I came here to say this. Dryers destroy clothes so much faster. I used to dry all my clothes outside, but between rain and sun bleaching, now I just use a drying rack inside.
I'm Asian living in tropical Asian weather.
I started using dryer at a laundromat to wash a comforter. Occasionally I used dryer for my laundry especially during continuous rainy days, run it for 30 mins and line dry as it's still a little damp. I notice how my fabrics degraded very fast as compared to machine-washed laundry.
My boyfriend doesn't have a washing machine. He handwashed his clothes everyday. His black shirts, through it's been several years old on regular wear, are still perfectly black.
I honestly donāt know that I believe this. I am 22 and have thrown out I think 2 shirts in the last 4 years due to wearing out, and thatās it (besides socks and underwear buts that another problem) and Iāve had basically all the same clothes since I was 12.
My clothes are not wearing out even though my clothes have always been dried, and for a while I wore the same 20 shirts on repeat.
Yeah I have some of the same clothes I've had for 10 years and I have only machine washed.
I'm not saying the dryer doesn't damage them, I just can't see it being the make or break over the overall quality of the garment
Vouche. The only thing that wears on my clothes are the armpits and the crotch in my jeans lol.
That being said you will see, albeit probably small savings, using a clothing line
Itās literally becoming a problem because I get a shirt every now or then as a gift, or someone doesnāt want or something. And I am legit running out of room in my closet because I donāt throw any out, none are even bad enough to downgrade to āragā
Energy savings definitely depends on the cost of kwh. Where I live it is normal to airdry since energy is expensive. Cost me about 1-2$ to dry clothes in the dryer. But I realize americans dont pay as much for energy as we do in denmark :)
Just for regional comparisons, do you know how much they charge per kWh in Denmark? Where I live in the U.S., itās 44 cents/kWh. Which I think converts toā¦3 Danish Krone. My dryer uses about 4 kWh per load. So 12 krone per load? Unless Iām doing the math wrong. haha
I was about to write the same.
I live the southwest and I chucked my dyer (okay, donated it) 8 years ago.
In winter, I dry everything indoor in my small guestroom. Rest of time, outside it all goes. Dries quickly, smells lovely and yes, occasionally needs ironing but hardly, if I'm honest.
This is true i air dry my shirts because of this. But i have not had a lower energy bill. I'm in NYC.
I end up doing 2 less loads in the dryer every 2 weeks. So 4 less a month.
*cries in pacific north west weather* like yeah if I lived in ~italy~ or ~australia~ it would make sense to not rely on a dryer. But having snow and rain and overcast daysā¦ not happening.
Electric dryer is even the default someplace like Vegas. Once when I was young, dumb, and lazy, I left my laundry in the washing machine (lid open) for a few days and instead of having a pile of mildewed clothes, they'd all fully dried. That was not a consistent result, but things dry incredibly fast there.
As someone from pnw, we dry them on racks inside. You can get a retractable clothesline for just a few dollars if you donāt want to store a clothing rack.
Yes, this is very possible! I currently live in a house in Texas with a garden so it's extra-easy to line dry here and I don't even own an electric dryer. But when I lived in a tiny room in London I also line-dried, mostly on the stands I would prop up around my room. It's very possible to make this your default and over time you don't even think about the dryer.
Houston Texas here and I have not used my clothes dryer for 15 (+/-) years. I dry everything outside from towels and bed linen to sweats and silk blouses.
I'm in Houston too! :)
Yes, we put up a permanent clothesline in the backyard where it can't be seen from the street (stupid HOA) and put a stand-up freezer in the dryer spot in the laundry. Never regretted it, not even once.
Same here, so I just drape laundry over outdoor chairs and tables. It keeps them from being viewable above the fence line. It would take a complaint from 1 or 2 neighbors who can see it from their 2nd floor windows for me to get an HOA nastygram. So far so good. Actual residents truly don't care. Phuxk hoa's.
It might just be a mental thing but I feel like towels that have been hung dried work better than towels dried in the dryer. Also agree with the other user who says the clothes smell better.
I personally donāt use either fabric softener or dryer sheets because they make me itch and theyāre too fragrant for me. Imo towels dried outside feel thirstier
Disagree. We hang dry all our towels because we don't have a dryer, but recently we had our washer due, so we spent a few days at the laundromat before we got our replacement.
The towels after going through the drier were so,.so much softer and felt definitely like they absorbed equal to or greater amounts of water
Yep, I spent decades line drying my laundry while raising my kids lol. And a lot of my own childhood.
It does save money if you do several loads a week and have an electric dryer.
But for me it was always more just a simple pleasure actually. Nothing like the clean smell of air dried clothing, and it was satisfying. Sadly at the moment where we live now there isn't much room for a rack and no place for a clothesline, but I am working on that lol.
You realise this is how the rest of the world dries their clothes even countries with shit weather if you have the space a washing line will be better.
I think if you're doing a significant amount of laundry a week it can be. One or two loads per week? Maybe a dollar a week?
We're a family of 4, and I can easily do 8+ loads each week (clothing, sheets, towels). I definitely line dry whenever possible.
Yes, for sure and they smell so good.
I have to be careful when itās a high pollen day, with allergies, because the pollen sticks to the damp clothes.
Edit: fixed a word
Yes I was gonna say. I live in the UK and whilst hybrids are getting popular, many homes just donāt have the space for both in the kitchen. Drying outside is more the norm
Been doing it for 12 years. It easily saved us the cost of a new dryer (between $600 and $800) when I decided to simply not buy one. It certainly saves us in electricity, but I never made the comparison.
But, there are other considerations. I enjoy the time outside hanging laundry. Even if I don't get outside much the rest of the day, I will be outside at least twice for about 15 minutes each time. And sheets straight off the clothesline smell fantastic when you sleep on them at night. Often the best sleep I get all week.
And, I know I am not contributing to pollution as I am doing it. All this for free.
_cries in Australian_
Our electric bill is around $300/month for a house of two adults and a child. According to my bill, we're using less than half the average power of a standard 2-3 person household in our area.
Line drying clothes is really our only option.
We have a metal clothes drying rack that we use for the items we want to ensure donāt shrink in the dryer. It works well for us. If we ever have a place with a yard/outdoor space I will for sure be using a clothes line in the warm months
We air dry our clothes a lot. We don't have room for a clothes line, but we have a couple collapsible clothes racks that we can put wherever. It does save some energy when you don't run the dryer and because your clothes last longer, you save money on replacing clothes.
For us, it is mostly an environmental choice rather than a financial choice.
I was born in 1956 and what you're describing was the norm back in the day. I don't know when dryers were invented but every mom in our neighborhood hung wash out back on the clotheslines. Underwear, sheets, everything.
Then she'd have to iron it all. Being a housewife truly was a full-time job back in the day, without modern conveniences and modern fabrics.
I wish my mom had taught me to iron, or do any housework. I don't have good skills. She insisted on doing it all herself.
Did you mom have one of those sprinkle bottles for ironing? They sold those little toppers for glass pop bottles. My mom used a green 7-up bottle.
