Any suggestions for drying washing indoors

Any

beedeedee wrote: »

Firstly I would recommend that you greatly reduce the amount of washing you do - it does not make you a bad mother! People seem to wash things just for the sake of it nowadays and it shortens the life of many garments or items.......really ask yourself if you can get away without doing them. Jeans, trousers, winter woolies, towels and many other things do not need washing after every wash or even every week in many cases. I know that with a small child things do get grubby - but even then there will be things that can be dealt with by a quick sponge. Reducing the load of washing is a priority, then the space you do have can be utilised efficiently. It's not good to dry things over a radiator - but we've all done it and the radiator racks you can buy, will hang over the slats in your airing cupboard to give quite a bit more vertical drying space in there. Hope this helps.

I completely agree.
The amount of families that wash their towels every single day!!
And many of my colleagues put washing machine on every day or every other day even though there is just 2 of them... washing machine with 2 towels, 2 sets of clothes they had that day (but exclude underwear, that is different wash apparently) and that is it... what a waste!!

RAS

Do you have a garden of any sort?

Try something like this http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/8540407.htm if you can get stuff half dry outside it helps.

Do you have space above the bath or a staircase with a high ceiling over part of it? Warm air rises so you can try something like a kitchen maid. In the bathroom it would be high up and you could put on the fan. Could also go in the kitch if there is room.

For small amounts like undies socks and baby clothes, a radiator airer would be fine.

But do think about the amount of stuff you wash. Some families seem to wear and wash even when the item has only been on their body for two hours. Baby can wear clothes with food stains all day quite healthily. Only tumble dry if you really need stuff dry urgently (sick bubs using the last clean cot sheets etc)

Another vote here for an old fashioned spinner as well. They extract a lot of water and halve the amount of time it takes to dry in a tumble dryer or on a line.

Honey_Bear

Quite simply, I don't put the washing machine on until I know I'll be able to get the clothes pretty dry outside. Even in the winter you get days (and nights) when no rain is forecast. In cold weather when there's no wind I reckon you need 36 hours to get stuff dry enough to air it in the kitchen (which I ventilate all year round by keeping the door open on dry days when it's not too cold).

The fastest spin speed you can afford on the washing machine gets most of the water out.

We both have enough underwear to keep going for a fortnight, and three changes of bedding for every bed. We keep towels on heated towel rails in the (well-ventilated) bathroom and then the final, final tip that I find an absolute godsend.

We are very, very Old Style. We use flannels to wash in the bath or shower - they're cheap. Before we turn the shower off we rinse them out, and then after the water's turned ff, swish the wet flannel over ourselves to get rid of most of the water (and squeeze them out.) You'd be surprised at how much water you can get down the plughole rather than festering in your towel and bathroom. The towel is only used to finish drying us. I peg out wet flannels until they're dry and chuck them in the washing machine with underwear.

cheeswright

covering you radiators in washing B***s up individual thermostats - and can cause heating problems - but using those hook over rail things dosnt
as the majority of the heat rises
( unless you have put shelves or stupid wooden covers over your radiators)

one of these (fold down clothes rail) also works very well over a radiator - as the hot air can still circulate - these are also great as you hang the clothes on hangers - so less ironing - they used to do something like this at ikea, but I cant find it right now. although I improvised one from a much cheaper extending kitchen towel rail.more mse.

You will make the air in your house damper by using these - as you would using an unvented tumbledryer - but providing you regularly air your house you should not get lung diseases from doing this !!!!!!

oddly the best place to dry your clothes is on the landing - as the hot air is passing upwards here - If our house design would have allowed for it I would have put one of these along the landing - which would also mean visitors wouldnt be able to see it ...
but dont beat yourself up if you use the tumble dryer..its only for a year or so - then it all eases off again..

kezlou

We dry light things over the radiators in winter, i,e underwear.

But we hang bedding, jeans etc over the landing to get dry.
Must admit i hang washing over the line even in the dead of winter, they get slighty dryer but also stops the washing from smelling if its been left.

Word of advice reduce the amount of clothing you wear. Say for example you wear a top,cardi, and then a jumper. Chances are the cardi and jumper won't need washing. But the top, underwear and socks will.

