Today’s questions is from Darice:
Does anyone hang their laundry inside during the winter? I am looking to minimize our use of the dryer this winter to cut back on our
electricity usage and would appreciate any techniques, tips or tricks you may have for drying your laundry inside without a dryer. Thanks! – Darice
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I live in Ireland and, like most households in the country, we do not own a dryer. We dry all laundry on the line, year round. However, rain and snow do demand indoor solutions. If your house is heated with radiators, there are drying racks you can order online that hook onto your radiators. There are also retractable clothing lines you can mount on the walls of your laundry room or bathroom. And of course, the traditional clothes rack in front of a roaring fire always does the trick. 🙂 Stick with it and don’t give up. Line drying is better for the earth, your wallet and your clothes. The more you do it, the faster you will hit on a system that works for you. And don’t forget your steam iron! It will make “crispy” clothes soft again.
Our dryer broke a couple months ago and we haven’t gotten it replaced. I just add liquid fabric softener to the washer and then hang our shirts on hangers above the washer, put towels on towel racks in the spare bathroom, and hang everything else on our drying rack in the guest/junk room. I turn on the overhead ceiling fan to speed up the process a little, but it’s probably not that necessary. And for an added bonus, the heating vents are directly above all these places so when the heater comes on in the winter it dries the clothes at the same time! 🙂
I put a foldable drying rack up in front of the dining room slider (the sun comes in even in the winter). We also have a permanent drying bar that is installed in the laundry room. I use hangers and let clothes dry there.
A collapsible wooden clothes rack–it takes about 2 x 4 feet of floor space and holds at least one washer-load of clothes at a time.
I hang laundry inside all year. I like to put my drying rack in a room that I can shut off from the rest of the house, then I will turn the ceiling fan on high. It helps the drying process greatly!
I have also hung my clothes inside and out using the fan inside to help clothes from drying stiff. And outside in the hot summer I hang out stuff in the evening and bring them in the morning and this helps items from being stiff. If you have the room using a outside patio umbrella base stand up a umbrella clothes line usually used outdoors. Can be used outside this way if renting and can’t put up permanently. Glad to hear I’m not the only one with hangers and clothes pins in hand
I don’t have anywhere to hang clothes outside, so I do this all year round. I hang clothes on their hangers in our second bathroom. I just turn on a small fan (or the exhaust fan for a little while) to keep the air circulating.
My husband hung a rod across my laundry room so that I can hang things on hangers all year round. It is great! I also use a drying rack, of course!
In Maryland the weather isn’t aweful so usually I hang clothes out year round – if the weather takes a turn I have some nice racks I hang clothes on in the house – my dryer is probably the most unused appliance in the house. It’s lucky if it runs 10 – 15 hours a year!
I have a friend who “freeze-dries” her sheets in the winter. She didn’t mention any vinegar or salt like some have here, but she just hangs them outside. I personally don’t like to stand in the cold that long!
use fabric softner it will make your clothes softer
1. I hang on a rack in the laundry room.
2. I put up a portable rack to dry socks underwear can get at local store.
3. They now have racks for towels for summer I use them.
4. I also use my shower curtain rod in the bathroom
5. Wash after 11pm when electric is cheaper might be different in your area.
6. wash in cold cuts electric.
7. Put the racks for socks in the tub to save on space.
8. I put large quilts over chairs in the living room .
9. Our biggest saving on our electric we put in a wood burning insert in our fireplace it drys clothes in nothing flat and we only had to turn on the heat in one room last winter.
Perhaps someone already posted this idea, but we use an extra large, extra sturdy wooden drying rack to dry our clothes. (I have used the small Walmart kind, but these only hold part of a load and seem to break easily.) My husband and I wanted to minimize drying costs and maximixe the life of our clothes, so this rack was our answer. This foldable, wooden rack is 80″ tall x 48″ wide x 13″ deep and can hold TWO loads of laundry. We keep this beauty in our bedroom for added romance, and is a great asset for my frugal growing family of five. I believe we got it over five years ago in Shipshewana, IN, for about $50. Looking on the internet for something anyone interested in something like this, was not profitable, but I was able to find a few drying racks that look like they are worth purchasing:
http://www.growandmake.com/tall-drying-rack for $79
http://www.growandmake.com/wooden-clothes-drying-rack-3 for $109
both free shipping
Or if you are in the IN area, you can try calling Amish Sales at 760.768.7511. I tried calling around supper time, but didn’t get an answer.
I have a laundry room as you come in from our garage. Gets great air circulation. I hang dry my clothes in there year around. I have a shower curtain pole that my husband hung for me between a wall cabinet and the wall. Then I have a rack that goes from floor to ceiling with these arm things that jet out that you can move around that hold clothes on hangers. Plus I also have to fold up drying racks that I use when camping too. Just make sure you leave space between the clothes so they don’t smell sour. And I like to put some things in the dryer for 10 to get the wrinkles out and make them soft before hanging up.
just add a tablespoon of salt to your load and then you can hang outside to dry in the winter, clothes will dry but wont freeze, and you wont notice the salt on your clothes
drying rack in the basement too. 🙂
we have a gazebo over the patio part in our rental unit, so iam still able to hang my clothes outside even if its raining, if the not complete dry after hanging outside which sometimes happens to the jeans, i just hang them overnight over our chairs by morning they are dry. We are dryer free for about 3 month now and our electricty bill went from 100 to 52 last month… i probaly could lower even that but iam not willing to give up my dishwasher yet.
I had my husband put a shower curtain rod in our laundry room so that I can hang dry shirts, pants, etc on hangers in a spot that is not all over the house and out of the way. For larger items such as bed spreads and such I usually end up just tossing those over the curtain rod until they are dry.
I don’t airdry in the winter except for delicates. That’s all I ever air dry.
I haven’t used my dryer in almost 5 years… it’s completely unplugged and disconnected, so I have no intention of using it anytime soon!
This is what I do: I use wire hangers and hang the clothing in doorways, over on the edge out of the walkway. I put two things per side, one on each side of the molding (that keeps them from swaying and turning into the walkway. So this means I can put four things in each doorway without obstructing the walkway). I use clothes pins to clip pants (by the waistband) on the hangers.
I hang towels from hangers just like jeans…. except I fold them in half lengthwise. I use two hangers for heavier stuff like this; just put them together and use as if they were one.
I also have a retractable clothesline that I use for sheets and blankets. They hang overnight and are usually good-to-go by mid-morning.
And then for the little stuff I have two drying racks.
This may seem like a lot, but I’ve gotten used to it and it seems like nothing to me. And I’d say it’s well worth it in the long run!
Socks & hubby jeans go in the dryer in the winter! Everything else is on hangers, drying racks, and I just read about using a tension rod in the bathrom tub! My drying space has just tripled!
I love all the suggestions… I will definitely be cutting back on dryer loads this winter. I have one dryer rack and I put it upstairs in our second bathroom which is also nice and sunny. If I shut the door, the heat builds up in there so the clothes dry very quickly. In fact, I do lots of activities upstairs in the winter because heat rises naturally and it is warmer up there. I plan all year and “put off” some activities that I can do up there so I take advantage of it. Sewing, scrapbooking, filing papers, etc. or any activity that I can take up there to do – like paperwork. That way I can keep the heat lower and take advantage of Mother Nature’s heating.
