A rant about drying clothes
Corrupting local youth?
Did you know that in America, in some areas (or so I am given to understand) there is legislation against drying clothes outside? Did you ever hear anything so bonkers? I suppose the possibility of seeing Mrs Next Door’s knickers was considered to be a corrupting influence on the local youth.
As a result of this attitude, millions of tumble dryers churn round and round, using up energy, when the clothes could be dried for free and with no harm to the environment on a line outside. (Indeed drying washing on a line is apparently so rare that hotels charge extra for ‘line dried linen’).
Here in England we are not so bad, and most women like the sight of a line of washing drying in the sunshine. The trouble is, we don’t get an awful lot of sunshine. So lots of our washing also goes round and round in the tumble dryer, racking up electricty bills and costing the environment.
Much cheaper than a tumble dryer
There is an answer to this of course. Hang it up to dry inside. There are three of us in our family, and I have the washing machine going most days (I am not so envirnomentally friendly that I wash it by hand). Most washing is dried by hanging it on a folding rack, which you can buy for under £20 from Argos. They call it an indoor airer. Shirts are dried by hanging them on a clothes hanger on the picture rail (although one of those racks fastened from the ceiling would be better).
Personally I have never seen the point of a tumble dryer, when clothes will dry within a day or two if left hanging up. It just needs a bit or organisation, and a place to hang it. I put ours in the bedroom, near the radiator. But you can put it anywhere, preferably where there is a heater. Shops like Lakeland and those mail order catalogues you get in the Radio Times, have loads of ingenious devices you can use.
Try it. And please, get rid of the tumble dryer.
I also like to save energy and money by drying washing in the garden. When too wet or cold I have 5 airers to use in a very large room. The drawback is that this room is not heated (saving again!) and I suppose the washing takes a while to dry so we have mould on the furniture, a damp atmosphere and sometimes a musty smell to the washing. Not very nice!
I think it has to be done in a heated room, otherwise it will take forever to dry. And as you say, cause other problems. I put our rack in the bedroom, which is out of the way, and as it is heated, dries fairly quickly. Plus it is handy to put away afterwards.
Since moving into our new house we’ve been using a basic washing rack. Takes a while but it works.
We do have a tumble drier for emergencies, but we generally hang our clothes on airers. It does take a bit of organization though as we live in a one bedroom appartment it can feel like we are living in a laundry at times.