Drying laundry

[AdamRyan]

I am really struggling to dry my laundry
I have a lakeland 3 tier heated airer but I think it's caused some clothes to shrink
If I hang stuff on it and don't turn it on, stuff takes ages to dry and smells mildewy
I don't have another airer at the moment and I'm not sure what if anything to buy. I have a townhouse with a big high hallway ceiling so was wondering if an overhead airer would work?
Help!!

Oh I suck at laundry too! But mainly just by being disorganised at doing it often enough and putting it away!

Ceiling airers are great. But if you do any drying in the house, you need a dehumidifier. A load of laundry drying will add about 2 litres of water to the air in your house (according to Google). And if you’ve got a heated airer, turn it on. They don’t get hot enough to shrink clothing.

I really don’t think the heated airer could have shrunk your clothes, it’s far more likely to have happened in the wash itself.

If you’re putting it on and covering it without switching on, you will get a musty smell. Try putting it next to a radiator if you don’t want to turn it on. I’ve had one for years but don’t think it’s ever shrunk anything, doesn’t get hot enough.

I don’t think the heated airer would shrink things. I shrunk things all the time, but in the drier and wash. My heated airer is very well behaved.

Today and yesterday I dried my clothes on the line, beautiful sunshine and dry air. The temp wasn’t much over 4’ but it dried. Then finished it off on the heated airer.

When it’s wet outside it’s a total pain to dry stuff.

We use a dehumidifier as it costs more in the long run to deal with damp and mould in the house than it does to run the dehumidifier. We also use a basic electric fan ( the sort you use in the summer) as it makes a huge difference to have the air moving. It's pointed at the airer which lives in the utility room. The room is very cold as it's missing its radiator at the moment but a full airer of clothes will dry in a few hours. Unfortunately we can't put washing out in the winter as our neighbours run a solid fuel fire (not in a smokeless zone) and it makes the washing stink.

Bought the dehumidifier quite cheaply from Amazon.

Bane of my life.

We have a tumble dryer and I use that for some stuff but most of my clothes and DH's aren't suitable. I use a heated towel rail in the bathroom, and a clothes horse. Couldn't get on with the Lakeland heated one.

I'm in the SE and there is no way clothes would have dried here today, the grass was still wet when i took the dog out at 1700.

I take towels and bedding to the launderette in winter for a service wash.

It’s such a huge issue isn’t it. I don’t have a tumble dryer either. If I had a dedicated laundry room I would but even then I would only use it for towels and sheets as most of my clothes need to be air dried. So I am stuck with using a large dehumidifier - very effective.

As @MrsKDB says, I can't stress enough that the Lakeland heated airer is a brilliant flat dryer. When I got mine I used it like a normal airer with washing draped over the rails and was quite disappointed with its performance. Now I layer the clothes on it flat with the more difficult-to-dry items on the top shelf so the heat will rise most to them, put the cover on, and it works like a dream, wouldn't be without it. I can put 6-8 shirts layered on one tier and leave it through the day or overnight and they are done.

Other things that work well are a dehumidifier - I just got one to reduce winter dampness in DS's room and it's also really good for drying clothers on airers. Or an old-fashioned ceiling pulley in the kitchen - a good one can hold tons of washing and it dries great with the heat that rises to the ceiling.

I have never used the lakeland airer as a flat dryer so I'm going tobtry that tomorrow! Love mumsnet

When I lived in the UK I couldn't have dried anything without my dehumidifier. Otherwise the room I was drying clothes in would become damp and cold, no matter what I did.

The dehumidifier will not only dry the room/clothes but will also kick out some heat, so I think it's worth the energy cost to run it.

Now I live in an extremely hot and sunny part of the world so I now am able to line dry. I have a whole new set of laundry problems here - the sun bleaches my clothes after just a couple of hours on the line!

The lesson I have learned is that laundry is always a fucker, no matter where you are.

Definitely get a decent dehumidifier. I do at least two washes a day and it’s been amazing. So satisfying emptying out 20l of water in 24hrs! Everything drys so quickly

Oh, and the dehumidifier we bought costs 2p an hour to run, so we’ll worth it. Agree with that above post that it emits heat, so well worth it.