I air dry my children’s close indoors year-round. I had my husband make a DIY hanging drying rack we found on Centsational Girl’s blog and I have used it ever since. When I run out of room on that rack, I also have a shower curtain rod that hangs above our washer and dryer but under the shevles that I hang clothes on hangers to air dry.
I line dry all year. You can hang them outside on nice days or on racks inside on yucky days. Here is a link to my blog about line drying in the winter. http://twobgardening.blogspot.com/2010/12/line-drying-even-in-winter.html
I have a retractable line in our downstairs bathroom. (It’s a long skinny room). We have to maneuver around when laundry is on the line…and remember to take it down when company comes!! 🙂
Last January I replaced my dryer with a Charming Spinner. http://tinyurl.com/3zdl4wk
This spins extra water out of the clothes so they take less time to dry. For the rest of the winter I dried clothes on shower curtain rods hanging over the washer and in the bathroom over the shower. I hung clothes on hangers, and smaller items on 5-tier pants hangers. In the bathroom I ran the fan to reduce humidity. Everything dried in 5 to 8 hours, including towels and jeans.
I noticed unexpected benefits of the spinner after I started using it. It reduced stiffness in towels and jeans. They’re still stiff from air drying, but noticeably better. Second, clothes are cleaner because the water that spins out of them is still tinged with dyes, dirt, detergent. It’s a dingy gray that builds up in your clothes if it’s not removed. And the greatest benefit was the savings on my utility bill. I saved 10-20% off my bill depending on the season. Savings was greater in the summer here in the south. This spinner has been well worth the money I spent on it and will pay for itself in less than a year.
Winter is where my heavy wire IKEA drying racks (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50095091/) save the day. I have two (they’re only about $20) and each one will hold a full load of laundry if not more. They’re light-weight, fold up to take only a couple inches space behind a door or in a closet and with their flexible design I can move the “wings” up to a higher position that enables me to drape sheets over the rack while still drying tons of clothes underneath.
I’ve “sold” so many of these to friends and family over the past several years, IKEA should start paying me commission!
I grew up hanging my clothes up outside 0n clothes lines year round unless it was raining or snowing outside. In that case we hung clothes on drying racks in the house near our forced air heater vents. My husband and I now hang clothes in our basement on drying racks (we don’t have enough room for a clothes line outside) where there is a dehumidifier. We also hang put the drying racks outside on nice days.
When I lived in a tiny apartment with no dryer and 2 ceiling fans, I would hang my clothes on hangers, and squeeze as many hangers as I could onto the ceiling fan blades (towards the center). Then turn the fan on low. Clothes would dry pretty fast. Ijust had to remember they were there when company came over! I would also drape clothes over the towel rack and shower door of the shower and turn the fan on.
While drying clothes inside does save electricity it also adds moisture to the air in your house. If you have heat that makes your house dry then this can be a good thing, however if not the moisture can cause young children to become sick, create mold, or even cause breathing issues. I was having reoccurring bronchitis and pneumonia and never could figure out why until my doctor asked me if my house had a lot of moisture or if I hung up wet clothes in the house. Best thing I have done is put a dehumidifier in the laundry room where I hang my clothes. They dry faster and no more breathing problems.
My husband built me a drying rack from PVC pipes (cheap @ Lowes or Home Depot) the good thing was it was sturdier than the wood ones you buy and the pipes were larger than the wooden dowls on the wood ones so the clothes laid nicely across it and did not wrinkle. After seeing it loaded with laundry (we just sat it in the warmest room while drying) everyone wanted him to make them one too! We should have patented it since he made it up! It was very simple and frugal.
I have a rack I bought at The Container Store. I put it over one of my floor vents, and it dries my clothes overnight in the winter time. Don’t try this if the furnance is in floor though. 🙂 I also hang up clothes in the bathroom.
We have two wooden drying racks that we use both inside and out. We don’t have a laundry room, just a closet, so we hang anything that can be hung up in multiple doorways. My mom got us a special drying rack that’s made just for bathtubs but of course it doesn’t fit ours! It’s pretty funny in the winter on laundry days because we have clothes hanging from 3 or 4 doorways! We just hope people don’t stop by! We have to hang my son’s clothes inside all year round because he has excema and any allergens in the air could get in his clothes and make it worse.
I actually do not have a dryer so I hang my clothes all the time. When I was using the laundry mat, I would dry them for 10 minutes to release the wrinkles, and then hang dry them.
I find that my clothes dry faster in the winter because of the heat. I use a drying rack from IKEA and hang the clothes on hangers from the ends, then fill in the middle with smaller stuff. The little “Octopus” you can get at IKEA with 16 clips on it is great for socks and undies too.
I bought two extra shower curtain rods at target (when they had a bath accessories coupon recently). I hang my clothes on plastic hangers in there. If I need them to dry quicker than 24 hours I take a small fan and have it face the clothing. I also have an awesome drying rack that I set up (got it at CostCo this summer). Again, I put a fan on the clothes to help speed the process.
Dose it make a very big difference in the electricity bill to line dry all you laundr?
I have a propane dryer. It saves me at least $200 per year, probably more.
I should clarify…line drying saves me at least $200 per year because propane is expensive. I wash 12 to 14 loads per week and line dry at least half, which adds up to more than $200 over the course of a year.
I have all electric heating and cooling in the south. I do everything I can to reduce my bill. In the summer the A/C is set at 78 and in the winter we keep the house at 65. My highest utility bills are in the winter. Even then, I was able to save 10-20% each month (depending on the season) by getting rid of my dryer and line drying my clothes.
I have hung clothes from my shower that I didn’t want to shrink. But dose it really make that much of a difference in the elctric bill? I like the idea and if it save I will deffinatly give it a try.
We use a large wooden drying rack purchased at Lehman and Sons. Sturdy and Amish made . We haven’t owned a dryer in 2 years. We use our spare room in the winter time by just setting the rack up in there. The large one was around 90.00 but has more hten paid it self back. I can get a large load of clothes to fit on it that includes jeans. The dowels are spaced for maxium air flow.
We hang clothes (except socks and underwear) on their hangers and hang the hangers on the doorframes–it works like a charm! And clothes are already hung to put away. We learned to do this even in summer because our backyard has too many trees to dry cleanly.
Yes, I hang my laundry year round. I stick in on drying racks in the bedroom and put the ceiling fan on. If it’s really cold I might stick a floor fan on it for an hour also.
Here in NC it stays fairly temperate most of the year so I still hang clothes out on the clothesline outside. As long as it’s not cloudy (or raining obviously) they’ll dry just fine even when it’s freezing outside. When it’s too wet to put them outside I usually just hang everything on hangers and hang it from our shower curtain rod. It takes longer to dry inside compared to outside though.
