How do ye dry your clothes

The Raptor

We have a dryer in the house which is brilliant for drying the clothes. But last week, one of the housemates was using it and i didn't get a chance to use the dryer. I do have a small clothes horse in my room but i don't like using it as I'm breathing all the nice smells in during the night and I read somewhere that its not good for you. But there is nowhere else in the house to put the clothes horse as we don't have a big enough area in any of the rooms even though it's not that big.

Can clothes be dryed in the garage? I always thought that having clothes in a dark place can have mould growing on them. So I'm not sure where the best place is.

In my room or a dark garage?

Fleawuss

Why would they get wet in the first place?

frozenfrozen

Outside on a clothes line for me. you could also go for inside on a clothes horse with a dehumidifier in the room or a window open. When it's really wet outsude its in the spare room with the windows open to get a bit of a draft going

Esel

Can't see the garage being a problem, as the clothes will only be there for a relatively short while.

CINCLANTFLT

Fleawuss wrote: »

Why would they get wet in the first place?

Water sports!!! Per pee!!! I don't care for it, but the OP does... the smell in the house during the night is the pee pee smell!!!

The Raptor

CINCLANTFLT wrote: »

Water sports!!! Per pee!!! I don't care for it, but the OP does... the smell in the house during the night is the pee pee smell!!!

Well you're something else

95% of stuff is dried in a dryer, the few things that can't go in the dryer are hung on a rack over my shower.

I hate clothes horses, the smell of damp things, and the inconvenience of having wet clothes hanging around.

MilesMorales1

Got a clothes horse, stick it on the wee balcony or in the kitchen. We have a tumble dryer, but thats mainly for towels or big heavy stuff.

peckdunn

Clothes horse in bathroom or kitchen with window open

The Backwards Man

You dry clothes on a clothes line, tumble dryers are for emergencies such as hurricanes or the neighbour's funeral that you forgot about until half an hour before it leaves the house. If you don't have somewhere for a clothes line you move house.

padd b1975

I wish I could find a tumble dryer that doesn't shrink my t-shirts.

Peregrine

The Backwards Man wrote: »

You dry clothes on a clothes line, tumble dryers are for emergencies such as hurricanes or the neighbour's funeral that you forgot about until half an hour before it leaves the house. If you don't have somewhere for a clothes line you move house.

I remember the good old days when the whole family got together every evening and dried their clothes by blowing on them.

Clothes line. Notions.

padd b1975

padd b1975 wrote: »

I wish I could find a tumble dryer that doesn't shrink my t-shirts.

You have the heat too high if thats happening. Try a longer tumble on a cooler setting.

Captain Flaps

Clothes horse in the spare room. Rented flat doesn't have a drier so there are clothes at various stages of the drying process hanging up 24/7, with the window open during the summer and a dehumidifier during the winter.

batistuta9

Throw them over the radiators.

Clothes lines a surprisingly popular answer given the amount of rain we get

Stigura

Sod tumble driers! They Eat electricity!

I have a line up, in here and one in the kitchen. Got one outside too, obviously. But, when the weather's no good, I hang stuff indoors. Does it no harm. Though, maybe my place is better ventilated than some?

Popular thing, around here, is hanging washing in an unused hay barn. Dead sneaky that

Capt'n Midnight

Lyophilisation

Capt'n Midnight

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Lyophilisation

I'd be afraid I'd crack them.

*Re tumble dryers, yes they're pricey to run but the convenience is hard to beat, especially if you don't have any outdoor space, like me.

Olishi4

Washing line outside which I use mainly during the summer and clothes horse in the winter. I put it beside a radiator so they dry quick enough.

Even sometimes on a dry day in winter I put them on the line outside and then keep an eye on the weather and sometimes if the washing has built up, in summer I use the line and the clothes horse and I put the clothes horse outside in the back garden. You have to switch the system up a bit every now and then so you keep the fun of drying clothes alive

pickarooney

Tumble dryer. Could not be arsed with clothes horses and the like. Well worth whatever it costs in electricity. I think about fifty cents a cycle.

Sir Osis of Liver.

I sellotape hundreds of packets of silica gel to them which I have amassed over the years.

Drys them off in no time and leaves them with a fresh,chemical scent.

Thoie

I have no outdoor space either, and very rarely use the tumble dryer. Clothes horse in the bath and/or in the shower overnight. Concertina style clothes horse is best as you can make it narrow and high - the ones with fold out flaps take up far too much space.