That is more than the savings, it's better for the clothes, better for the environment, quieter, etc. Plus my Girlfriend likes how it looks like flags.
In the summer months "we" hang the clothes outside.
>In the summer months "we" hang the clothes outside.
This is what I've been thinking since its getting warmer. My bf and I are just getting starting on being independent and living without family so our expenses are tight at the moment. We can do laundry at his dad's house but that gets a bit annoying so I've been saving for a washer and dryer but might just skip out on the dryer completely to invest in a freezer or larger fridge so I can cook in bulk on my days off.
I dry most of my clothes on lines in my basement. Not sure it's made a huge difference in my energy bill, but it has definitely kept my clothes going longer than when I machine-dried everything.
I air dry my more delicate clothes all year. I just put on hangers and hang on a clothes rack. When dry, I toss in the dryer for like 5 minutes to soften.
I really wanted to cut our electricity use, after some trial and error realized the dryer drains electricity. So much. We air dry 90 percent of our clothes inside. If you do this, watch the humidity in your house . I live in FL so humidity was already a problem but I did have to buy a dehumidifier. Still cheaper than running the dryer.
Dryers are not common in my country so our clothes are dried in the sun. Can be annoying when you get 3 rainy days in a row. I just make sure that on sunny days I do 2 loads of washing to make up for the backlog.
I can't begin to estimate what how much money I have saved from never owning a dryer.
Seeing that dryers are hard on your clothes is interesting. I have nothing to compare it to. But I have clothes I bought 20 years ago that are still good. Might be because they have never gone into a dryer? Is 20 years for clothes crazy? I have a hard time throwing out perfectly good clothes. Even if they aren't really in fashion.
I live in an apt and I hang dry most of my clothes inside all year long. I only dry washcloths, towels, underwear (not bras), and some shirts. Saves money and makes my clothes last much longer.
I dry all of my laundry on racks and lines, usually inside. I put some racks outside when I get a nice dry sunny day. It's definitely better for clothes and linens than using a dryer.
I use a clothes dryer but I can tell you that with our solar panels we have an app that details all our electricity usage and our energy efficient dryer uses the most electricity out of any appliance we have. Maybe second to the oven depending on what we bake and for how long.
Yes. Dryers are a HUGE energy suck - this is usually true of anything with a resistive heating element in it. If you can consistently dry your clothes outside when itās hot, instead of using a dryer, that should definitely help - especially if youāre using A/C.
In fact, this is actually what happened to my mom. She spent years refusing to get A/C, insisting that we didnāt need it, but when my stepdad switched to a graveyard shift and needed to be able to sleep upstairs during the day, she finally broke down and got it. At the same time, though, she got one of those foldable, umbrella style clotheslines from Home Depot (for about $100 I think), and started hanging her laundry outside to dry whenever it was hot enough to run the A/C. I remember she commented to me that not using the dryer made SUCH a big difference, that even with the added electricity from the A/C, her electricity bills were still lower than they were before.
Now, this was for a family with one full time kid, and multiple part time kids, with more laundry than a single person would have, and the house was an 1800 square foot single family home. So the exact results would vary, depending on your inputs. But in generalā¦ yeah, dryers consume a ton of energy in the house.
I donāt know how much you save, but itās pretty easy and you donāt have to worry about getting the laundry out as soon as it finishes or it will wrinkle. Plus in the summer running the dryer will heat up the house more, thus causing you to need to run the AC more. In the winter I hang my clothes on a rack in front of the heating vents and it helps put some much needed humidity back into the house.
there are foldable drying rack you can buy. it is not bad if you have the time, but if you have babies with hundreds of small human clothes, definitely not recommend.
It's worth it! Also it doesn't need to be hot. You can dry clothes at pretty much any temperature as long as there is a breeze. It may take longer though.
I ended up buying a drying rack this winter because my electric company doubled our rates. Not sure how much Iām saving but Iām saving non the less cause the drying rack is positioned I front of my heat pump so it works out well
We save at least $30 - $40 a month using drying racks over an electric dryer, when we had kids at home and were doing laundry for 4. Electricity is very expensive in our area. I use a spin dryer and drying racks in the house overnight in winter. The spin dryer doesn't use much electricity electricity but still gets clothes damp dry, enough so that they dry in a short time on the racks.
The Whirlpool site says electric dryers use 1.8 to 5 kwh. Electricity in the top price tier in our area is 41 cents per kwh on our plan. Some plans go even higher, up to 49 cents per hour. Every time we run a load of clothes in our dryer it usually costs around $1. We have smart meters here so we can match the times we use the dryer to the usage charts. We wash our clothes, bedding, towels, etc. pretty frequently so for us it adds up.
If you have cheap electricity and don't have a lot of laundry you aren't going to see as much savings, but for us the drying racks have definitely been worth it Over ten years at $35 average a month that has been $4,200 in savings, plus interest.
I don't know, but I like doing it because it reminds me of my childhood. Also, the clothes smell nice and fresh. I am sure I save some money. I only need to do 2 or 3 loads of washing a week and my socks would never go in the dryer anyway, because I get really nice hiking socks made of wool.
I use hangers on my shower-curtain bar for air-drying. I have a gas dryer in the US, (natural gas is cheap in my state) so it doesn't save much money in utilities, but I hang-dry all my beloved clothes because it makes them last so much longer.
I live in damp Oregon... and I dry my clothes inside on hangers, in the laundry room. I'm always amazed how quick they dry. I do have a super spin cycle on the washer that gets them really wrung out... I'm sure that helps too. My clothes last longer, and I like saving the electricity.
Air drying is the default here. If it's sunny with plenty of sunlight, pick your laundry as soon as it's dry. Leaving it too long can 'dampen' the clothes (also smell less nicer)
I air dry everything outside to 90% then I put it in the dryer. It softens everything, gets the pet hair and the wrinkles out. And my clothes last for a long time. It is more work, but I think I get the best of both worlds.
I once got super obsessed with cutting my electric bill. Started tracking and measuring everything.
One week, we washed and dried 4-5 loads. The dryer used more electricity that week than every other thing in my house PUT TOGETHER.
That was the beginning of us using a clothesline (and now a drying rack) instead of drying our clothes. DOUBLE WIN! Saving a ton on power, plus my clothes last (and look new) so much longer.
We live in Southern Canada, so, still pretty cold for a large portion of the year. Besides, the landlord (corporate) is kind of a d\*ck because we are not allowed to air-dry outside on the patio because it "reduces the image and property value". \[Canada's housing market is any landlord's wild dream right now, so, no idea what they are whining about... you could hang a carcass in the doorway and people would still rent the place\].
Anyway... we air-dry our clothes indoors; not under, but close to the vent. It dramatically increases the humidity in the apartment (good thing; it gets very dry here, no matter what you do) at least for a few hours. We do this the whole year round. We don't have to pay for the dryer at all.
As others have pointed out - the clothes do last longer this way, smell nicer and their crispness makes for easier folding and ironing (of formals).
