Drying Laundry - any other options?

[Lovethesea]

I'm in Scotland and outside drying is looking less possible. Now there are 4 of us there is a lot of washing and I can't stand it building up. I hung a load on an airer Tuesday morning and rewashed it this morning as it was still wet and had a wet dog odour!

I've had the heating on all day with the washing on an airer next to the radiator and it is still damp. I'm running around moving things onto radiators directly but this takes time and is thwarted if we go out/DD pulls it off/go broke with heating costs/pass out in house sauna.

I've seen the rotary line covers, but I really want an all winter solution and I can't see the washing drying in cold air.

I've read love/hate reviews of Lakeland's heated airer. I like the idea of the washing in one area (small 2 bed), but I'm a bit wary of £75 if it's not great.

Is that it? Any other options? We have a washer dryer, but the dryer has never worked. Maybe being stuck in a cupboard with no external air doesn't help, but it comes out warm and wet so totally useless.

I keep hoping there is another solution.....?????? Or is it radiators or heated airer?

I used to live in Sheffield and I mentioned to MIL I wanted at tumble drier. She gave me a funny look and said that 'there weren't many days you can't get your washing dried'. Obviously she had never lived in the North of England or Scotland!!

It's a terrible thing - wet washing - we get condensation and moldy patches on the walls if we hang it on the radiators. I have to confess that I do use my tumble drier more than I like and would love to find another way too. I'd looked at the clothes airer in Lakeland and saw the negative reviews - which is a shame. There's obviously a gap in the market - an ideal opportunity for Dargon's Den!

i had a similar problem (also putting it on radiators causes condensation and if too much damp)so i bought a 3kg dryer for about £100 by white knight. i do need a hose and a window open to put the house out but it is small enough to sit on my kitchen worktop next to the window. it does about half a wash load at the time and i would now be lost again without it. i put a washload in the washing machine before i go to work and then when i get home it goes in the tumble dryer. sock and underwear go on the radiators cos they dont take too long and means i save a little money having to put them in the dryer.

Ooh I started this thread about the Lakeland airer a few days ago - not sure if it helps you though (lots of mixed opinions :o):

airer thread

Have you got somewhere you could put a pulley airer? I find that things dry much better on ours than on a floor standing airer. Otherwise I hear running a dehumidifier near the airer works wonders.

Hmmm, thanks for the ideas. No room for a pulley airer unfortunately (very, very compact 2 bed), and no room for a separate dryer. We're hoping to move soonish so really need to avoid making the condensation/mould any worse.

salty - thanks for the lakeland airer thread link! I will recheck it and see what knittingisbetterthantherapy makes of it again soon.

The heating is off now, but every radiator is covered in washing still and it's like a sauna.

Toddlers need disposable clothes! DD is so insistent on feeding herself and so optimistic about what she can fit in her mouth ...

Thanks for the warning about the dehumidifier eating cash.

I'll try radiators for now and then maybe go for the lakeland in one room with the window ajar to help with condensation? They have a returns policy so I'll get a named customer service person to promise me they'll refund me if it doesn't dry my clothes!!

You can get little airer type things that hang on your radiators too so they hold the clothes away form the radiator allowing airflow.

these

my mum reckons she gets stuff dry in winter in the car port - this is in NE Scotland, so not an area known for good drying weather . She also reckons that hanging stuff outside for a few hours even if it doesn't seem to dry at all means less time in the tumble dryer. Haven't tested that one though.

I've found a straight washing line gets stuff dry better than a rotary airer, plus working out where in the garden gets the best air flow (not always where you'd expect).

And yes to the hanging over the radiator racks (which reminds me, i need a couple more, as am determined to lose the tumble dryer less this winter).

We live in yorkshire and we do not have a tumble dryer, yes its a nightmare! We do not have room for a dryer so most of our washing wither goes on the airer or on the radiators. I know what you mean about the house being like a sauna, the other day DPs dad walked in and said 'its too hot in here' and turned the heating off!! I kindly asked how he expected me to dry washing for me, DP and 3 children one of which is in cloth nappies. He said his mother dried washing for 6 kids on an airer .