I have a retractable clothes line that has 4 lines that I have in a bathtub that is not used except for guests. It holds 8 t-shirts. Under that I have a wooden drying rack to hang some additional t-shirts and small items. I have pants and heavy things on hangers on the shower curtain rod. We use a wood stove in the winter so the wet clothing adds a tiny bit of dampness to the air.
I have line-dried our clothes for probably over 30 years. WOW! I never thought about that. Just a small way of helping our electric bill and also, more importantly, cut back on ironing. As others have said I line dry everything except sheets, socks and undies, oh, and towels. The items I do line dry I put into the dryer (before hanging) for about 5-10 minutes. Less for cotton dress shirts, longer for jeans, cotton twill, etc. Doesn’t take any more time and I can be done w/that load a lot sooner than if I had to wait for it to dry and then hang them up. Just a good way to do laundry, in my book.
When I lived in Alaska we used to put a drying rack in the living room next to the fire place but never too close and keep the grate closed. It made them warm and snuggly.
someone said furnace room, that’s great for jeans and hand washables like bras.
what I find difficult is sweaters and such, things that you need to lay flat so you don’t create stretch marks in the shoulder or neck or anywhere really (where you use a clothes pin or the hanger is). I dont put many of my work clothes in the dryer because they shrink, so any form of drying that would distort is also out if I want to keep the shape. I try laying them on a towel, but it’s almost counter productive, because one side isn’t exposed to air…
any thoughts?
Get a special drying rack with shelves.
Check out the IKEA drying rack: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50095091/
There’s plenty of horizontal surface for drying sweaters.
I have a sweater rack that fits over the tub. It has wooden dowels that fit into corner knobs and stretch out a mesh type fabric to lay the sweater on. Not sure if these are sold anymore… maybe google it? Hope this helps!
I do this all yr with delicates or clothes to keep from shrinking.
I hang our clothes on hangers straight from the washer. I use door nobs or any dresser or hook around the house. They will dry quickly because of the heat in the winter or A/C in the summer. Plus they are ready for the closet when dry.
For years, my Mother had an indoor fold-up wooden dryer. She would put it up in the living room at night or in the tub at night and let the clothes dry overnight. I got it when she passed away, and then went to ACE Hardware and got 2 more. The new ones are so much better, vinyl covered on the areas where you put the clothes, instead of just wood. Then, they do not collapse like the old ones did if you tried to move them with clothes on them. They have a little wooden piece you flip up and lock into a little dowel stick. You then put the rubber band, come with it, around the little piece of wood. Most times, you don’t have to move it with clothes on it, but you might want once in awhile. They are $9 in SC.
When you take the clothes off them when dry, you just fold up and put behind a door, take up very little room.
If you have wrinkles in the clothes you have a free steam room, your bathroom after you take a shower. You put the clothes on hangers and close the bathroom door. Wrinkles come out like a miracle!
My daughter in college does. She raised her dorm bed up on the headboard and footboard as far as she could and put bed risers underneath so her bed is 3 1/2 feet off the ground. I made her a bedruffle that hangs down that far, but has three panels on the long side so she can push them aside and go underneath. She slips the ends of her clothes underneath the metal matress supports and also uses hangers for the shirts. She also put a clothesline under there. Saves her $1.25 a load.
I’m sure I’m being over cautious, but I’m afraid to line dry my clothes (inside or outside). This is due to the concern for MRSA and I’ve read that they recommend not line drying clothes.
I have never tried to line dry clothes outdoors even in warmer months because of my allergies — tree pollen, grass pollen, mold. Where we live, esp. in the spring you can see the yellow pollen on everything! I don’t have enough room inside so the dryer it is!
UV light (sunshine) kills a lot of bacteria. Drying outside in the summer probably kills more germs than the dryer.
Living up here in Maine we have a lot of items to dry in the winter! I’ve found that two of those Ikea octupus type things (Pressa $4.99) which have 16 clothes clips are great for drying socks/mittens/scarves etc…..since my washer and dryer are in the kitchen I even hang my clothes on hangers on hang on the Pressa…I actually have the Pressas hanging on flower hangs….it makes for some funky colors in the kitchen in the winter!! As for the rest of the clothing, anything that can be taken out damp and hung finds a spot on a hanger somewhere…..I like that it adds moisture to the dry house….
HI,
I hang clothes all year in my house, and outside sometimes. I hang on plastic hangers and also use the free pinchy type pants hangers for things that don’t need an entire plastic hanger to themselves, never clothes pins as they are too time consuming. Hanger dried items go straight to the closet with no folding :-). Where I hang them: first, all along my canopy bed frame, don’t know what I would do without it. Secondly: I hung a wood broom handle across my stall shower so now I have two rows available, off the shower rod and off the broom handle, mid span on the shower. Thirdly: on the curtain rod that goes across the closet. Large items like comforters and tablecloths all fit on my canopy bed frame. Towels go thru the dryer as I don’t care for the line stiffness with them. Bonus: free humidifier!
I have a large Amish-made drying rack (replaced an LL Bean on that I had for decades) and a 40 foot line in our utility room. I only use the dryer for getting link off, fluffing towels, emergency laundry when grandchildren are here, or like today when I have a temp and my back has sprung. Growing up, we hung the laundry in the attic or in the basement–I think we had a de-humidifier down there.
I wish LL Bean still sold those racks! They were awesome.
Darice- We have a shelf (like a closet wire shelf) above our washer/dryer and I hang the majority of my own clothes all the time.
For the first several years of our marriage we hung our clothes on hangers from any and all doorways that were available. (Hey! And this not only air dries the clothes but provides for an opportunity to excersise when going from room to room. Limbo anyone?! 🙂 )
My gram hung hers inside in the winter on big clothes bars she didn’t have a dryer. I would throw them in the dryer afterwards to fluff them up or to get rid of any wrinkles.
I have six children, so I speed up the drying process with a box fan. I’m using a metal clothes rack I found in the basement, having shortened it by taking out a section of the supporting rods. The rack is placed near a furnace vent too.
Move to the desert! We don’t own a dryer b/c we have no problem hanging out year round in Southern Arizona 🙂 Monsoon season in July is our struggle…wet outside for 3 weeks straight but we make it thru by doing what others here do: shower rack, drying racks, and over the door hooks.
I air dry most all of my clothes year round. I have a large drying rack that I keep in the laundry room and hang all our clothes (except underwear, socks and pjs) to dry. Then I fluff everything in the dryer with a dryer sheet (on air fluff) to soften it all. I’ve always done this to keep my clothes from shrinking and to last longer.
I live in northern Canada and I’m committing to not using my dryer a lot this winter. I dry my clothes everywhere! On the shower rod, shower head, over the tub, in the closet, over kitchen chairs — literally anywhere clothes can be hung! it’s does look a little messy but it’s a lot cheaper than using your dryer. And if they don’t dry completely I’ll still use the dryer but then I don’t have to dry them as long because they are already dry.
i have a clothesline strung in my garage i use it all the time i have no dryer here in texas the summer heat drys my clothes in no time during the winter it takes alittle longer
I admit I use my dryer in the winter. I place pantyhose over the vent coming out of the dryer to catch any lint and use the dryer heat to help heat my basement where my daughter has made a bedroom.
