Drying clothes indoors

Bexpoimlo

Hi, I know this topic has posted once before but not really answered my situation.
I'm a 24 year old still living at home and I do my own laundry, by choice as I love the independence it gives me. But this means I dry my clothes in my bedroom on a clothes horse, it has caused a lot of damp despite using a dehumidifier and it is affecting my health. My dad keeps telling me to keep my window open, but I feel the cold and this too makes me unwell as well as effecting my back.
My question is, is there a way I can have my window open to let moisture escape but keep the cold out?

rach_k

Is there a reason you need to dry the washing in your bedroom? While I understand the independence aspect, surely you can still be independent and use other areas of the house. Where would your washing be dried if your parents did it for you?

If you absolutely need to dry it in your room, I would open the window whenever you're not in there, then leave it on vent when you are there, or open the window for a few minutes every now and then to give the air a change. When you use the washing machine, try doing an extra spin at the end of the washing cycle to remove more of the water too.

I'm not sure if there are other issues at play here, but a healthy person will not get ill from being cold. If you 'feel the cold', try an extra layer or two.

Linda32

I use a clothes horse for things which can't go in the tumble dryer. I open all of the windows every day of the year, it has to be really cold for me not too. Use a dehumidifier in the winter in this room. I'm sure that clothes which have come out of a properly working washing machine are not that wet to cause discomfort and damp.
Otherwise you would get wet through when you hang them on the line.

Admittedly this isn't the bedroom we sleep in. Could you move the clothes horse out at night?

As said, where does the other people in the household dry their washing?

Bexpoimlo

Yes my parents dry their clothes downstairs and my brother too (his room is only big enough for his bed, wardrobe and his chest of drawers with his tv on top so he can't dry in any other room.
And I feel my room is my space and my clothes belong in my space, it quite difficult to explain but it gives me that sense of independence.
If my parents did my washing it would be dried downstairs with theirs, but there is also another reason for me doing my own laundry and that is because, both my parents work and laundry get piled up and takes a while to get back to me, by which time I've ran out of clothes and my dad sorta just gives me everyone else's clothes, I end up with an enormous pile and most of them are not even my clothes and my clothes have gone elsewhere.

I have tried that but my window is difficult to access and even then it's coming into a cold room as well (no one likes that surely) and I'm very prone to colds caused by me feeling the cold some are worse than others and sometimes I end up with a full blown flu, as for layers I'm always wearing a jacket as well as what ever I'm wearing underneath and still I can get cold.

And I'm always in my bedroom due to personal commitments of working and studying, it's the only place I can concentrate.

iammumtoone

I still don't understand why you are drying your clothes in your bedroom.

I get that you want your independence to do your own laundry but why can't you hang your washing elsewhere in the house and collect it when its dry? Do your parents only allow washing to be dried downstairs that they have washed? seems a very strange set up.

Failing that if you insist on not letting your clothes out of sight, how about using the washing machine at home then taking to a launderette to use a tumble drier. Or drying it outside not easy at this time of year but it is possible.

elsien

The other alternative is to volunteer to do the household washing. Then you can make sure it's up to date, and in the days of washing machines it's not exactly an onerous task. All drying done downstairs, all clean clothes slung back at their respective owners to iron/put away as they wish.
Cold and flu are caught from viruses passed on by other people, not by getting cold.

NewShadow

Bexpoimlo wrote: »

Yes my parents dry their clothes downstairs and my brother too (his room is only big enough for his bed, wardrobe and his chest of drawers with his tv on top so he can't dry in any other room.
And I feel my room is my space and my clothes belong in my space, it quite difficult to explain but it gives me that sense of independence.
If my parents did my washing it would be dried downstairs with theirs, but there is also another reason for me doing my own laundry and that is because, both my parents work and laundry get piled up and takes a while to get back to me, by which time I've ran out of clothes and my dad sorta just gives me everyone else's clothes, I end up with an enormous pile and most of them are not even my clothes and my clothes have gone elsewhere.

I have tried that but my window is difficult to access and even then it's coming into a cold room as well (no one likes that surely) and I'm very prone to colds caused by me feeling the cold some are worse than others and sometimes I end up with a full blown flu, as for layers I'm always wearing a jacket as well as what ever I'm wearing underneath and still I can get cold.

And I'm always in my bedroom due to personal commitments of working and studying, it's the only place I can concentrate.

Might I suggest, if the question is of independence, exchanging your labour for your parents washing services?

They allow you to wash and dry your clothes with theirs and in exchange you sort and return all of the laundry to it's proper owners when dry.

It's the kind of arrangement an independent adult might come to in a house share.

I'd still dry my grundies in my room, but that's just me.

Bexpoimlo

One we all work so putting clothes outside isn't always the best idea as it can be out there for awhile before its brought, in which time it more than likely will rain thus clothes get wet and having to be rewashed.
Two there is nowhere else in the house for it to dry as all other available places are being used by other members.

And no my bedroom is upstairs and I dry my clothes in my bedroom, i try to leave my radiator empty as this helps to keep the house warmer and saves on the heating bills, the same applies to radiators in other rooms and plus I don't go into my parents or my brothers rooms without invite as I respect their privacy.

The washing machine is also a drier and its in constant use, so I try not to use drier as, it costs more as well as it means someone else can use it instead of me hogging it. I can't afford to go the the laundrette to dry clothes and not all my clothes are suitable to be dried in a drier

Bexpoimlo

elsien wrote: »

The other alternative is to volunteer to do the household washing. Then you can make sure it's up to date, and in the days of washing machines it's not exactly an onerous task. All drying done downstairs, all clean clothes slung back at their respective owners to iron/put away as they wish.
Cold and flu are caught from viruses passed on by other people, not by getting cold.

I must get something very similar then as if I'm cold for too long I get the whole, sniffles, headache, tiredness, sometimes sore throat and even the shivers, just like with colds and flu, while other family members are totally fine.

Bexpoimlo

NewShadow wrote: »

Might I suggest, if the question is of independence, exchanging your labour for your parents washing services?

They allow you to wash and dry your clothes with theirs and in exchange you sort and return all of the laundry to it's proper owners when dry.

It's the kind of arrangement an independent adult might come to in a house share.

I'd still dry my grundies in my room, but that's just me.

I have already tried this method when I was still in school, it didn't work at all and I had more spare time back then, but now very little.

NewShadow

Bexpoimlo wrote: »

I have already tried this method when I was still in school, it didn't work at all and I had more spare time back then, but now very little.

Why didn't it work?

Think about what you could change to make it work.

That's what adults do