A retractable clothes line over the bath is also useful.

If you have a garage that's ideal - as long as the garage isn't airtight. It's the lack of circulating air that leads to mould, not the dark alone. Don't leave the clothes there for weeks. You could put up a double clothes line in the garage as long as it doesn't interfere with anything (don't want someone driving a car into your clean bedsheets).

I remember growing up, we didn't have a tumbler drier (♫ hard times, hard times, come again no more ♫) and our clothes smelt like the dank scullery where they were dried in wet weather ... a mixture of washing powder and damp linoleum.

All my friends had 'a smell'. One of my friends clothes always smelt like chips. My best friend's clothes smelt sugary, almost honey-like.

I don't think people have their own unique smells anymore, do they? We cover ourselves up with aftershave, wash our clothes after each wearing, and dry our clothes in identical tumbler driers.

Edit, just realised I've been saying tumbler drier for years. It's tumble drier? Seriously?

Widdershins

I bought a tumble dryer last year. It turned out to be one of the best thing I've ever bought. It saves time hauling clothes in and out of the house, you don't have to worry about rain or bird poo or faff with clothes pegs and the most important thing-the clothes turn out very soft from the tumble dryer. Nothing has ever been shrunk in it.
My dishwasher broke ages ago so I suppose I'm offsetting the dryer running costs by not using a dishwasher. I don't have a microwave and hardly use the tv so it's really worth the convenince and I'm sure clothes take longer to wear out.

crossmolinalad

Have a shet that's open on two side`s and have two lines in it
Have a dryer but almost never used

cnocbui

The Raptor wrote: »

We have a dryer in the house which is brilliant for drying the clothes. But last week, one of the housemates was using it and i didn't get a chance to use the dryer. I do have a small clothes horse in my room but i don't like using it as I'm breathing all the nice smells in during the night and I read somewhere that its not good for you. But there is nowhere else in the house to put the clothes horse as we don't have a big enough area in any of the rooms even though it's not that big.

Can clothes be dryed in the garage? I always thought that having clothes in a dark place can have mould growing on them. So I'm not sure where the best place is.

In my room or a dark garage?

You could try using the dryer when someone else isn't using it. Given a cycle in mine on low for a load of washing is about 1hr, I doubt you couldn't have found a free slot in a 168 hr week.

Apart from an outside washing line, the most economical way to dry clothes is on a clothes horse or line inside with a dehumidifier. Drying clothes indoors without a dehumidifier will just lead to a thread asking how you clean off all the black mold because the landlord is coming round.

Widdershins

cnocbui wrote: »

Drying clothes indoors without a dehumidifier will just lead to a thread asking how you clean off all the black mold because the landlord is coming round.

Yep. I know someone who has had mould in every house she's rented. She keeps moving out because of it!

DoozerT6

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

All my friends had 'a smell'. One of my friends clothes always smelt like chips.

I had a friend like that too!!!

I have a clothes horse and a tumble drier (apartment, teenchy weenchy balcony so basically no outdoor space). I usually just wash everything at the weekends, put non-tumble dryable stuff on the clothes horse in front of the radiator, even in summer when it's off, and things like socks, undies, nightclothes, towels, sheets etc go in the drier. I usually only have the drier on once a week (maybe twice if I'm washing bedclothes) so I'm not too worried about the cost of it. The noise of it, however, is another thing, haha! I usually put it on when I'm either going to bed or leaving the apartment - two things you are advised NEVER to do! But it's way too loud to have on when you're trying to watch telly or something as it's in my kitchen/living room.

My parents have a drier which they basically never use. My mother has a rotary clothes line in the back garden and hangs everything out there, dodging the showers like she has done all her life. Who remembers being told 'quick, it's raining, get the clothes in!!' while they were growing up? She also 'steeps' things before washing them, and irons sheets and towels (or used to, anyway...)

If I ever get a house with a back garden, I'd like to think I'd have a line out there so I could hang out stuff rather than have wet clothes in the house though tbh.

MrDiyFan

Microwave for boxer shorts at a pinch-Low setting

pickarooney

Everyone freaking out about spending a euro a week on electricity - are you as frugal about everything else? Is your time not worth anything to you? Or your living space?

Stigura

pickarooney wrote: »

Everyone freaking out about spending a euro a week on electricity - are you as frugal about everything else? Is your time not worth anything to you? Or your living space?

It's a long story

Your Face

I use science.

Esel

I wear them - it burns calories.