We used PVC pipe and plastic J-Hooks (made for use with PVC) and attached them to the ceiling joists in our basement. Our ceiling isn’t finished in the laundry area. I think don’t think we spent $10 and got about 24 feet of hanging space. I just put our clothes on hangers and leave them to dry.
Here’s a calculator for estimating how much it costs to run your dryer:
http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/dryers.html
I use drying racks all year round. When the clothes are dry I do throw them in the dryer for about 1o minutes.
We have three drying racks (one sturdy Amish-made wooden one and two metals ones), a spring tension rod in the laundry closet and a wall valet that holds a few hangers. I have a bunch of pants hangers with clips that I use for underwear and small kids clothes, plus I gather up all the empty hangers from the closets. Shower rods are great, too. I also have outdoor lines that I use when the weather is good.
I’ve collected a bunch of laundry-related pins on Pinterest that might give you some more ideas: http://pinterest.com/ms_q/laundry-love/
I used to have a free-standing wood clothes dryer. Now i hat we have more children, we have a family closet, which is in the basement. All clothes (minus the undies and socks) are hung up on a rod my hubby installed. Since everything is on hangers, I airdry everything but whites in hangers, which is hung from a separate rod. When they are dried they are transfered to the appropriate section. I’ve been eyeing an old-fashioned dryer that lowers from the ceiling with pullies for our covered porch, but they are a bit pricey.
I use a drying rack for many sweaters and pants. It is foldable so it can fit in my laundry room. Only cost about $20 and the lifetime is long. Think of the savings too from not having to use a dryer!
We have our woodstove in our 800 sq foot basement and we have three drying racks and pipes mounted from the ceiling with just enough clearance for hangers. We can hang up to three loads. We can even hang sheets and blankets on hangers and hang on the pipes that are mounted on the ceiling. We hang at night and the clothes are dry by morning or hang in the morning and they are dry by evening. Hang drying clothes takes a bit of planning. Don’t expect them to be dry in a hour or less like a dryer. Also, by air drying you are extending the life of your clothes since they aren’t rubbing and tumbling against each other in the dryer.
Looks like most people commenting use drying racks or clothes lines, but we didn’t even bother to make that investment… we hang our clothes all over the house: over the backs of chairs, over the bed posts (we happen to have a canopy thing with wooden bars going across the top of our bed), over the tops of doors (dusted first, of course), over the sink faucet, etc. We also have a bar that hooks over the bathroom door where we hang clothes on hangers. Whatever works; it all dries the same for us.
my hubby looped some wire (the kind you’d use for fancy curtain installation or art displays) from one end to the other end of our garage and voila! Instant clothesline.
Though, really it’s just because there are times when I don’t want to use the dryer (things that can’t or shouldn’t be hot dried) and this house didn’t come with a clothesline. Which is fine and dandy .. don’t care to hang laundry in 120degrees, anyway.
If you do use an inside line to dry stuff .. either Wash your underclothes in hot water or make sure to use the Dryer on them. The heat helps kill off remaining bacteria that washing in cold or air drying in a cool / dark area just won’t do.
You’ll probably think I’m crazy but I still hang it outside even here in Minnesota. Sublimation actually takes most of the moisture out. The clothes do get really stiff but I throw them in the dryer for 10-15 minutes and they are good to go. I’ve found it actually drys faster than in the basement.
Oh, but my freeze dried clothes come in silky soft! I live in Southern Missouri, and I often leave dry clothes on the line overnight so they’ll freeze and get nice and soft.
Maybe the difference is because our days here are usually warm enough to DRY the clothes BEFORE they freeze at night??? I don’t know! But I sure love my frozen laundry!
I’m with you two – hang them outside still! Here in southern NJ, I just aim for the sunnier, breezier days and keep on hanging and we have 6 in our family. Occasionally I put them in the dryer for about 5 minutes when I bring them in, but not often.
I line dry most all except sox and underware. My husband works nights he came home early one winter night he asked if our house was now a Chinese laundry. He leaves for work i hang it everywhere on the backs of kitchen chairs, knobs on kitchen cabinets and doors i even open the kitchen drawers to hang the hangers on. Stoke the wood stove when i get up in the morning they are dry. If he had only known I have done this for years it was just all collected before he came home.
I know my wife hangs stuff up on hooks in the basement to dry. She also uses drying racks.
All year round I hang up clothes to dry inside my house. We have too many birds that I worry about the clothes getting dirty again outside!
I have folding clothes drying racks (check Target, etc near their irons) and I just put them in a corner of the living room to dry.
Yes, we do. I have one large IKEA folding rack that holds two loads of laundry, and one smaller IKEA rack that holds one. (We are a family of 8 so we need both!)
Hanging hangers on the edge of an ironing board works fantastically – about an inch apart, and sweaters, pants, and stretchable fabrics can be laid over the top.
Dual purpose, and it folds up when you’re done.
The shower rod also works well – and you can run the bathroom fan a bit if humidity becomes an issue.
Melody: Brilliant with the ironing board idea. I love that!
Awesome idea with the ironing board! My five year old loves button down shirts and I have to iron them anyway. At least they’d be in a convenient location 😉
I don’t do it, but some people vent their dryer indoors during the winter to add heat and humidity to the indoors. There are kits you can install to your dryer (they are mainly lint filters). Here are instructions on ehow about a DIY way to do it. But it says you should only do it if you have an electric dryer. I’ve never had a gas dryer so I’m guessing it might have something to do with fumes.
http://www.ehow.com/how_2118053_vent-dryer-heat-indoors.html
If you have a gas dryer and do this you’re in danger from carbon monoxide. It’s only safe for electric.
I use a 5-line retractable clothesline in my laundry room.
I live in England and although I have a dryer it is expensive to run and we try not to use it.
We dry outside as long as possible in the year. If clothes are put out first thing and taken in before it starts to get dark they can be partially dried which takes the pressure off the racks and even if the dryer is needed it can often be used for 1/3-1/4 the time that would be needed if the clothes were completely wet.
In our old home we had a ceiling airer which was brilliant. I have found a US link with one but the price is about 3-4x the cost here. It might be worth shopping around.
http://www.urbanclotheslines.com/kitchen-maid-ceiling-mounted-airer
Thanks for this link. I remember seeing these clothes racks in Ireland and England and wondered how they were done. I have very high ceilings so it would work great. Now I need to figure out how to make one!!
Unfortunately, here in the Southwest where I live you cannot hang clothes out at all because by the time you’d finish hanging it would be bone dry, filled with dust and sunbleached already..LOL.
Our dryer is used very little year round, mostly for socks and towels. Everything is hung on a hanger to dry. I have a rod in my laundry room now but have used the shower curtain rod in the bathrooms, hung hangers from the door jams, even strung clothes lines in the basement. I live in the midwest so even our basements are heated.