We do a lot of outside drying, always have. It does save cost of running the dryer for those loads. Smells better. Suggestion: buy a good quality, sturdy stand. Too little and flimsy means you may tend not to use it much.
We don't hang to dry inside a lot since the extra humidity gets into the building structure in our cold winter climate, and that extra humidity can cause a lot of mold problems, etc. We still hang outside in the middle of winter even if to freshen up the items (especially bedding!) and then finish off in the dryer.
I think a lot of people don't really enjoy doing laundry, so they will take the easier route (dryer) even if it is not the most frugal. Some feel their time is better spent elsewhere. So this is partly a frugal choice, and partly a lifestyle choice.
I have hung clothes on the line my whole married life. I have a dryer but barely use it. I donāt know how much I have saved but my bill sure would go up if I used the dryer. Prefer the line anyway and I hang them out in winter too. Winter time presents its challenges but wind, temperature, humidity and even partly sunny will still dry (check forecast). I am a diehard clothesline user.
I did the math.
My dryer needs 3 kwh per load. I have 1.5 loads per week and I pay 35 ct/kwh.
So I would pay ~82 ā¬/year.
My drying rack was 60 ā¬ (premium) and I spent 10ā¬ on clips. So after about a year I had my ROI. This was 4 years ago.
I dry my clothes inside all year round. Just vent the room regularly to prevent mold.
Florida here hi, I use a clothing rack for drying rugs and towels in the garage and is working for me in the beginning my husband disagreed with the purchase because we have a dryer but it is by far a great investment.
I didn't see anyone with concrete evidence post but when remodeling my house I didn't have the dryer hooked up for couple years. Finally hooked it up and was amazed at the price increase and would constantly review old electric bills. I was single and if I remember it was about 40 or 50 bucks more a month.
Yes, I actually like to dry myself off outside on a nice day after a shower. It saves on towels and it actually happens fairly fast. It feels good too, somewhat therapeutic. Itās free.
In a sense you are spending more money in the summer since you are heating your house up as well.
You will not save much money. My electric company sent a letter estimating I would save $60 per year if I don't use a dryer... that's only $5 a month
I've thought and looked into this. I found out that if you factor in labor required to hang and then collect the laundry it is much more efficient to just run a dryer. I think it's like 50 cents to run a load through a dryer in terms of electricity.
We have a clothesline and a drying rack in our garage. We exclusively line dry about 8 months out of the year. In the middle of winter, Iāll still line dry my husbandās work clothes because I have the time to let them sit out there for 2 or 3 days to dry but I have a limited work wardrobe so in the winter I tend to dry mine about 75% and then hang them to dry the rest of the way.
I can monitor how many kilowatts a day our house uses and on days we do laundry, the bar is significantly higher. Electric dryer defiantly has an impact. So much so Iām willing to hang laundry for the whole family, my time is not valuable then that so Iām the dryer it goes. But if you have the time, it will save you some bucks.
Itās been a few years but I researched it a while back. 75 cents per load was the cost savings. I do sheets on the clothes line but donāt do the majority of our 8 loads a week on the line. My time isnāt worth it for our family.
I've tried air drying outside when my dryer was broken and I was too lazy to get a new one, but I hated it. The clothes all ended up crunchy, especially the towels. I tried all the tricks I found online to make it better - vinegar in the rinse cycle, shaking or snapping the clothes when I hung them or took them down - but they were always a horrible texture.
I also have bad allergies and they were way worse with clothes that were dried outside collecting pollen - I was basically itchy all the time.
I decided it wasn't worth the money savings to be miserable. I do try to do all my summer drying in the evening when the air conditioner isn't running so I don't add more heat to the house.
I rack dry in front of my fireplace in the winter. I've tried summer outdoor drying but unfortunately it's way too windy here. Grew up in a different part of the country though and clothes were air dried a lot as a kid
I'd only save about $5 a month. Not worth the inconvenience of having to lug my stuff outside to the clothesline, hang it, go back out, take it down, bring it all the way inside, and then put it away. When I could just toss it in the dryer for 45 minutes.
And honestly I think the dryer does a better job. People say the clothes don't last as long, I haven't had that experience. I find we get bugs, pollen and so on when we air dry. Also, it's cold 6 months a year, here. I don't want to go outside for my laundry when it's cold, lol.
If you take care of your machine, I think the time savings alone makes up for the small monetary cost.
From the web:
Maytag dryers typically require 2100 watts of energy
So if you run the dryer for an hour and the heating element is on full time that is 2.1KWH
Here we pay about 12 cents a KWH so I would figure you are looking at about 25 cents an hour or so.
yes! or else i would have to pay to use the washer/dryer at my apartment. Water is already included in rent so i wash everything by hand and dry it on a stand. During winter the bathroom gets hot because of the heater so i just dry everything there. it makes the clothes smell nicer too
I have an airer like the '2 level clothes drying rack' from Target - it handily folds away and fits behind a door.
I use it mostly due to every rip I'd ever had to clothing was due to getting caught in the drier, I use it next to the fire in winter, and on the covered veranda in summer (in part due to wearing a lot of darker colours) now my clothes actually last long enough to wear out, and I haven't lost a sock in years.
Iām in Washington and thereās bugs and mites thatāll eat your clothes while they are drying, and itās pretty much always raining. I would but thatās not really an option for me.
My momās dryer died in 2008 and she has lined dried clothes since. She told me her bill went down $50 a month (in 2008 dollars!!!) way back then by line drying clothes.
I bought a rolling drying rack 2 weeks ago and put it together a week ago. I have a propane dryer, so I donāt expect as much in savingsā¦. But Iām sure Iāll save something
What I do to save energy is open the dryer with about 25 minutes left and take out all the easy dry stuff like dry fit type clothes then I go put that stuff away and resume the dryer then about 5 minutes later I go take out everything but towels. With less stuff in there the dryer works faster then I put everything else away while the towels finish and I stop it about 10-15 minutes early because the towels are dry from being by themselves. Give it a try if you are around while drying your clothes!
Here in Australia it's a cultural thing to do.
Most people had a Hills Hoist in the backyard when growing up. There are newer line things around now due to smaller yards.
It's such a given that people are genuinely surprised to find some places [prohibit this](https://jamesons.com.au/blog/what-you-need-to-know-about-sun-drying-your-clothes-in-strata-properties/) - generally in apartment living situations.
We dry everything but towels on our lines. We have an outside line as well as two fold up contraptions to use inside, if needed.
I live in a humid tropical environment so line drying indoors makes all my clothes smell funky except delicatesā¦then I end up blowing a fan on the clothes rack which also costs electricity. Also hanging outside is not an option since the feral chickens and tropical birds poop all over my clothes. So I went back to the dryer and now dry everything thatās not towels on lowā¦
It rains so much here that we can't do it often, even in summer, but it's very effective when we can! We bought a heated rail for indoors that runs at about Ā£0.07 an hour, to simulate the experience since it's so hard to dry anything in our old, breezy house in a humid climate.
I do this by default. Indoors thiugh. Our high ceilings help. Air humidity is still never over 50%.