Raging_Ninja

Drying clothes on the clothes horse indoors is like leaving eggs in the fridge, they absorb everything. The eggs will taste funny and the clothes will smell too.

I hate combination washer/driers - they are a total waste of time - takes twice as long to do a wash and dry and often you have to do 2 dry cycles. With a separate drier you can do a wash while a dry cycle is on.

Aineoil

I send our clothes (husband, me and son) out to the local laundrette. They are washed and dried and come back folded. Included in that are towels and bedclothes.

It costs between 15 to 20 euro for a massive bag of washing.

I would prefer to line dry our clothes, but the summer was very wet in the West this year, so I got very little dried on the line.

freshpopcorn

Aineoil wrote: »

I send our clothes (husband, me and son) out to the local laundrette. They are washed and dried and come back folded. Included in that are towels and bedclothes.

Do you live in Albert Square?

Aineoil

freshpopcorn wrote: »

Do you live in Albert Square?

No lol. Rural Ireland.:)

r93kaey5p2izun

I line dry as much as possible and use a retractable line over bath and a clothes horse if necessary. I rarely struggle to get stuff dry outside though. We have a drier but I hate it. It ruins clothes and if all four of us were to use it for everything it would have to be on all night. It's also ridiculously noisy. I only ever use it for bedclothes and occasionally towels so about once a fortnight.

For me, being forced to use crappy driers is the number one problem of living in apartments in Ireland. I will avoid at all costs. If I couldn't dry my clothes adequately without one I think I would send them out to be done and sacrifice something else to pay for it. I love seeing washing hanging out windows in European cities.

pauliebdub

Clothes line all of the time, unless the weather is really bad over a long period. The dryer ruins the clothes and makes ironing a nightmare.

freshpopcorn

Our dryer is currently out of action. So we're stuck line drying and using a clothes horse.
When the dryer was in action we used a good bit of it in Winter. We found it brilliant because when the clothes came out if and they were hot we folded them straight away and never needed to use an iron.

Aineoil

freshpopcorn wrote: »

Our dryer is currently out of action. So we're stuck line drying and using a clothes horse.
When the dryer was in action we used a good bit of it in Winter. We found it brilliant because when the clothes came out if and they were hot we folded them straight away and never needed to use an iron.

I love ironing. I iron everything towels, underwear, tea towels etc.

Esel

Aineoil wrote: »

I love ironing. I iron everything towels, underwear, tea towels etc.

How are you on the cooking and cleaning?

FizzleSticks

This post has been deleted.

Finbarr Murphy

If drying washing indoors get a dehumidifier. When drying laundry indoors humidity levels can jump by 30% causing an ideal breeding ground for very dangerous mould spores (Asperillus Fumigatus) plus some houses will get condensation on the windows and/or damp running down walls.

A dehumidifier keeps the humidity low so you avoid all of those problems.

A good tip is to look for a dehumidifier with a Laundry Mode. The Meaco Zambezi has a Laundry Mode that will use less power once a very dry humidity has been reached saving you electricity costs over models without this feature.

As a bonus when dehumidifiers work hard as when in Laundry Mode they generate some heat to which is thrown into the air beside the dehumidifier for this reason look for a dehumidifier with an adjustable louvre so that you can aim the warm air to blow directly over the drying laundry.

Oh typical wattage for a dehumidifier on full power is around 600w though obviously this varies from model to model.

mansize

batistuta9 wrote: »

Throw them over the radiators.

Clothes lines a surprisingly popular answer given the amount of rain we get

It doesn't rain that much tbf and we have the weather that suits clothes drying

mansize

Some people here must be rich!

I live alone (effectively) and have fairly low ESB bills - can't imagine what a tumble drier would do.

Dividing a bill by 1 doesn't make the amount payable smaller 😭

Mr. FoggPatches

I pay two Polish women to come in and blow on them

FanadMan

Washing line or if wet outside, on a clothes horse in front of the fire overnight. Also use neighbours conservatory (holiday home that we look after) - 10 minutes of sun and the place is a furnace.

But still washing line first - nothing beats the smell of clothes after a blast of atlantic wind!

Witchie

I hate the smell of clothes dried outside but don't use the dryer unless in emergency as it ruis clothes.

We have a large laundry room where the hot water tank is so a big clothes horse in front of it and everything is dry the next day.

endacl

Microwave for socks 'n' jocks.

Fathom

Shine: Clothes line. Rain: dryer