It takes a couple of days to dry clothes in my basement when I hang them there in the winter. I have clothes lines down there. We have 6 people in our family which for us equates to about 2 loads of laundry a day, so hanging them around the upstairs isn’t what I want to see every day. However, when I hang them in my basement my humidifier runs even longer. When I first started I actually watched to see how much I saved by not using my dryer. My electric cost went up because my dehumidifier was running alot more. So for me in the summer, I just dry in the dryer. I can’t dry outside due to my son’s allergies.
when it comes to drying things in the winter I simply use a drying rack (I love the ikea ones!) and hang clothes on the shower rod if I know they won’t stretch. If I am drying something heavy that will take a while to dry (or I want to do a couple loads in one day) I will just place a fan near the clothes and the circulating air helps them dry faster. Depending on the clothes I will either put the fan dead in front (along the width) or the sides so it breezes down both sides.
I used to live in an apt complex where wash & dry were 1.75 each – the only thing at that price that went in the dryer were sheets and often underwear. I was never fancy about my drying – it simply went in the living room where I had the most space and I avoided doing laundry when I expected company. (I really envy you all who can do the outside lines, with my allergies I never could.) It did increase the humidity in the room at times which was in fact awesome in the winter (but is also a reason you might not want to do this in an area that is already damp like a basement.)
We have an unheated, unfinished walk-in attic- I strung some cord between the rafters, and now I have a winter clothesline! 🙂 It’s kind of a pain hauling the laundry basket up there, but worth the cost savings.
We are fortunate to have a wood furnace in our basement, so our clothes dry relatively fast. If I get them up in the morning, usually our t-shirts, socks, underwear, and other light items dry in a few hours. My husband hung clothesline on hooks hung on the beams. I have four lines and a nice big drying rack and I can usually get everything hung up as needed.
Lehmans.com has lots of options for quality drying racks and other products that are helpful in line-drying clothing. Love their stuff!
I air dry clothing year round in my house, I have spare bedroom I use for this. I Just set up folding and hang the clothing on it, also I run a box fan to speed up the drying process. The fan keep clothing that is slower to dry from souring and smelling musty.
I lived several years in Japan, where most people do not have clothes dryers. I had several of these (http://www.amazon.com/Lehigh-Secure-DRC24-Drying-24-Clip/dp/B00275FSQC/ref=pd_sim_hg2) which hang over the shower rack (or on the laundry poles in your yard or balcony, in lieu of clotheslines). They fold in half for slim storage.
One difference I found in a country where most people air-dry their laundry is that the washing machines are designed to spin the laundry really well. I’m not sure we have that option here. Also, many bathrooms in Japanese homes have high-power exhausts to help with drying the laundry which is hung above the shower.
For socks, this is an item available in the USA: http://www.amazon.com/Set-Clip-Drip-Hangers-Organizer/dp/B000066RUK/ref=sr_1_cc_2?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1319056894&sr=1-2-catcorr. I brought back from Japan some hangers that have a 7″ diameter round ring of clips. It’s perfect for socks, hose, etc.
I always hang clothes on the shower curtain rod. I do this both winter and summer. the weather is too hot during the summer and too many birds in the yard to hang them outside.
one thing that takes alot of energy to dry is bedding. any good suggestions on hanging bedding to dry. Thanks
Use a fan! I used to air dry my alternative down comforters and blankets all the time. Twin & full size will generally fit on your normal drying racks relatively well without hitting the floor. Depending on how big your drying rack is a queen might too. I’ve often suspended comforters and blankets over two racks or used the back of a chair to raise a tail end of blanket off the floor. (I have metal kitchen chairs, I do not recommend that with wooden chairs as they are not as damp friendly.) You can help speed along drying with a fan on low. (The fan eats up a small amount of energy compared to the drier and the added air movement helps it dry faster.) As long as your place is not super cold and your not trying to dry it in a damp area it will actually dry within 12-16 hours (even without a fan). The key is that you want to try and keep it either as vertical or horizontal as possible so it dries faster.
If you can hang a line inside somewhere, that’ll probably work best.
I use a collapsible free-stranding drying rack like this http://www.qvc.com/qic/qvcapp.aspx/view.2/app.detail/params.item.H351881.desc.Whitmor-Foldable-Chrome-Drying-Rack that I picked up at a garage sale. I fold the flat sheet in half and drape it over the rack. You can still put a few other things on the inside bars also. For the fitted sheet I drape it over the rack, so it doesn’t touch the floor. This may mean scrunching it up a little on top or folding it over a bit. If I put these out in the evening, by morning my sheets are dry (very little moisture in the air during Chicago winters). No need for a fan or anything else. Sheets dry faster than many clothes because the fabric is not too thick.
I also hang shirts on hangers to dry and put them on door knobs, dresser knobs. whatever. Everything is dry by morning. On the days I don’t air dry laundry in the winter, I really notice how dry the air is when I wake up.
We use a wooden drying rack and it usually goes in the spare room or living room in the colder months. I love it! Jeans do tend to get stiff (I still use the dryer for a lot of clothes) but once you wear the jeans for 15 minutes or so you can’t really tell the difference. Air drying saves your clothes from a lot of wear and tear as well!
Meg
I have a question. Right now I hang dry all our shirts (adult shirts) in the closet on hangers.
Do kids clothes dry just fine like on a clothes line or rack? I’ve never even thought to hang dry their clothing.
Does it save much on your electric to hang dry rather than use the dryer? Is it a noticeable about?
If it is I would love to do this more but I wasn’t really sure on these 2 questions!
Thanks!
Kids clothes dry fine on a line or rack or on hangers. They are no different than adult clothes.
There are online calculators to figure out how much you’ll save by line drying. We have a propane dryer, so it saves us at least $0.70 for every load we hang to dry. If you have natural gas, you won’t save nearly as much.
We have a 6-foot long, 1 inch diameter dowel on curtain brackets which hangs in the “doorway” between our front room and our dining room. The clothes hang here on hangers, as well as cloth diapers. For pants, we hang them upside down on a collapsible drying rack. This dowel gets used for curtains to provide privacy when we have the occasional houseguest on the couch.
I air-dry our laundry year round as well. Summer or Winter. We have a fold-up laundry drying rack and a couple retractable clothes lines in the laundry room. When I need clothes to dry more quickly, I put a fan in the room to speed things up. Then, I use the dryer to “fluff, de-lint & soften” for 5 min after clothes are dry.
I moved my drying rack in the laundry room to be right over the heating vent. I don’t use it exclusively, but it cuts the dryer use in half, I think.
I live in Colorado, and winters can be very cold, but I went for 18 months without a dryer. I waited for a milder, sunny day to hang them outside.
I have a dryer now, but still like to hang laundry when I can. I find the best results are to dry the laundry in the dryer for five minutes. Then I hang shirts, etc. on hangers, on a rack in the basement. If weather permits, I hang things outside, but still use the dryer for five minutes to get most of the wrinkles out. A drying rack works well, or you can hang things on hangers, on your shower rod, if you have one.
I have four metal racks that I will hang out our clothes on and then put them over the heating vents in the floor.
No trick to it! I have three foldable drying racks in my basement and 2 hanging ones. I just take stuff out of the washer, shake it out to loosen the fabric and hang it up. I live in Columbus Ohio and my laundry dries in the basement within 1 day regardless of the season. It is an unfinished basement.