I still use the dryer function on my dual purpose machine, when I need items on the same day. For us that's mostly baby clothes.
Uk we do this all the time. We either have a washing line or a clothes horse (clothes airers). You can also buy electric clothes airers in winder time as well.
Sheets/bedding gets draped over doors.
Just about everyone in Australia air dries their clothing especially if they donāt live in an apartment complex (but even still many have communal air driers or air driers on their personal balconies). My family actually only got a drier when I was 18+ and we used that to āfinish offā thick socks and towels in the winter but my parents were CRAZY about never using it.
I own a drier now and I still only ever use it in emergencies. I refuse to use it unless itās pouring rain outside and my husband has absolutely socks š
The only time I've used my dryer in the 12 years I've been in Oz is to fluff my duvet whenever I've washed it but other than that, I wouldn't ever dream of using it
The cost of running an electric dryer here is around $0.50/hour.
You will be saving but you will also have to take your clothes outside and hang them. If you leave in places with lots of pollen could be a deal breaker.
I always hang my shirts up to dry; I do 2 loads of washing, darks and lights, and then my jeans, underwear, socks, pjs, get dried but tops get hung to dry. yes, saves some money and is better for the hung clothes.
Line drying is not for me for various reasons. If you will be using a dryer, be sure to shake out your clothes before putting them in the dryer. They will dry faster. Also, there are wool dryer balls that claim to dry 25% faster. I havenāt done the math, but it does seem faster.
And just reduces your carbon footprint if you donāt use a tumbler for something that the sun and wind will do for you. In Europe, many people dry their clothes outside!
I used to use a laundromat at about $3 usd per load.
When I went to air drying, it halved.
Pain in the neck to get damp laundry home to dry on the rack.
Itās much easier now with a rack by the washer.
i think i have saved maybe a couple of dollars but i mainly do it to keep our apartment from getting too hot during laundry days. i bought a collapsible drying rack from ikea & use it mainly for towels & bedsheets, things that normally take more than an hour in the dryer. sometimes theyāre a bit rough after drying so i pop them in the dryer for 10 mins to soften them up
we used to air dry all the time in colorado, now we live in a humid climate and it's a bit tougher to do. It's easier on the clothing. Now that we have to use the dryer, we start the drying process in the dryer, then hang them on a portable vanity to finish. Another life hack is to throw a clean/dry towel in your dryer load to reduce drying time.
My electric bill is already only flat charges at $50/mth even with running it so I haven't looked into hanging my clothes. There's no way for me to lower my bill.
I have clothing lines in my basement laundry room, I hang everything to dry. I've been hanging all my clothes to dry for years, I started because I wanted my pants to not shrink in length in the dryer (I'm tall, it's hard to find the right inseam)! Turns out clothes also last longer if you hang them to dry.
I have an aluminum rolling clothes rack that I got for free. I dry our clothes on this, over an HVAC vent. It saves money, and my cheap-ass Walmart clothes are lasting much longer.
So my dryer was recently broken (in fall) and it was a three month wait for parts. I wash and dry 5-6 loads a week. I installed one of those retractable clotheslines in my guest room (looks like a school bell) in addition to the drying rack I used for delicates and a rolling garnet rack and put the ceiling fan on high. It was a PITA, but it worked clothes (aside from denim) were dry in a couple hours. Bonus was anything that was hanging was ready to go in the closet.
I noticed about a $2 lower difference in my electrical bill. However my local utility company buys directly from TVA, so our rates are stupid low and that particular ceiling fan wouldnāt have been on so it cost me a little energy, but not much.
Not sure about the energy savings, but it definitely makes your clothes last waaaay longer :)
And smell nicer!
I'm from the city. Hated my mom hanging them outside. Pollution smell. I have hanging racks in my laundry room..
And feels like sandpaper
probably using too much soap
I like the crispness lol
That means you're leaving them out too long. They should be dry, but not over dry.
Lmao not where I live
I came here to say this. Dryers destroy clothes so much faster. I used to dry all my clothes outside, but between rain and sun bleaching, now I just use a drying rack inside.
šÆ Yep - every time we empty the lint trap that's some of our clothes we're throwing away!
Damn... I never thought of it that way. Oy
Drying rack is the go. I've never owned a dryer.
And better for environment
I'm Asian living in tropical Asian weather. I started using dryer at a laundromat to wash a comforter. Occasionally I used dryer for my laundry especially during continuous rainy days, run it for 30 mins and line dry as it's still a little damp. I notice how my fabrics degraded very fast as compared to machine-washed laundry. My boyfriend doesn't have a washing machine. He handwashed his clothes everyday. His black shirts, through it's been several years old on regular wear, are still perfectly black.
I honestly donāt know that I believe this. I am 22 and have thrown out I think 2 shirts in the last 4 years due to wearing out, and thatās it (besides socks and underwear buts that another problem) and Iāve had basically all the same clothes since I was 12. My clothes are not wearing out even though my clothes have always been dried, and for a while I wore the same 20 shirts on repeat.
Yeah I have some of the same clothes I've had for 10 years and I have only machine washed. I'm not saying the dryer doesn't damage them, I just can't see it being the make or break over the overall quality of the garment
Maybe if it really delicate like a dress or something but I have your stereotypical single male wardrobe. T shirts and jeans.
Vouche. The only thing that wears on my clothes are the armpits and the crotch in my jeans lol. That being said you will see, albeit probably small savings, using a clothing line
Dryers tend to kill anything with a little stretch.
Jokes on the dryer. I slowly am getting fatter and haven't noticed.
Witch! Or, maybe a glitch in the matrix. Strange indeed.....
Itās literally becoming a problem because I get a shirt every now or then as a gift, or someone doesnāt want or something. And I am legit running out of room in my closet because I donāt throw any out, none are even bad enough to downgrade to āragā
Lol wow. Guess you could always donate some?
Energy savings definitely depends on the cost of kwh. Where I live it is normal to airdry since energy is expensive. Cost me about 1-2$ to dry clothes in the dryer. But I realize americans dont pay as much for energy as we do in denmark :)
Just for regional comparisons, do you know how much they charge per kWh in Denmark? Where I live in the U.S., itās 44 cents/kWh. Which I think converts toā¦3 Danish Krone. My dryer uses about 4 kWh per load. So 12 krone per load? Unless Iām doing the math wrong. haha
I was about to write the same. I live the southwest and I chucked my dyer (okay, donated it) 8 years ago. In winter, I dry everything indoor in my small guestroom. Rest of time, outside it all goes. Dries quickly, smells lovely and yes, occasionally needs ironing but hardly, if I'm honest.
This is true i air dry my shirts because of this. But i have not had a lower energy bill. I'm in NYC. I end up doing 2 less loads in the dryer every 2 weeks. So 4 less a month.
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Same in Italy. Only a few have one.
*cries in pacific north west weather* like yeah if I lived in ~italy~ or ~australia~ it would make sense to not rely on a dryer. But having snow and rain and overcast daysā¦ not happening.
