winter washing & drying

[time4tea]

hello

I've just posted this on the good housekeeping page too...

any tips for getting washing dry in this weather? I seem to be washing bedlinen for DS1&2 on a daily basis, and there is a build up of pongy towels... but it is an absolute nightmare getting these big things dry. Clothes at a pinch can be done in the airing cupboard/on the radiators but with the bigger stuff it is just impossible.

What do others do? I'm not keen on using the dryer for environmental reasons. Is doing a regular service wash at a launderette (fairly thin on the ground around here nowadays) an alternative?

thanks for any tips...

This is also an ironing free household. We have an iron, but it only sees the light of day about 3 times a year for about 10 minutes a time. Like the idea of saying it's for green reasons rather than low standards of grooming

I don't have a drier as I don't have room for one in my tiny terrace house. I also don't have any outside space so I face this dilemma all year round!
I use clothes airers and hang clothes in my airing cupboard to dry. When my heating is on (never put it on just to dry clothes) I will hang clothes next to the radiators on airers. I have my own system and find doing smaller loads each day helps.

We have a big clothes airer, constantly open in the spare/study room. when it'ssunny, on when we start to have the heating on it takes 24 hrs for things to dry. Like Fennel, I don't think we wash laundry that often... but I dd do some ironing, it's therapeutic as I do listening to Italian radio from the pc...

wash the laundry? I'm losing it... wash bedlinen etc

, my post is one typo fter the other, sorry

after. it's my keyboard's fault

I have the airers set up in the spare room which has the airing cupboard in it and also has a dehumidifier, find that works well.

Doing less laundry and ironing, along with doing less cleaning overall (to save on Detergents etc, naturally) are sacrifices for the Green Cause which I find worryingly easy to make.

Far easier than not flying to exotic beaches

you could trade one year of "if it's yellow let it mellow" for 1 week in Italy to see me, Fennel

I am a bit tempted by going overland by train to Italy. We would arrive dirty and stressed and screaming but terribly eco-smug.

. It is super duable though. Have considered it many times, but always put off by my lacking parenting skills and by the fact that dh would fall asleep almost immediately instead of parenting. I think that once you're in London it's 3 hrs something to get to Paris and 8 hrs to get to norhern Italy

there's even a train (from Brussels I believe, or maybe Paris) to Bologna where you can load the car on. Puah, my English is all over the place tonight, sorry.

That doesn't sound too bad at all. Though it probably costs about 10 times as much as a cheap flight.

possibly. Actually, yes . Are you cycling my way tomorrow?

I am, yes. i'd have time for coffee too....

clothes horses (?!), radiators and hanging things over the bannisters works for us, dryer in dire emergencies..

cheers for that cmotdibbler

hey Fennel, I'm thinking of going to Venice by train. Eurostar to Paris then overnight train. I hate flying (am afeared)but so the smug green thing.

needmorecoffee

the only way the arrive in Venice is by train, one of the most magnificent views ever as you arrive out of the station...

I love train journeys, particularly if you get delicious feasts for train picnics.

do it...

I've been overland by train to Italy before, but that was pre-children. I would love a long overland train trip without children. With 3 small children it's not nearly as appealing. I'm trying to convince myself it'll be fun

I do notice though in all those Green Travel with Children features where they go on about the joys of train travel they usually only have one child.

I got 4 kids Fennel, but I wasn't thinking of taking them! dd2 is in a wheelchair so Venice and trains would be a nightmare.
This is gonna be my treat, next Autumn probably.
I have read websites where people did long trips with kids and I've been across India on 3 day train journey's and everyone had their kids and didn't think anything of it. I sometimes think western children are a little 'precious'.

I am just not sure if any of us would care about the beautiful dawn over Venice, as seen from the approaching train window. IME of travelling with my cherubs it'd be more a case of crying with relief that we were nearly at the destination. One dd is OK, the longsuffering quiet one. It's the Screamer and the Whinger who would make the overnight trip seem very long indeed.

We have taken dd1 as a baby on long overnight trips cross-continents. on train and plane. In the days when we were determined that Having Children would not stop us Travelling. And I do remember the hassles of it all more than the destinations, and that was just with one child.

sedation?

I remember reading (not sure if here or in Italy, probably here, English parents are more adventurous than Italian) of a couple who went on a 1 year trip around the world with 2, possibly 3 children. It also involved long stretches of time on a sail boat. I thought they were extremely brave... ... lets put it this way

But is it endurance or enjoyment? That's the vital question for me. Yes we could do it but is it worth it?

also my dds don't actually remember being taken to exciting places, for all they can recall we might as well camp in a local field.