If you don't have a tumble dryer............................

[BlackCatTryingToFly]

How often do you do the washing?

I don't have one and I am finding I can only do washing every other day to make sure the stuff on the airers has dried. My back yard is too shady at this time of year so until the spring/summer I have to dry things indoors.

Before anyone suggests I buy a tumble dryer - I can't afford one.

TIA.

I do washing every other day as well, have no tumble dryer. I have three children and don't need to use the washing machine any more then that anyway.

I have 4 dc. I wash most days. I dry on a 6 string rack over the bath. Heavy stuff goes on radiators. I can't wait for better weather to dry outside.

Dont put the washing on radiators to dry...it could give you a damp issue in time!

Lakeland do heated airers for about £60 IIRC...maybe thats an idea? Lot cheaper than a TD and costs less to run.

I have a TD...would be lost without mine as I wash every day - sometimes 2 loads and it just isnt possible to get it dry at this time of year

I don't have a tumble drier because I don't want one, for environmental reasons as well as economical.

Sometimes I do 2/3 washes a day and it gets a bit stacked up. but 1 wash every other day is normal. In the summer I leave it til the weekend and do 4 a day sometimes.

I use my radiators, a small wash done each day and hung over the rads in the evening. I have a well ventilated house and have never ever had a problem with damp.

fanny Its what I was told by a plumber and our builder so just quoting their advice!

(I do rather like the smell of drying clothes though!)

Using the TD also means I dont have to iron anywhere near as much as I did -which saves electricity! - and saves my wrist and back too which are buggered

I have cut down my ironing time by at least 4 hours per week by using the TD and folding the washing straight away/hanging it up. Its great!

I also live in a very hard water area so jeans and towels really need to be tumbled or they are like cardboard

I have a really good clothes horse. And I use chairs to drap sheets etc.

I probably end up doing 2 loads every 3 days BUT if its windy like yesterday morning, I do the towels and sheets. Even an hour or 2 outside makes a massive difference to the time required inside - you don't need sunshine to dry outside. Do you get any breeze?

nextphase Yes, some days we get a breeze but today it's raining.

I don't have a tumble drier. I have a Lakeland heated airer. Fantastic invention although could be improved drastically with a few modifications.
Wouldn't be without it though.

How does a heated airer work? Do you have to plug it in or is it powered another way?

Here
You plug it in. Cheap to run.

Hard water area too. I didn't know you could td jeans, thought they'd shrink.

Re radiators - our builder told us the same. As it is we get mould and clean it regular. House is only coming up 4 years old ffs.Never buy barratts or David Wilson

Amazon do a dryer as well

I do a wash most evenings.

I hang it on the airer in the spare bedroom, with the window slightly open, door to bedroom closed and the radiator on as usual

its all dry by the morning

I don't have a TD I do a wash everyday if I have a full load. Have a clothes horse up and radiator airers I always put the dehumidifier on and it's dry the next day does help that I have long radiators so can fit a full load on with the airer's

Those with those heated dryers- how much does it speed up drying over a normal airer?

I don't have a tumble drier and I don't put stuff on my rads either. My house is bone dry though, it is a newish house & seems to be an entirely moisture free environment, so I find stuff drys easily in 24 hours.

I use two standard clothes horses in the winter. The trick is to have stuff as spread out as possible and not jammed really tightly together, otherwise it takes longer.

Do you have a hot water tank in a cupboard somewhere BlackCat? If you can get a rail or shelves around the water tank, this can be a really useful way of drying clothes.

The drying process is speeded by the heated drier over the course of the day. If you are wanting it dry in a couple of hours, this isn't the product for you.

I only use it in winter. It only costs 5p to run an hour. I checked this on my Smartpower monitor. It also heats the room to some extent.

I put some clothes on hangers on the curtain pole over the living room radiator, open a window slightly, and they dry quickly. Doesn't look ideal from outside, but hey -ho. Still - got new washer dryer coming tomorrow, but still won't use it much.

We got our tumble drier on freecycle. It dries things really quickly and as a result, doesn't cost that much at all.

Probably do a load every other day, depending on weather. We used to use an airer (and doors, chairs, curtain rails) till DP liberated one of those old-fashioned dryers you hang from the ceiling - hung it above a rad, can take nearly a full load and dries overnight, no mustyness or anything. Love it.

We've never had a tumble drier - even when DD was in washable nappies!

I tend to do 2 clothes loads a week - one dark and one light. The darks go on when DD & DH get home from school/work on a Friday hung up on airer overnight. The whites tend to go in Sun morning and are hung up during the day & overnight. They coincide with when the heating is on so no extra fuel needed to dry them!

I will then do towels and/or beddding some time throughout the week - again times to hang up overnight.

I wash little and often (probably one load a day) and hang on a rack in warmest bedroom. Dries very well, but if you have too much stuff on the rack it takes ages hence little and often approach. Afterwards I put it in a laundry basket in cupboard next to the boiler to finish off. I do have a tumble dryer, but never use it as ruinously expensive to run. Still dreaming of the enormous house we lived in in Berlin which had a laundry room in the basement with room for two airers next to the boiler as well as ironing board - permanently up so I could iron a few items as and when the urge took me without going to the huge faff of getting everything out and putting it away again. I had a little radio in there too - heaven!

5 loads a week here. Mainly cos one of the kids is doubly incontinent and pukes a lot. I have two airers -both are in front of the fire right now plus a full basket of wet stuff waiting and a machine full of dry dirty stuff.
Never owned a tumble dryer due to the cost but right now I feel like Im being buried by washing!