Several years ago my husband built us an indoor drying rack on our back porch. It was awesome! We no longer live in that house, but you can see it here (and I’m sure the new homeowners are enjoying it). It was even featured on HGTV Canada – http://www.couponsandfreebiesmom.com/2008/08/save-big-money-air-dry-your-laundry.html
I use a drying rack. Having a fan blowing air on the clothes makes a HUGE difference in how quickly they dry. Also I tend to put the rack in my kid’s room to also act as a humidifier for him.
My parents are able to string a long rope along the I-beam in the basement making three rows to hang clothes.
If you have space you could also build a drying rack with 2×4’s as legs and rope threaded across at several different levels.
I use a drying rack and where I put it depends on the weather. If it is sunny, I put it in my enclosed porch (lots of windows but no heat) or by a window with the shades open. This does encourage fading but no worse than outdoor line drying (which I do in the warmer months).
I also set my drying rack up in our dining room in front of our furnace register. When the furnance comes on, it blows on our cloths and acts as a dryer!
Larger/hard to dry items (jeans, sweatshirts) get hung over our shower curtain rod.
I also rotate cloths on my rack, those that dry faster go in the middle, slower drying items on the outside and if the furnance has run a few times and something thin/fast drying is dried, I take it off and move something in the middle to that place.
Plus I appreciate the added mositure drying these clothes inside adds to our dry winter air!
We live in an apartment where it’s $1.50 to wash and $1.50 to dry, so to save on this, we never, ever use the dryer. We bought a folding drying rack and an indoor clothesline. Both were purchased from amazon.com – the drying rack was about $25 and the clothesline was about $10. We use both in our office/spare bedroom. I thought I would hate the feel of air-dried clothes (I had never experienced air-dried before – my parents just always used a dryer), but it doesn’t bother me at all!!! Good luck, and I hope out of all the fantastical ideas here, you find one that works for you. Here’s a blog post about using a clothesline if you’re interested in more details of how I dry my clothes… http://jandjnewleaf.blogspot.com/2011/05/saving-moola-clotheslines-save-money.html
I toss in the dryer for about 5 minutes just to steam/soften, then hang them up right out of the dryer. I have a hanging bar in my laundry room, and excess goes on a shower curtain rod in a bathroom. If you’re in the “one load a day” camp this probably works much better than the “do it all once a week” camp… you’d have laundry hung from every imaginable place! 🙂
cant see comments for this post
now i can. thanks!
My dryer gets very little use year-round! I always put shirts & dresses (hanger items) in the dryer for a few minutes – to get the wrinkles out, then put them on hangers and line them up on our shower curtain rod in the bathroom. They dry overnight there, and no fading from the sun either!
For the rest, space is at a premium in our single wide mobile home, but I still had my husband string up a clothes line in our little office/sewing/mud room that we added on. It zigzags across the ceiling, giving me a total of three lines. I find that if I do a load a day, this little line dries everything just fine.
We do have wood heat though, and I can tell that clothes dry indoors much faster when it is running. So then I get a double benefit. Dry clothes quickly and more humid air!
Another thing I’ve used and want to get or make is a bike tire clothes drying rack. Just take the ring for a bike tire and drill holes every two/three inches, tie clothes pins on with string or fine chain. Do this up the center wires too. Add a chain to hang it from the ceiling with, and voila, a fantastic, compact, out of the way socks & undies dryer! I used one of these on the mission field, and absolutely fell in love with it!
For $9 a piece I got two of the fold up wracks. I can fit one large load on both racks. Then I just keep them in the room where the fire place is. It is not pretty but it works. They take a whole day to dry but I usually only do one load a day anyway.
We use a drying rack and also hang clothes in a closet with plenty of space between. But clothes can dry outside even if it’s below freezing as long as it’s not too humid. I do hang clothes outside even during the Midwest winters if it’s sunny. You can also hang pants and jeans over chairs and it will keep your house from becoming too dry. If you have mold problems, though, I would probably dry clothes indoors sparingly and use the dryer to avoid more mold problems.
Be careful putting wet clothes on furniture – the finish could come off onto your clothes.
We air dry most of our clothes. We use a folding drying rack and an old pack n play that just happened to be set up near the laundry area, haha! Our laundry area is in the basement, but it’s not damp down there at all so things dry reasonably fast. we need to get a second rack soon though for cloth diapers.
I have the foldable racks set up on top of my washer and dryer. They’re tied to a shelf that goes over the area. I have to keep them out of the way since my husband HATES clutter and can’t stand seeing them set up.
The main tip I have is that you have to do laundry every day. It takes me a little over 24 hours to dry a load with the cold winter air in the house. If I do one a day, I can be set. But if I start to fall behind, it’s all over.
Good luck!
I live in CA so winter isnt a big problem here. But when I want to air dry my laundry I suspend a tension rod over the bathroom tub. Since we have two it helps with large loads.
Ooh you just increased my inside hanging area by a ton! Thanks for the idea.
We always air dry our clothes!
You can hang them up in the shower over night!
I have an Amish Dry rack… it is 4 ft wide and goes to about 6 ft high.. they have several different sizes.. It folds down to about 6 inches high, 4ft long and 2 ft wide… it works great… much better than the dryer racks you can purchase at a department store.. very sturdy and easy to open…
I also have an Amish-made wooden drying rack. It is very sturdy and cost about $60. It gets used year round. They come in a variety of different sizes.
where do you get those? local amish area?
I found mine at a small, locally-owned store that sold only handmade wooden items/furniture. Are there craft fairs/holiday bazaars where you live? That might be a place to look. They are available at a variety of places online, though shipping is expensive.
It would be pretty easy to make something similar with PVC pipe.
One of my metal racks is similar to this and is very sturdy: http://www.amazon.com/Honey-Can-Do-Commercial-41-5-Inch-Clothes-Drying/dp/B001F51A7G I don’t buy the inexpensive ones from big box stores because they aren’t sturdy enough and break easily.
I LOVE the amish drying racks…far superior to the store bought ones…I’ve had mine since I got married: 13 years ago, and it’s got lots of life left! They are well-built. Look at this link for them:
http://non-electric.lehmans.com/search#w=drying%20rack&asug=
I also use a round hanging drying rack with clothespins that the Amish make. I use this for socks and smalls. I found this blog that tells how to make them: http://endofordinary.blogspot.com/2010/06/how-to-build-hanging-dry-rack.html
I don’t even own a drier: living in a stone house we didnt’t have a way to vent it, and my husband was worried that venting it into the house was a fire hazard since it would be in the same room as the furnace. Also our woodstove is down there, so that dries our clothes up fast. In the summer or on nice days, I hang my clothes outside. I also have lines hanging in the basement laundry room. We had a drier in our first house, but I think we used it 3 times. Sometimes I pine for one, but I get by and know that I’m saving money. 🙂
if you have space to do this.. Wal-mart also sells a retractable cloths line one side of the room will ha ve the line and the other side will have a hook when ready you connect the 2 together and you have a cloths line
Use 1/2 cup of vinegar in your rinse cycle, this will help with the stiffness of your clothes.