Towels as soon as were out the bath and dried the towels go straight over the landing or on the line to dry.

I very rarely wash towels, after all when you come out the bath your clean!

Funky_Bold_Ribena

I keep an eye on the rain today forecast and when it looks like a dry spell is coming up I try and sync with that; but often it's just on the rads for me.

I don't put them on the rads in the bedrooms, but around the house sure; then into the airing cupboard to air. We have a large rad in the bathroom, with vertical slats so that's invaluable during winter. We also have a hanging slatted drier in the bathroom [very high ceilings in this old house] and that holds a washer full.

I don't have a drier any more; and rarely used it when I did. And we only wash undies after one use; most other stuff gets worn many times before washing. Even [shock horror] after getting drenched gardening we just let it dry off rather than wash each time.

pigpen

Bedding, duvets and towels are hung over a door.

Jeans, towels and other heavy stuff goes on the line.. OH hangs it out so I don't get cold (or have to face the stripey spiders) .. it doesn't start to smell, doesn't clutter my kitchen and might dry.. I am also happy to leave it out several days.

Undies and socks and small baby stuff goes straight in the dryer due to pure quantity of the stuff.. if there were just 3 or 4 of us I'd hang it to dry or put it on the radiator.

Lightweight items go on my heated airer from Lakeland and a sheet is flung over to keep the heat in.

Woolly things and fleece things which dry really quickly just go on my ordinary airer.

I hang stuff on the radiator or pop in the dryer for 20-30 minutes to air it off when it is almost dry just to clear it so I can hang up the next round.

carlymummy

I am going to have the same problem during the winter months, well have had a problem during spring/summer my tumbler blew up in Feb this year and I do not have the money or the space really to replace it.
I have been using my washing line where possible, washing less, easier when my sons aren't at school as no uniforms to worry about just yet.
If it has rained I have used my airer in my bedroom, ironed pretty much everything wet apart from towels and then hung on hangers clothes such as jeans/shirts etc and popped them on my curtain poles (make sure you don't overload though) then with the blinds tilted partially closed and the windows open a little it seems to dry them nicely in a few days. Hope that helps a bit x

chirpychick

Any wrote: »

How is your house in general? How much washing are you doing?

Our house does get very damp (I don't know why!) we live in a really small 2 up 2 down and well downstairs is more 1 down as its all open plan. Nowhere to hang anything down here at all.

We do have a washing line, it is a retractable one because hubby says you can get more on it compared to rotary however, Im really liking the idea of a rotary one with a cover over it (though I haven't looked at price yet).

We really don't go through so much, I'm probably going to come across as really gros now :rotfl: but hubby wears his work trousers all week! changes his polo shirt every other day unless he walks and then he needs to change it everyday. I am a sahm so when im home all day I don't get dressed, I just stay in my pjs and If I do go out I generally wear clothes twice (trousers more) before washing them unless the baby covers me in something or other.

The baby goes through 1 vest sometimes 2 a day but 2 changes of clothes and pjs although again unless we are home all day in which case he stays in his pjs all day too.

We wash the towels weekly, bedding probably every 3 months :eek:

The only stuff I tumble is baby clothes, bedding, towels and underwear. However the thing that we do go through loads is bibs and muslins and although i have tons i feel like i need to tumble them or i will run out.

I guess they're cheap enough, I should get some more and then they can dry on the line/airing cupboard.

I think because he has severe reflux and at the beginning was going through so many clothes we just got into the habit of tumbling and I need to get out of the habit!!

I really appreciate all of the help/advice you have really given me so many ideas to explore.

PollyOnAMission

I never use the washing line in winter. Instead I hang clothes on an airer like this
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/8505590.htm

which is much more space efficient than one like this (which I also have)

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/8505387.htm

large items e.g. bedding, towels get hung over doors. The important thing is that I ALWAYS have a dehumidifier running when I drying laundry indoors.

Things are usually dry in a few days, but I am quite interested in these for quicker drying
http://www.lakeland.co.uk/21736/Dry-Soon-3-Tier-Heated-Tower-Airer?src=gfeed&gclid=CNK71c2GjLkCFW_HtAodulYAAQ