heated drying rack and cover.

I have one and never use it. Dry outside from April to October then inside on a heated airer. One load per day sees the four of us fine. Washing machine programmed to finish at 7 or 8 in morning, hang out, take in that evening or leave overnight if needed (not plugged in though). Occasionally use tumbler if it's raining and doing extra e.g. mattress protectors, duvets.

I am not complaining!

I don’t have a medical issue. I commute to and from work every day and in this weather trouser will get splashed.

I am wearing work clothes once and casual clothes twice.

its different to how you wear clothes. I am washing towels after two uses. Not outlandish but maybe more often than you. I don’t have any impairments and understand I won’t get botulism from a towel.

i wash bedding once a week - my pet sleeps in the bed so this is just sanitary.

the question is why are you so worked about someone living their life in a very slightly different way to you on such a mundane issue?

are you okay? Maybe you have botulism - I hear you can’t get it from towels

We were given a free one a couple of years ago (I test products) and it has been great, but up til then I'd never used one and I had a good routine it just was slower. A clothes horse by the radiator in the dining room, plus a second one in the kitchen (not as warm but got them going until I would move them to the other one). We even used real nappies for the two DC and dried them on the airer. But I don't wash tops and bottoms unless they need it, some things can last longer.

Ours lives in the outhouse along with the washing machine - if it ever burnt down (which could happen with any household appliance, I think you’re being a bit irrational here) there wouldn’t be much of a loss!

I've learnt to maximise outdoor drying time which has been greatly enhanced by working from home. I always had a tumble dryer in previous homes until I downsized. I've also learnt to be less blase about chucking clothes in the wash after one wear. This weekend for instance I got three loads washed and dried on the line on Saturday and finished the towels on the radiators overnight. I don't iron. It's against my religion. 😉

Living in an upstairs flat I had a metal airer kept in the hall cupboard, would set it up in the kitchen overnight with wet washing on it, open the windows, go to bed, washing dry in the morning or by lunchtime if heavy jeans. No mould or damp ever in decades.

When I let the same flat out for a while the tenants had constant mould because they never opened the windows. Fresh air every day, blowing right the way through the flat if you can.

Before I moved to this house my last place the back garden would flood so you couldn't hang anything out as you would sink into the garden and come in covered in mud and make the house muddy. So without a tumble dryer I would have cried as I have 3 boys. Now I still have a tumble dryer but my back garden is all paved so I can hang stuff out if it's dry. My DP doesn't like tumble dryers so he will put stuff on radiators and on the clothes horses we have but if i do the washing and I can't hang it out I'll put it in the tumble dryer.

Love your surname - my beloved Maiden name x