Drying washing in the winter indoors

moneyistooshorttomention

I only have a washing machine myself and no tumbledryer. I find that my washing machine is efficient enough that it pretty much "wrings" all the water out of the washing and there isn't any "dripping" out of the washing after that.

I then put the washing on a couple of clothes airers until its finished drying out.

However, I am having problems with my sheets since moving from a house to a bungalow. In the house, I just used to drape them over the bannisters to dry. In a bungalow there aren't any bannisters, but I still have my king-size sheets to dry fully.

I'm guessing that, in my case, I'm just going to have to resort to washing them one at a time and then draping them to cover both my clothes horses at once. With these clothes horses set in front of a radiator, that should do the trick I guess...

I presume I could also put the clothes horses in front of the boiler (as its off in a utility room) and it seems to be pretty warm in there.

ariba10

When you "Dry" clothes in the house, all you are doing is moving the moisture from the material to the atmosphere.

Warm air holds moisture better than cold air. When the warm moist air meets a colder surface -- window, wall Etc. --- it condenses out as water.

You can either change the air - Ventilate, - or dry the air - Dehumidify -

I have found the the Dehumidifier is cheaper to run than than the C/H.

moneyistooshorttomention

I take the point, but I guess it depends on the household (ie how many peoples washing we are talking about). Big difference between a family of people who wash something the second they have worn it once and a single person wearing stuff a couple of times or so and then washing it. Also, some peoples washing machines possibly still leave their washing at the drippy wet stage.

Personally, I use my central heating as required, so there are several radiators washing can be sitting by on a clothes horse.

CharlieRabbit01

There are only 2 of us and a kitten. We do 1 wash a week which then takes 4 days at least to dry on my clothes horse. If dried quicker the problem would be smaller.

We've had a tumble drier before but lots of our stuff can't go in it.

phoebe1989seb

We've never owned a tumble drier - although we used to have a washer drier that was useless - and even though we've had the space for one, have always seemed to manage without Our last house had an Aga with clothes airier above and our previous house had a utility with a similar set-up.

We have yet to put the (oil-fired) central heating on this year, but our utility room gets incredibly hot as it's a relatively small space housing the boiler, washing machine etc. We have both a standard clothes airier and a traditional style ceiling mounted type and washing taken from the machine and left overnight will be dry by morning.

Obviously I do prefer to dry outside if possible however and am hugely grateful that having got rid of the *building site/reclamation yard* and completed our terrace area where the rotary line is now re-sited, I no longer have to trudge down to/from the stream-end of the garden with baskets of damp washing where the PO had the line.......although DH did suggest I do the washing down there in the stream, cheeky burger, lol!

We are conscious of the damp issue however, that is especially pertinent in our old stone house built into a the side of a hill and do have a de-humidifier as well as opening windows frequently. As there are only the two of us (plus assorted dogs/cats ) at home these days - and are still living on a building site indoors - we only do one/two loads of washing each week, unlike our nearest neighbours who seem to do washing every day and living in a teensy one-bed cottage I'm not sure how they cope when the weather is inclement

Topaz63

I've got a washer/drier which takes up same space as a single washer. It's a John Lewis one that dries larger amount than w/d usually take. I just use the drier part for larger things like duvet covers, sometimes jeans. Other stuff I hang on clothes horse. Not much condensation as I open a window except in very cold weather. Landing stair rail is really good for drying because of up draughts from stairwell!