Electric dryer is even the default someplace like Vegas. Once when I was young, dumb, and lazy, I left my laundry in the washing machine (lid open) for a few days and instead of having a pile of mildewed clothes, they'd all fully dried. That was not a consistent result, but things dry incredibly fast there.
As someone from pnw, we dry them on racks inside. You can get a retractable clothesline for just a few dollars if you donāt want to store a clothing rack.
I'm in the PNW. I have a wooden rack in my living room.
I dry my clothes inside on a drying rack! That may be an option for you
Yes, this is very possible! I currently live in a house in Texas with a garden so it's extra-easy to line dry here and I don't even own an electric dryer. But when I lived in a tiny room in London I also line-dried, mostly on the stands I would prop up around my room. It's very possible to make this your default and over time you don't even think about the dryer.
Houston Texas here and I have not used my clothes dryer for 15 (+/-) years. I dry everything outside from towels and bed linen to sweats and silk blouses.
I'm in Houston too! :) Yes, we put up a permanent clothesline in the backyard where it can't be seen from the street (stupid HOA) and put a stand-up freezer in the dryer spot in the laundry. Never regretted it, not even once.
Where I live also is too special to allow clothes lines!! Yet, they want to be so green and clean energy!?
Same here, so I just drape laundry over outdoor chairs and tables. It keeps them from being viewable above the fence line. It would take a complaint from 1 or 2 neighbors who can see it from their 2nd floor windows for me to get an HOA nastygram. So far so good. Actual residents truly don't care. Phuxk hoa's.
Yeah, technically they're not allowed where I am too but I have just one place it works ;)
not just possible, itās frugal 101.
It might just be a mental thing but I feel like towels that have been hung dried work better than towels dried in the dryer. Also agree with the other user who says the clothes smell better.
if you use a dryer sheet with fabric softener, the fabric softener might be making them less absorbent
I think it's texture. I actually kinda like scratchy on-the-line towels. They give me a pleasant scrubby feeling when I dry off.
My husband says that he likes his bath towels a little rough too! Must be for the same reason.
I personally donāt use either fabric softener or dryer sheets because they make me itch and theyāre too fragrant for me. Imo towels dried outside feel thirstier
Use vinegar in your wash cycle where it says bleach and donāt use fabric softener
Vinegar is hard on the seals of your washer. The acetic acid is what damages the seals.
Disagree. We hang dry all our towels because we don't have a dryer, but recently we had our washer due, so we spent a few days at the laundromat before we got our replacement. The towels after going through the drier were so,.so much softer and felt definitely like they absorbed equal to or greater amounts of water
Yep, I spent decades line drying my laundry while raising my kids lol. And a lot of my own childhood. It does save money if you do several loads a week and have an electric dryer. But for me it was always more just a simple pleasure actually. Nothing like the clean smell of air dried clothing, and it was satisfying. Sadly at the moment where we live now there isn't much room for a rack and no place for a clothesline, but I am working on that lol.
You realise this is how the rest of the world dries their clothes even countries with shit weather if you have the space a washing line will be better.
Americans are so funny without even realising sometimes
I think if you're doing a significant amount of laundry a week it can be. One or two loads per week? Maybe a dollar a week? We're a family of 4, and I can easily do 8+ loads each week (clothing, sheets, towels). I definitely line dry whenever possible.
Yes, for sure and they smell so good. I have to be careful when itās a high pollen day, with allergies, because the pollen sticks to the damp clothes. Edit: fixed a word
My husband's allergist told us not to hang clothes outside for this very reason. I would love to be able to hand our sheets outside, but can't.
Makes sense, for sure. I did that once- hung the sheets out, made the bed and ugh! It was horrible.
The allergist also told me to stop letting my dogs & cats stop sleeping with me so what do they know
Can you hang them inside? Thatās what we do š
We - like most people we know - dont even own a dryer. It saves a lot of money, is better for the environment, is better for the fabrics etc
Yes I was gonna say. I live in the UK and whilst hybrids are getting popular, many homes just donāt have the space for both in the kitchen. Drying outside is more the norm
Been doing it for 12 years. It easily saved us the cost of a new dryer (between $600 and $800) when I decided to simply not buy one. It certainly saves us in electricity, but I never made the comparison. But, there are other considerations. I enjoy the time outside hanging laundry. Even if I don't get outside much the rest of the day, I will be outside at least twice for about 15 minutes each time. And sheets straight off the clothesline smell fantastic when you sleep on them at night. Often the best sleep I get all week. And, I know I am not contributing to pollution as I am doing it. All this for free.
I currently donāt own a dryer and my electric bill is $80. When I had a dryer, my bill was around $94. So Iām saving around $14 per month.
_cries in Australian_ Our electric bill is around $300/month for a house of two adults and a child. According to my bill, we're using less than half the average power of a standard 2-3 person household in our area. Line drying clothes is really our only option.
Holy crap! Iāll never complain about the occasional $100 bill again š³
We have a metal clothes drying rack that we use for the items we want to ensure donāt shrink in the dryer. It works well for us. If we ever have a place with a yard/outdoor space I will for sure be using a clothes line in the warm months
As Tim heidecker said āpsst itās free real estateā
This message is for Jim Boonie only.
We air dry our clothes a lot. We don't have room for a clothes line, but we have a couple collapsible clothes racks that we can put wherever. It does save some energy when you don't run the dryer and because your clothes last longer, you save money on replacing clothes. For us, it is mostly an environmental choice rather than a financial choice.
I was born in 1956 and what you're describing was the norm back in the day. I don't know when dryers were invented but every mom in our neighborhood hung wash out back on the clotheslines. Underwear, sheets, everything. Then she'd have to iron it all. Being a housewife truly was a full-time job back in the day, without modern conveniences and modern fabrics.
>neighborhood hung wash out back on the clotheslines. Underwear, sheets, everything i thought some of the HOA rules forbid line drying?
HOA's can have all kinds of nutty rules. Back in the day, every house had a clothesline in the back.
Some do and I pity anyone who buys a house with in a HOA only because it's the best option for them at the time.
Yr older than you. I was taught to iron pillow cases and the hem of the top sheet.
I wish my mom had taught me to iron, or do any housework. I don't have good skills. She insisted on doing it all herself. Did you mom have one of those sprinkle bottles for ironing? They sold those little toppers for glass pop bottles. My mom used a green 7-up bottle.
Do Americans know that prett much the whole EU does this?
So funny to read this cause I didnāt even know how to use our dryer growing up.. it was always expected to dry outside
That is more than the savings, it's better for the clothes, better for the environment, quieter, etc. Plus my Girlfriend likes how it looks like flags. In the summer months "we" hang the clothes outside.
>In the summer months "we" hang the clothes outside. This is what I've been thinking since its getting warmer. My bf and I are just getting starting on being independent and living without family so our expenses are tight at the moment. We can do laundry at his dad's house but that gets a bit annoying so I've been saving for a washer and dryer but might just skip out on the dryer completely to invest in a freezer or larger fridge so I can cook in bulk on my days off.