We line dry clothes year round. Our dryer was second-hand, and is on it’s last “jerry-rigged” legs. when it goes, it’s gone, no more fixes. (and it’s got 70s colors…) Anyway…
When I do laundry, I space out the loads of heavy stuff (like jeans) that take longer to dry. (my basic schedule. darks on Monday, colors on Tuesday, whites on Wednesday, Darks again on Thursday, bedding on Friday). Spacing them out this way, I have time for the heavy stuff to actually get dry, without hogging drying-rack space. The biggest thing is patience. jeans take longer to dry in colder weather. 🙂 I have a couple of racks: one is quite sturdy, and the jeans sit on it, and one is thinner, so it takes most of the rest of the wash. It works rather well. We got into a routine of a load/two per day (however much room I have on the racks), and it works really well. (I’ve been doing this since our firstborn and earlier, and almost never need to use the dryer.) Dress clothes (shirts) go directly onto clothes hangers, and I hang those on the shower-curtain rod in the bathroom.
Besides heavy jeans, everything is generally dry in 24 hours or less.
hope this helps.
Wear easy-drying clothes as often as possible–especially if you have kids. Fleece dries so much more quickly than denim. Also, plan your laundry day according to the weather when possible–avoid the wettest days. Also, knits especially will stretch depending how you hang them. Don’t stretch them taught (is that how you spell that?) on the line, and switch up how you hand them, shoulders, seam, across chest…etc.
Our laundry is in the same room as our bathroom. What I like to do is wash a load of towels or tee shirts (something that dries easily) and hang those on hangers, then hung on the shower rod. I then wash a load of hard to dry items (jeans, sweatshirts). Those go in the dryer. Our bathroom gets pretty warm when I am drying laundry so while the jeans/sweats are drying in the dryer, the towels/tees dry a little faster hanging. I usually will keep them up overnight, just to make sure they are completely dry.
I knew someone that would hang their laundry outside long enough for everything to freeze, then brought it in to warm up and dry. The cold air took a good portion of moisture out of the clothes, but she didn’t have to run the dryer as long. I have never tried it myself though.
That’s a great idea to hang them up and put them on the shower curtain rod. I might steal that one too.
We have always hung our clothes to dry them keeps the clothes from shrinking. We have moved a few times so I have a ton of suggestions for you. For starters you will be using hangers….always. Then you get clever, I use the bathroom shower curtain rob, I have walk-in closets so I would clear one side of the closet in my daughters room and hang the clothes in the closet with the door open. I have a banister the goes up the stairs and down the hallway and it has poles about 2 inches apart I hang the clothes off the banister and overlooking the living room. We’ve also put a closet rob above the washer dryer in one of our homes and hung the clothes on it. Good luck I am sure you will find away creative way to dry your clothing inside. I do this all year round we live in Las Vegas and it is very dusty here we never hang clothes outside.
Word of warning to hanging clothes in the basement: I would not do it if you do not have a dehumidifier. We tried it to save money a few years ago and the extra moisture started mildew growing in and on things stored in the basement. We ended up throwing away many things that got ruined, so the energy saving was not worth it. Now that we have invested in the dehumidifier it has also added to our electric bill. Just be careful and know the area and usual weather conditions you are up against.
I just find empty spaces all over and hang… lol my special place since my laundry room was small.. I pulled shower curtain back n walla there was my drying bar/ rack lol just get extra hangers =)
We live in Wisconsin–We have unfinished furnace room in our basement that is nice and toasty. I just pounded a few nails in the ceiling beams and then place my clothes on hangers and hang up on the nails. I also use a laundry rack for my smaller items. I will say that I dry my towels in the dryer – I think it takes too long to air dry towels and sometimes they start to smell funny.
I use a drying rack year round for drying delicates and things that may shrink too much in the dryer.
I put racks in my furnace room… nice and toasty in there. they dry overnight
I line dry in-doors using two drying racks, and a couple of rigged poles, from which I hang things on hangers. I also hang things on hangers in closets (we have extra clothing closets). Have a dryer but prefer to not use it.
I’m glad you posted this question, this is something I’m looking into myself! I want to save money on our electric bill somehow! I’m still not sure I’m going to like having my clothes air-dried. I remember my mom did that sometimes when I was a kid, and my clothes were so hard and scratchy, I hated it. I would refuse to wear things that were air-dried. How do you prevent that?
And, another plus for the dryer-we fix our vent in the winter to recirculate some of the hot air to help heat the house, so we can use less of our (electric) heat.
I guess I’m still on the fence, a little skeptical… Hope I find a suggestion that I fall in love with, I’d love to be a more frugal, better example for my kiddos!
One way to fix the itcy cloths! throw in dryer for 2 seconds.. not even enough time to use energy 😉 and just after sec and your cloths feel nice n soft! =)
i drip dry just about all my clothes all year round(except for underwear, towels, sheets).. i hang it up on hangers approx 1 day til damp, then toss in dryer for about 15 min with a dryer towel.. same as drying in the dryer the whole time! i started doing this because kids tshirts have the rubbery designs on them which wear off if you dry them.. now my kids tshirts(with designs) last very long… jeans don’t need to be put in the dryer as long if you drip dry them also… several sporty things don’t even have to be put in the dryer.
another fix is to use some of the newer product…fabric softener that goes in the wash. (some detergents combine both.)
Another reason to air/line dry…all that lint in the dryer? that’s your clothes. all that bumping around (and hot air, etc) really is hard on the clothes, making them wear out much faster.
Try drying your clothes for 10 mins then hang them. This will take the stiffness out of them and you will get a little heat from the dryer.
I have an old crib that I had planned on re-purposing and when I started cloth diapering I wanted space to hang dry my diapers and inserts, so I decided to hang my crib side on the wall where it can fold up or down. (So it is out of the way since my laundry room is pretty narrow) … Before hanging it on the wall I just leaned it against the wall and hung them on it. It was just something I had to use, but I am sure you could turn all kinds of things into a drying rack for clothes… an old latter… towel rack…. or whatever else you might have around your house.
This is a brilliant idea! I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of that. I cloth diaper my son and had to find some way of drying his diapers inside during rain/snow. I made a collapsible rack out of PVC pipes that I place over the vent in my dining room.
I have been drying indoors on some small free standing racks, takes longer, but beyond that not a big deal, however before my dryer died I was using a vent on my electric dryer to heat the house, found the vent at Lowes, it’s another way to save on the electricity if you have electric heat
We installed a vent like that last year. The vent can be installed to switch between venting in or out of the house depending on the season. It helped to boost the humidity in the basement, plus the heat generated by the dryer stayed in the house. We keep our house fairly cool in the winter to save on heating, so running the dryer doesn’t add too much expense- hanging it would take forever as cold as we keep the house!
We air dry nearly everything year round. Underwear and towels are about the only things dried, and now diapers. We have several drying racks we use. If we run out of space we use the bathroom rod or chairs. It takes a few days, but really saves clothes from shrinking and extra wear and tear. I fluff for 10-20 minutes before hanging depending on load and sometimes fluff after drying as well.
