Drying washing in winter

Effician

Frequent light showers here so the washing is on a clothes horse in the poly tunnel with door open, would normally put a short line up in there but still a bit cramped with the last of the late summer veg & wood for the stove.

Sometimes we have a stand fan running if there's not much breeze in there & cheap to run at around 50w on max.

A greenhouse would work just as well & are often under used in winter months.

Floss

I also wait until I have enough clothes to run a full load - sometimes up to 3 weeks or longer - black/very darks, brights, lights & whites (which sometimes go in the lights with a Colour Catcher 😉).  Bedding & towels get their own loads.

littlemoney

Cold, sunny windy day here. Line full of washing outside. Weather better than forecast yesterday, so quick change of plan for the day. To reduce washing further, I have clothes I wear when going out and on return  change into my at home clothes. The at home clothes can be worn longer than the going out clothes which also have time to thoroughly air between wears.

gozaimasu

Effician said:

...the washing is on a clothes horse in the poly tunnel with door open,

Best response yet!

Sadly I don't have a polytunnel, outside line or tumble dryer. Sounds like most people here just do what they have instead of calculating the cheapest version of their actions. The reason I wanted to try and calculate if something is cheaper than what I currently do now is so that I don't waste £70 on buying a Lakeland thingy when I'd be better off just doing what I do now.

-taff

It's not just a calculation of the cheapest version though. It's a question of how much condensation is safe before it's mouldy, are you going to encourage chest infections by it being damp, are you going to need to put the heating on to dry things in rooms or on radiators, is it cheaper to run the TD for an hour rather than the heating for eight, have you got the room for a heated dryer, the time to sort it and hang it, room for an airer, or a horse. It's not just the cheapest because the cheapest for me would be to hang it outside until it dries which in this weather could be hours, could be days, could be weeks. Drying stuff is always a compromise between the cheapest and the safest or most practical.

mjm3346

Tumble dryer all year, it takes less of my time, no messing around with getting washing in out - always making sure that any clothing purchased can be tumble dried (bit like never buying "dry clean" only items).  

flipflopflo

We use a dehumidifier next to the airer. We have the dehumidifier on anyway as the house is 400 years old and has a propensity to be damp. 

KxMx

-taff said:

KxMx said:

No tumble dryer here so we dry across 4 racks in the spare room, with the window cracked/open season depending and a small dehumidifier on for the first 12-24 hours.

Currently it's that really awkward stage where it's too warm for heating but too cold for washing to dry efficiently!

When I move into a 1 bed flat I don't expect to have a a tumble dryer, so will either get a few heated racks in bedroom/hall/living room plus dehumidifier or dry on normal racks in the bathroom if big enough, moving in & out when showering.


Will be a challenge as I do 3 loads a week during winter and 2 loads weekly rest of year. 
Just have to find a new routine, maybe washing in evening and leaving in living room overnight with dehumidifier when I go to bed, then reverse in morning. 

I've got to ask, why are you doing so much washing? I live with Oh who creates five outfits a day because of his work, but even with that I do two loads at most a week, more like one usually...and ocassionally I do the bedding but not every week...

I did give average figures, some weeks in summer it is one load & some weeks it's two during winter.

It's a combination of things, the sheer size of my towel & winter dressing gown, spending lots of time in bed and in pj's/dressing gown, and I share drying space which I have for 4 days a week so I need to consider the most efficient way to dry everything within that.

I am also a heavy sweater, although I found an amazing strong deodorant which actually works a few months back so it's much improved. Literally a game changer! 
Most people on those by this time can apply a couple times a week but I still need it daily.

I don't think washing sheets, towel, Zumba clothes, and dressing gown weekly, pj's twice weekly is excessive in my particular situation.

I wear clothes (underwear excluded obviously) at least 4 times before even considering a wash unless smelly/very sweaty/dirty so I'm no princess about not wearing things twice! 

Edited to add, I'm definitely going to try and get down to 2 loads a week during winter more often, since I wash duvet cover once a fortnight (can't face wrestling with the winter duvet itself weekly), I could find a way to just have a bigger second load that week, instead of 3 smaller ones. 

gozaimasu

-taff said:

It's not just a calculation of the cheapest version though...

I'm looking for the cheaper version compared to what I currently do. As mentioned in previous posts, I have a cheapo dehumidifier so if I use the radiators in winter, the dumidifier is on too. to remove the excess moisture. I don't have condensation issues, but I grew up in a house that did - the damp/mould in the childhood home was "cured" by a dehumidifier. That was a house that had outdoor washing lines and only dried washing indoors in winter.

Your advice is to buy a tumble dryer instead? No.

-taff

Of course it's not. Thanks for completely misinterpreting what I said.

I didn't give any advice. I just said [once again for those who misinterpeted it]

It isn't a question of what's the cheapest. It's a compromise between what's available, what's feasible and what;s safe.

Fo you for example, the cheapest thing would be to hang everything out of the windows, no?