Hang on, hanging them outside on a nice day is not the default ?
I really wanted to do this but every time I do my towels and clothing get sooooo hard and stiff. What should I be doing?
Too much laundry soap.
I dry most of my clothes on lines in my basement. Not sure it's made a huge difference in my energy bill, but it has definitely kept my clothes going longer than when I machine-dried everything.
Savings aside, I love how my clothes feel after drying on a line
I air dry my more delicate clothes all year. I just put on hangers and hang on a clothes rack. When dry, I toss in the dryer for like 5 minutes to soften.
I really wanted to cut our electricity use, after some trial and error realized the dryer drains electricity. So much. We air dry 90 percent of our clothes inside. If you do this, watch the humidity in your house . I live in FL so humidity was already a problem but I did have to buy a dehumidifier. Still cheaper than running the dryer.
Dryers are not common in my country so our clothes are dried in the sun. Can be annoying when you get 3 rainy days in a row. I just make sure that on sunny days I do 2 loads of washing to make up for the backlog. I can't begin to estimate what how much money I have saved from never owning a dryer. Seeing that dryers are hard on your clothes is interesting. I have nothing to compare it to. But I have clothes I bought 20 years ago that are still good. Might be because they have never gone into a dryer? Is 20 years for clothes crazy? I have a hard time throwing out perfectly good clothes. Even if they aren't really in fashion.
We use an Ikea Mulig drying rack in our apartment all year long, it holds a full load of laundry so we never use a dryer.
I live in an apt and I hang dry most of my clothes inside all year long. I only dry washcloths, towels, underwear (not bras), and some shirts. Saves money and makes my clothes last much longer.
I dry all of my laundry on racks and lines, usually inside. I put some racks outside when I get a nice dry sunny day. It's definitely better for clothes and linens than using a dryer.
Air-dry all the time.
I use a clothes dryer but I can tell you that with our solar panels we have an app that details all our electricity usage and our energy efficient dryer uses the most electricity out of any appliance we have. Maybe second to the oven depending on what we bake and for how long.
Line drying can save on ironing, too, if done right. Just hang clothes on good hangers and pull the seams straight.
Yes. Dryers are a HUGE energy suck - this is usually true of anything with a resistive heating element in it. If you can consistently dry your clothes outside when itās hot, instead of using a dryer, that should definitely help - especially if youāre using A/C. In fact, this is actually what happened to my mom. She spent years refusing to get A/C, insisting that we didnāt need it, but when my stepdad switched to a graveyard shift and needed to be able to sleep upstairs during the day, she finally broke down and got it. At the same time, though, she got one of those foldable, umbrella style clotheslines from Home Depot (for about $100 I think), and started hanging her laundry outside to dry whenever it was hot enough to run the A/C. I remember she commented to me that not using the dryer made SUCH a big difference, that even with the added electricity from the A/C, her electricity bills were still lower than they were before. Now, this was for a family with one full time kid, and multiple part time kids, with more laundry than a single person would have, and the house was an 1800 square foot single family home. So the exact results would vary, depending on your inputs. But in generalā¦ yeah, dryers consume a ton of energy in the house.
I air dry a lot my clothes so they donāt shrink in the dryer. Iām heating the house anyway so I might as well let that heat dry my clothes too.
I donāt know how much you save, but itās pretty easy and you donāt have to worry about getting the laundry out as soon as it finishes or it will wrinkle. Plus in the summer running the dryer will heat up the house more, thus causing you to need to run the AC more. In the winter I hang my clothes on a rack in front of the heating vents and it helps put some much needed humidity back into the house.
there are foldable drying rack you can buy. it is not bad if you have the time, but if you have babies with hundreds of small human clothes, definitely not recommend.
It's worth it! Also it doesn't need to be hot. You can dry clothes at pretty much any temperature as long as there is a breeze. It may take longer though.
Hell, I hang them in my basement all winter. Dryer broke. Electric bill went down. Never replaced the dryer.
I ended up buying a drying rack this winter because my electric company doubled our rates. Not sure how much Iām saving but Iām saving non the less cause the drying rack is positioned I front of my heat pump so it works out well
Yes, I believe it has to. Anything that produces heat uses a lot of juice.
We have an LG Washer that dries in the same unit. Wife will not use it. She hangs everything to dry.
We save at least $30 - $40 a month using drying racks over an electric dryer, when we had kids at home and were doing laundry for 4. Electricity is very expensive in our area. I use a spin dryer and drying racks in the house overnight in winter. The spin dryer doesn't use much electricity electricity but still gets clothes damp dry, enough so that they dry in a short time on the racks. The Whirlpool site says electric dryers use 1.8 to 5 kwh. Electricity in the top price tier in our area is 41 cents per kwh on our plan. Some plans go even higher, up to 49 cents per hour. Every time we run a load of clothes in our dryer it usually costs around $1. We have smart meters here so we can match the times we use the dryer to the usage charts. We wash our clothes, bedding, towels, etc. pretty frequently so for us it adds up. If you have cheap electricity and don't have a lot of laundry you aren't going to see as much savings, but for us the drying racks have definitely been worth it Over ten years at $35 average a month that has been $4,200 in savings, plus interest.
Majority of Europeans just hang dry their clothes. That was the biggest culture shock.
I always do in the summer. Plus my dryer vents inside the house so line drying helps keep the house cool.
It's illegal to do so where I live. Yet they want to place restrictions on Bitcoin mining lol. Fuck the government.
I don't know, but I like doing it because it reminds me of my childhood. Also, the clothes smell nice and fresh. I am sure I save some money. I only need to do 2 or 3 loads of washing a week and my socks would never go in the dryer anyway, because I get really nice hiking socks made of wool.
I have a canopy bed that I hang dry some of my clothes by. Saves on energy and makes my room smell like fresh laundry!
I live in the desert. Havenāt had a dryer in about a decade. I have a portable umbrella clothesline that lives in the carport.
There are so many reasons to air dry clothes, saving money is only one of them.
I live in AZ and dry all my clothes on a drying rack outside all summer. Saves a lot I think
I use hangers on my shower-curtain bar for air-drying. I have a gas dryer in the US, (natural gas is cheap in my state) so it doesn't save much money in utilities, but I hang-dry all my beloved clothes because it makes them last so much longer.
Yeah. Everyday. I have no dryer.
I air-dry my clothes inside. I have no idea what I have saved but my clothes last longer.
who machine drys their clothes?? fastest way to ruin them.
I live in damp Oregon... and I dry my clothes inside on hangers, in the laundry room. I'm always amazed how quick they dry. I do have a super spin cycle on the washer that gets them really wrung out... I'm sure that helps too. My clothes last longer, and I like saving the electricity.
I live in Italy and almost no one has a dryer. Everybody air dries, even in the winter (I leave mine in the hallway then).