I second Amie’s hangers idea. We have a chin-up bar in the door to the laundry room. When I do the laundry, I bring all the empty hangers down to the laundry room, and then just hang everything up wet. By the morning (we live in MA), the laundry is dry – and already hung up!
We do run a dehumidifier though as our laundry room is in a furnished basement which otherwise gets very damp, clothes or otherwise.
i generally hang all of my clothes inside all year, in our unfinished basement with a dehumidifier. i have about 50 feet of clothes line hanging from the floor joists and a stand alone drying rack. i use regular hangers, too, for tshirts. those i hang on the big i-beam that stretches from one end of the house to the other. sometimes, you have to come up with unique places to hang things! the tip of the hanger will also hang on the top of a door frame of any regular door. you could also use the shower curtain rod, or buy an extra to put on a door frame or between the walls in a hall.
we are definitely going through more liquid fabric softener, but i’m getting that cheaper than the cost to run the dryer!
don’t forget to unplug the dryer when you aren’t running it, it draws a lot of electricity just to have it plugged in!
I buy a gallon of fabric softner and put half the gallon in another jug and add vinegar to the first half. (vinegar is a natural softner) and it cuts my softner bill down and I still have soft and nice smelling clothes.
What’s the ratio of vinegar to the fabric softener?
Adding the vinegar to the wash will also keep the clothes from freezing so you can hang outside if it’s not raining.
I use only vinegar in the rinse cycle dispensor. About 1/3-1/2 cup depending on the load size. My clothes are not stiff at all. It’s a good choice if anyone in the family suffers from allergies or asthma.
White vinegar?
I never thought about the dryer drawing electricity when not in use! Thanks for the tip!
My mom always dried out clothes on lines in the basement when I was younger. We had a fireplace that ran most of the time down there when I was growing up so it was always warm enough.
I admit I use my dryer too much during the winter. However, I do have a metal clothes rack I use for certain things. I honestly don’t notice too much of a difference in indoor drying times from season to season. Maybe a bit longer. If it’s a sunny day, I will put the rack by the window. If it’s raining, I’ll put it in my walk in closet. If you don’t have a metal or wood rack and live near an ikea, they have great prices on them. Mine was 7 dollars.
I always have clothing that I don’t dry no matter what the season or weather. I use clothes bars up in our bedroom. to hang things. I have also used hangers and hang things such as hubby’s dress shirts or diapers on the shower rod in the bathroom. If you have a basement you could always hang a line down there too.
We really like our Eagle drying rack. I set it up in any corner of the house. Here’s a link if you’d like to see one. http://www.clothes-drying-rack.com/65foot-eag65.html. I don’t think it holds 3-4 loads like they claim, but you can hang a lot of wash on it. It also fits in the bathtub.
For shirts and dresses and dress pants, after a couple minutes in the dryer to get out a few wrinkles, I put them on hangers and hang them in doorways or in the door to our extra shower.
One benefit of drying wash inside in the winter is that the wet clothes put humidity in the very dry air.
I really like that. Thanks for posting that link!
In New England, our basement is damp in the summer (so we run a dehumidifier and line-dry outside), but in the winter (ESPECIALLY with the wood stove running) that basement is dry, dry, dry!
I have a retractable indoor clothes line + 2 drying racks, and that works for *MOST* of our laundry (6 people + 1 dog). I do still use the dryer occasionally.
We use a folding drying rack inside… sometimes right in the living room, but more often in the bathroom. Ours happens to fit right in the bathtub. I toss mine in the dryer when they are completely dry to get the “crunchy” out. Because the dryer has a sensor it only runs a few minutes and the wrinkles fall right out.
We all have hangers that fit over the door and hold about 6 clothes hangers on them. So when I do the laundry, I put clothes on a clothes hanger, then hang it from whoevers door it belongs to. This way, the clothes can go right into our closets. It cuts down on the electric bill and is much easier on clothes, too!
I like this idea! Might use it myself.
I live in New England, and the winter air is very dry. So, I have an extra large drying rack that I set up in the living room. Clothes dry over night and help to keep the air somewhat moist. The only thing I don’t air dry are my husband’s jeans (he says he hates the way they feel), and my kids clothes (imagine a thousand tiny socks everywhere!).
For the kids socks, take an adult hanger and clothes pins and hang them 4 to a hanger then they are ready to match when dry. Also hang from shower rod at night when shower not in use and by morning or even when you get home from work they are dry and ready to put away.
That’s a great idea for socks! I end up using the dryer instead of hanging for quite a few loads just because I don’t know what to do with the little items. Will have to try this – thanks for the tip Angelina!
I do! I have two wooden racks and a clothesline in the basement that I use. For shirts I just hang them on hangers and let them air dry. For jeans though, I like to give them a spin in the dryer before I lay them out or after I lay them out to get the crispness out. Good luck!
Since we live in an apartment, I dry my laundry inside year-round. I use a drying rack for some things; others (dress pants/button up shirts) I put on hangers and hang from the curtain rod in our guest bathroom. In fact, we don’t use our guest shower often, so I set up the drying rack in the tub where I can easily pull the curtain to hide it from company 🙂
My mom did the same thing when I was younger; often, she would put the drying rack over a floor vent to help circulate air and dry faster. Some things like jeans can take a little longer to dry, but it uses less electricity, prevents your clothes from shrinking, and helps them to stay nicer longer!
I also use the shower curtain rod to hang clothing. I put the shirts on hangers and space them about an inch apart when there are many shirts drying.
I use the rod too! I also have a drying rack sitting over a vent right now drying some clothes! I do use the dryer when I do laundry, but I always try and air dry at least one load. We have a family of 6, so there is lots of laundry to be done!
I have a hanging bar in my laundry room that I will use hangers on, spacing the clothes about an inch apart. Also, I’ve used a drying rack in front of the fireplace. We’ve also strung up clothesline downstairs sometimes. The kids really like to play by it.
Here in the soggy south, we hang some things to dry a bit, winter or summer, same place…usually on a bar installed above my washer and dryer. I generally dry them a few minutes first however…excess moisture is already a problem here. Now were I still in the Northwest…the excess moisture would be welcome for most locations, and the dryer would not be used at all.
Elizabeth in NC
My sister lives in England and they hang dry their clothes year round. Although when it is raining, that just means they hang them in the house.
My mom had clothes lines hanging in her crawlspace and she hung the laundry up there in the winter. I hang up some laundry in my basement in the winter, but not all of it.
I have 4 or 5 clothes lines in my laundry room which works great in the winter because the laundry room gets very warm and the air is very dry from our boiler heating things up.
Like Christine I also have clothes lines in my laundry room I wash and hang all of my dress clothes all year long. My laurdry room also holds my house heater so it is toasted warm in the winter.
Idea if you can not hang clothes lines and leave them up–check out the lines that roll out and when you are done they roll back up. I got mine at an RV store.
Just put it on a drying rack in a dry part of the house (typically not the basement) and it will dry out just fine. You can also use the dryer for 10 minutes to “soften” the clothes up a bit before putting them on the rack.