At the moment its sooo windy but is raning too so washing cannot go outside, i find the best thing to do is hang over banister in the loft (DS bedroom) but when DS gets home he knocks it all off, down the steps only for DD1 to trample all over it :(

I use those radiator airers and hang the children's tops, on hangers, on the airers. Atm I have got 10 small tops and t-shirts drying on my long hall radiator in that way, but they aren't directly covering the radiator and causing lots of condensation iyswim.

If it isn't actually raining, hang things on a clothes horse outside anyway and bring them in later in the day when the heating is on. Surely if your heating is on and you have hung the clothes so that they aren't doubled up they must get dry within 24 hours?

Are you sure you don't have room for a sheila maid? Upstairs landing? Warm air rises, which is why these type of ceiling dryers work so well.

If you can put the air near an open window. This really helps to dry it.
The other thing i do is wet iron things like sheets and shirts. just till the steam starts comming off. and ironed shirt on a coat hanger will dry in a couple of hours.

weather is rubbish at the moment, it stopped raining for about 20mins so started pegging washing out, as i did it rained, so brought it in, as soon as i sat down it stopped raining, think the weather is laughing at me!

Same here durhamlass (which given your name and my location is perhaps not surprising). Usually I go for leaving it out and hoping it at least ends up slightly more dry than when it went out! Will be testing it on the nappies this afternoon.

I agree about open windows. If drying indoors you must open windows for a while to keep the air circulating.

I too have been suprised by the fact that on a cold but crisp day the washing does actually dry outside.

Also, if it does rain on outside washing or it takes a while to dry is still smells fresh as it has had plenty of air circulating around it.

I totally agree with the poster who said that there is a gap in the market which should be filled by a Dragon's den contestant.

Indith - those mini radiator airers look great, it would save layering things and getting the walls wet too. I'll pick some up this weekend. Do the 4 bar ones work as well as the 2? Or is it just as effective to double up on the 2 bars and have the clothes closer to the heat?

It's sunny today so I've a load outside - our garden is shaded most of the day so it isn't ideal. I know the single lines dry better, but we don't have the room for it and the rotary works well most of the time. It's just so depressing to come home from a morning at playgroup just after the skies have opened and the washing is so much wetter than when you got it out of the machine!

Our upstairs landing is an L shape (one quarter is a cupboard with a ladder to the loft) where the longest side is 1.5m so definitely no space for a pulley.

I'll see if I can get an extra spin too, that might be effective, and the ironing idea is a good tip .... when I start to iron

What about one of these ? not tried it myself but maybe worth a look.

5 of us here and no tumble dryer, so my top tips are (!)

• save the outside rotary for big things - towels, sheets etc so that if you need to ger them in fast it's quick and easy.

-Hang things like shirts/ t shirts etc from plastic hangers from the shower rail.

• hang small things from one of those round hangers with pegs (mine were £1.99 from Wilkinsons)

• anything that is hung from high up/ nearer the ceiling, gets dry really fast!

I find my clothes horse probably the least effective way of drying a lot of clothes.

I have a pulley airer above my stairs. I lean over the banisters to hang washing on it. Most stuff dries over night worth looking for space for one when you move I fit two load on it and mine is a 6kg load washing line. I also have one a bit like this which I put over the path I only put small stuff on it all one adult t-shirt on each of the side pit (6 t shirts in total. It all needs to have air round it

does your washing machine have a really fast spin? i have a 1600 spin and stuff really doesn't take long to dry inside, in Scotland with no heating on. I had a load done by a friend recently and it was really soggy wet and took ages to dry so must assume that it was a slower spin. might be worth looking at spin speeds if you need to upgrade machine in the future.

Right. Another two loads done today and the laundry basket is empty again! I've found a way of using the 1600 spin at the end of the short hour wash cycle and I think that will make a huge difference. Many thanks for that idea.

I really need to get out more .....