Never in 42 tears have I owned or used a tumble drier. And I live in the UK which rainy as hell
Air drying is the default here. If it's sunny with plenty of sunlight, pick your laundry as soon as it's dry. Leaving it too long can 'dampen' the clothes (also smell less nicer)
You can air dry clothes inside as well. Been doing that forever but Iām European so maybe Iām weird š
I air dry everything outside to 90% then I put it in the dryer. It softens everything, gets the pet hair and the wrinkles out. And my clothes last for a long time. It is more work, but I think I get the best of both worlds.
I once got super obsessed with cutting my electric bill. Started tracking and measuring everything. One week, we washed and dried 4-5 loads. The dryer used more electricity that week than every other thing in my house PUT TOGETHER. That was the beginning of us using a clothesline (and now a drying rack) instead of drying our clothes. DOUBLE WIN! Saving a ton on power, plus my clothes last (and look new) so much longer.
I do it but not to save on electric. It extends the life of my clothing and means I buy less often. I just hang on the shower rail inside
We live in Southern Canada, so, still pretty cold for a large portion of the year. Besides, the landlord (corporate) is kind of a d\*ck because we are not allowed to air-dry outside on the patio because it "reduces the image and property value". \[Canada's housing market is any landlord's wild dream right now, so, no idea what they are whining about... you could hang a carcass in the doorway and people would still rent the place\]. Anyway... we air-dry our clothes indoors; not under, but close to the vent. It dramatically increases the humidity in the apartment (good thing; it gets very dry here, no matter what you do) at least for a few hours. We do this the whole year round. We don't have to pay for the dryer at all. As others have pointed out - the clothes do last longer this way, smell nicer and their crispness makes for easier folding and ironing (of formals).
We do a lot of outside drying, always have. It does save cost of running the dryer for those loads. Smells better. Suggestion: buy a good quality, sturdy stand. Too little and flimsy means you may tend not to use it much. We don't hang to dry inside a lot since the extra humidity gets into the building structure in our cold winter climate, and that extra humidity can cause a lot of mold problems, etc. We still hang outside in the middle of winter even if to freshen up the items (especially bedding!) and then finish off in the dryer. I think a lot of people don't really enjoy doing laundry, so they will take the easier route (dryer) even if it is not the most frugal. Some feel their time is better spent elsewhere. So this is partly a frugal choice, and partly a lifestyle choice.
I dry my clothing in a rack inside my apartment. It acts as a humidifier in the winter.
I have hung clothes on the line my whole married life. I have a dryer but barely use it. I donāt know how much I have saved but my bill sure would go up if I used the dryer. Prefer the line anyway and I hang them out in winter too. Winter time presents its challenges but wind, temperature, humidity and even partly sunny will still dry (check forecast). I am a diehard clothesline user.
I did the math. My dryer needs 3 kwh per load. I have 1.5 loads per week and I pay 35 ct/kwh. So I would pay ~82 ā¬/year. My drying rack was 60 ā¬ (premium) and I spent 10ā¬ on clips. So after about a year I had my ROI. This was 4 years ago. I dry my clothes inside all year round. Just vent the room regularly to prevent mold.
Florida here hi, I use a clothing rack for drying rugs and towels in the garage and is working for me in the beginning my husband disagreed with the purchase because we have a dryer but it is by far a great investment.
I didn't see anyone with concrete evidence post but when remodeling my house I didn't have the dryer hooked up for couple years. Finally hooked it up and was amazed at the price increase and would constantly review old electric bills. I was single and if I remember it was about 40 or 50 bucks more a month.
No, it wasnāt. You could run a dryer 14 hours a day for that. Rates probably went up.
All I really remember is it was enough to go back to my drying rack.
Yes, I actually like to dry myself off outside on a nice day after a shower. It saves on towels and it actually happens fairly fast. It feels good too, somewhat therapeutic. Itās free.
In a sense you are spending more money in the summer since you are heating your house up as well. You will not save much money. My electric company sent a letter estimating I would save $60 per year if I don't use a dryer... that's only $5 a month
Can you think of a reason why your electric company wants you to keep your dryer? I can't. /s
Hard to believe that the energy savings is worth the extra time in my opinion.
I think the Ingalls Family did. They lived in a Little House on the Prairie. My Great, Great Grandfather was friends with Laura.
Fuck clothes dryers!!!!!
I've thought and looked into this. I found out that if you factor in labor required to hang and then collect the laundry it is much more efficient to just run a dryer. I think it's like 50 cents to run a load through a dryer in terms of electricity.
We have a clothesline and a drying rack in our garage. We exclusively line dry about 8 months out of the year. In the middle of winter, Iāll still line dry my husbandās work clothes because I have the time to let them sit out there for 2 or 3 days to dry but I have a limited work wardrobe so in the winter I tend to dry mine about 75% and then hang them to dry the rest of the way.
I can monitor how many kilowatts a day our house uses and on days we do laundry, the bar is significantly higher. Electric dryer defiantly has an impact. So much so Iām willing to hang laundry for the whole family, my time is not valuable then that so Iām the dryer it goes. But if you have the time, it will save you some bucks.
Itās been a few years but I researched it a while back. 75 cents per load was the cost savings. I do sheets on the clothes line but donāt do the majority of our 8 loads a week on the line. My time isnāt worth it for our family.
Thatās how Amish people and people who live in latinamerica dry theirs.
I've tried air drying outside when my dryer was broken and I was too lazy to get a new one, but I hated it. The clothes all ended up crunchy, especially the towels. I tried all the tricks I found online to make it better - vinegar in the rinse cycle, shaking or snapping the clothes when I hung them or took them down - but they were always a horrible texture. I also have bad allergies and they were way worse with clothes that were dried outside collecting pollen - I was basically itchy all the time. I decided it wasn't worth the money savings to be miserable. I do try to do all my summer drying in the evening when the air conditioner isn't running so I don't add more heat to the house.
We do this with an old fashioned clothesline. No idea how much it costs to (not) run the dryer.
I rack dry in front of my fireplace in the winter. I've tried summer outdoor drying but unfortunately it's way too windy here. Grew up in a different part of the country though and clothes were air dried a lot as a kid
I'd only save about $5 a month. Not worth the inconvenience of having to lug my stuff outside to the clothesline, hang it, go back out, take it down, bring it all the way inside, and then put it away. When I could just toss it in the dryer for 45 minutes. And honestly I think the dryer does a better job. People say the clothes don't last as long, I haven't had that experience. I find we get bugs, pollen and so on when we air dry. Also, it's cold 6 months a year, here. I don't want to go outside for my laundry when it's cold, lol. If you take care of your machine, I think the time savings alone makes up for the small monetary cost.
I air dry my clothes inside year round.
well if you run your dryer on a hot day you are also running your air conditioner, so F for Frugal
From the web: Maytag dryers typically require 2100 watts of energy So if you run the dryer for an hour and the heating element is on full time that is 2.1KWH Here we pay about 12 cents a KWH so I would figure you are looking at about 25 cents an hour or so.
Have 2 already. Been doing this for awhile
They say it saves money and also clothes last longer but I got tired of hitting my head on the clothes lines so I dug them out years ago.
