Preparing for winter IV

craigywv

I tend to try and get washing on the clothes line for as long as weather permits then bring it in ,put it over clothes horse and let it dry that way ,if things are too heavy eg jogging bottoms especially the pockets i will put them over radiater JUST after i turn heat off so its not being wasted being covered in clothes this is usually dry by morning then as i find our oil ch stays warm a lot longer than in our old house where we had gas ch and it went cold almost immediatley hope this helps.

rising_from_the_ashes

Thanks cragywv - I stopped putting stuff over the radiators a couple of years back and switched to a free standing airer so this may be partly to blame for the excess moisture as it takes a lot longer to dry this way.

I'm wondering if I actually just need to turn the radiator on a bit more in that room instead and see if that helps a) the length of time stuff takes to dry and b) the resulting moisture in the air - worth a try I guess.

Oh, totally agree with the difference between oil (old house) and gas ch (this house) ......

craigywv

it does tend to go a bit steamy esp the windows but i dont mind as in morn 2 mins window open sorts that out .

Uniscots97

I've got a dry buddy and wouldn't be without it now. I do find as long as things have had a good spin they dry fine. I have partly dried towels in it as well, getting them to the almost dry stage and then putting them over the raidators to finish them off. For lighter things its good, half an hour and shirts, t-shirts etc are dry and really don't need ironed.

[Deleted User]

KITTIE - After seeing the BBC News this morning covering the snowfall in the west of the UK I wanted to say thank you for the heads up, it must have helped those folks who read here and will certainly make us less sceptical in the future. Thank you for sharing the information re the weather as much as you are able to, it is proven to be accurate and much appreciated, Cheers Lyn xxx.

Confuzzled

kittie wrote: »

no, only light snow as per the post. If chinese whispers occur that lead to exaggerations then I will stop posting anything about future weather. It really isn`t right to make people worry. I hope you also noted the fact that I wrote there was a 20% chance that this would not happen

and edit: I put 7 PLUS ie after 7th

my mistake kittie i totally misread what you had said, please don't be put off giving us the info i do find it quite helpful. i wasn't overly worried just trying to plan when to put the heating on, as it so happened i decided to go ahead and turn on on last night after all and it was just as well as it is still fairly nippy in here this morning despite it being on


i have a lot of train journeys to make this month so even the hint that something really cold or really snowy would be helpful for my preps of what to take with me, again, sorry i got a bit confuzzled (no wonder my choice of names then eh?)

thriftyniftyme

I've got a dri buddy too. I don't really rate mine to be honest. It's alright but I'm glad I didn't pay full price for it. I find it only dries effectively if there's only a few bits in it. Anything bits that are touching the side or each other don't dry (and it's not exactly roomy!)
It's not a cheaper alternative to a tumble dryer. If you tried to dry a washing-machine's worth it would take probably a whole day and would use far more electricity than a dryer on for an hour. And you'd have to keep faffing about as well.
Also it's bulkier and noisier than the ads claim. I do find too that plastic hangers start to soften slightly so I am wary that one day I might end up with ruined clothes. And though they state that you can use it for clothes that can't be tumble-dried, we found that some of our clothes did shrink slightly.
If you don't put it somewhere with ventilation it will cause damp air and condensation.
If you don't have a drier and you occasionally need to dry things quickly I suppose it might be useful. Mine is relegated to occasionally giving a ten-minute quick blast to items to get that last tiny bit of dampness out.

Uniscots97

Trying to keep warm this morning. I have pop socks (yeah glamourous i know) and tights on and I didn't feel the cold as much on my commute but can anyone tell me how to stop my trousers (suit trousers) sticking to my tights? Its static-y.

Kittie, I'm a long-standing member and I love your posts and find them very helpful. Even light snow can make a huge difference to me and my family. For my Mum who is disabled if there is any snow at all we need to plan out her journey to work a bit more carefully. She got stuck in the really bad snow 2 years ago and it took her 7 hours to get home. She now gets really scared when she sees it snowing and she's out and about. I gave her an emergency blanket last year and a year's membership to the AA. Peace of mind for me.

Confuzzled

Scuff wrote: »

Hi, quick question, this foamy tape stuff, is it removable ot does it super stick?? We live in a rented flat, and the wind comes in round the edges of the windows like they're open! But I'm nervy of doing anything that would potentially lose our deposit?

i've been using it in my windows, which are wood frames, for several years and i have one piece this year i keep having to press back down as it unsticks itself!

if you're concerned with the tackiness of the foam excluder though you can roll up plain paper and use a butter knife to help you push it into the gaps til they are nicely sealed, i did this the first winter i was in this flat and it worked ok, though it did get soggy and needed replacing about midwinter. i've used the foam draught excluder for last year and this year with no problems, it's cheap, fast and aside from the odd bit that doesn't want to stay down, is quite easy to work with

rising_from_the_ashes

thriftyniftyme wrote: »

It's not a cheaper alternative to a tumble dryer. If you tried to dry a washing-machine's worth it would take probably a whole day and would use far more electricity than a dryer on for an hour. And you'd have to keep faffing about as well.

Thanks for that thrifty ....... has given me food for thought and think I will start using the TD for towels / bedding again (certainly to get the very wet off them) rather than invest in yet another gadget!:o