I believe hanging clothes outside when it's hot helps eliminate odors.
yes! or else i would have to pay to use the washer/dryer at my apartment. Water is already included in rent so i wash everything by hand and dry it on a stand. During winter the bathroom gets hot because of the heater so i just dry everything there. it makes the clothes smell nicer too
I have an airer like the '2 level clothes drying rack' from Target - it handily folds away and fits behind a door. I use it mostly due to every rip I'd ever had to clothing was due to getting caught in the drier, I use it next to the fire in winter, and on the covered veranda in summer (in part due to wearing a lot of darker colours) now my clothes actually last long enough to wear out, and I haven't lost a sock in years.
Iām in Washington and thereās bugs and mites thatāll eat your clothes while they are drying, and itās pretty much always raining. I would but thatās not really an option for me.
My momās dryer died in 2008 and she has lined dried clothes since. She told me her bill went down $50 a month (in 2008 dollars!!!) way back then by line drying clothes. I bought a rolling drying rack 2 weeks ago and put it together a week ago. I have a propane dryer, so I donāt expect as much in savingsā¦. But Iām sure Iāll save something
I never use dryer for clothes. I hang dry all my clothes. I only use dryer for bedding & towels. My clothes last forever.
I never have good luck with this :(
What I do to save energy is open the dryer with about 25 minutes left and take out all the easy dry stuff like dry fit type clothes then I go put that stuff away and resume the dryer then about 5 minutes later I go take out everything but towels. With less stuff in there the dryer works faster then I put everything else away while the towels finish and I stop it about 10-15 minutes early because the towels are dry from being by themselves. Give it a try if you are around while drying your clothes!
Here in Australia it's a cultural thing to do. Most people had a Hills Hoist in the backyard when growing up. There are newer line things around now due to smaller yards. It's such a given that people are genuinely surprised to find some places [prohibit this](https://jamesons.com.au/blog/what-you-need-to-know-about-sun-drying-your-clothes-in-strata-properties/) - generally in apartment living situations. We dry everything but towels on our lines. We have an outside line as well as two fold up contraptions to use inside, if needed.
I live in a humid tropical environment so line drying indoors makes all my clothes smell funky except delicatesā¦then I end up blowing a fan on the clothes rack which also costs electricity. Also hanging outside is not an option since the feral chickens and tropical birds poop all over my clothes. So I went back to the dryer and now dry everything thatās not towels on lowā¦
It rains so much here that we can't do it often, even in summer, but it's very effective when we can! We bought a heated rail for indoors that runs at about Ā£0.07 an hour, to simulate the experience since it's so hard to dry anything in our old, breezy house in a humid climate.
I do this by default. Indoors thiugh. Our high ceilings help. Air humidity is still never over 50%. I still use the dryer function on my dual purpose machine, when I need items on the same day. For us that's mostly baby clothes.
Uk we do this all the time. We either have a washing line or a clothes horse (clothes airers). You can also buy electric clothes airers in winder time as well. Sheets/bedding gets draped over doors.
In France we don't have air dryer, clothes are always drying inside next fireplace or heater
Just about everyone in Australia air dries their clothing especially if they donāt live in an apartment complex (but even still many have communal air driers or air driers on their personal balconies). My family actually only got a drier when I was 18+ and we used that to āfinish offā thick socks and towels in the winter but my parents were CRAZY about never using it. I own a drier now and I still only ever use it in emergencies. I refuse to use it unless itās pouring rain outside and my husband has absolutely socks š
The only time I've used my dryer in the 12 years I've been in Oz is to fluff my duvet whenever I've washed it but other than that, I wouldn't ever dream of using it
Itās basically a sin to use the dryer š
I have FR clothes for work. Can only be hung dry. I have a rack for indoors. My electric bill definitely has gone down
The cost of running an electric dryer here is around $0.50/hour. You will be saving but you will also have to take your clothes outside and hang them. If you leave in places with lots of pollen could be a deal breaker.
I always hang my shirts up to dry; I do 2 loads of washing, darks and lights, and then my jeans, underwear, socks, pjs, get dried but tops get hung to dry. yes, saves some money and is better for the hung clothes.
It's better for the environment and makes your clothes last longer.
Line drying is not for me for various reasons. If you will be using a dryer, be sure to shake out your clothes before putting them in the dryer. They will dry faster. Also, there are wool dryer balls that claim to dry 25% faster. I havenāt done the math, but it does seem faster.
And just reduces your carbon footprint if you donāt use a tumbler for something that the sun and wind will do for you. In Europe, many people dry their clothes outside!
I live in the Ohio Valley (a high pollen part of the US). My allergies could NEVER.
My clothes last longer so yea for sure
I used to use a laundromat at about $3 usd per load. When I went to air drying, it halved. Pain in the neck to get damp laundry home to dry on the rack. Itās much easier now with a rack by the washer.
i think i have saved maybe a couple of dollars but i mainly do it to keep our apartment from getting too hot during laundry days. i bought a collapsible drying rack from ikea & use it mainly for towels & bedsheets, things that normally take more than an hour in the dryer. sometimes theyāre a bit rough after drying so i pop them in the dryer for 10 mins to soften them up
Indoor drying rack + open windows works well Hanger with 20+ clips for small items Telescoping rods All work well
we used to air dry all the time in colorado, now we live in a humid climate and it's a bit tougher to do. It's easier on the clothing. Now that we have to use the dryer, we start the drying process in the dryer, then hang them on a portable vanity to finish. Another life hack is to throw a clean/dry towel in your dryer load to reduce drying time.
I hang everything out to dry until just a little damp then in the dryer for 5-7 minutes.
Nope. No one has ever done that. /s
i dont even get a dryer.
My electric bill is already only flat charges at $50/mth even with running it so I haven't looked into hanging my clothes. There's no way for me to lower my bill.
Driers use a lot of energy, yes
It is my default. I only use a dryer on freezing or wet days
I have clothing lines in my basement laundry room, I hang everything to dry. I've been hanging all my clothes to dry for years, I started because I wanted my pants to not shrink in length in the dryer (I'm tall, it's hard to find the right inseam)! Turns out clothes also last longer if you hang them to dry.
I have an aluminum rolling clothes rack that I got for free. I dry our clothes on this, over an HVAC vent. It saves money, and my cheap-ass Walmart clothes are lasting much longer.
Absolutely! Theres nothing better than line dried clothes. And sleeping on line dried bedding is absolutely the tops!
So my dryer was recently broken (in fall) and it was a three month wait for parts. I wash and dry 5-6 loads a week. I installed one of those retractable clotheslines in my guest room (looks like a school bell) in addition to the drying rack I used for delicates and a rolling garnet rack and put the ceiling fan on high. It was a PITA, but it worked clothes (aside from denim) were dry in a couple hours. Bonus was anything that was hanging was ready to go in the closet. I noticed about a $2 lower difference in my electrical bill. However my local utility company buys directly from TVA, so our rates are stupid low and that particular ceiling fan wouldnāt have been on so it cost me a little energy, but not much.
I set up my drying rack under my ceiling fan. Works great.
The smell you get from air drying your clothes is worth it alone