We have a washing machine and use it regularly. Then we hang our clothes out to dry in a thing like this, of which we have three. They fold quite small and flat when not in use, our flat is big enough anyway, I don’t mind them around, though I understand they are not the most esthetic of sights. We don’t have a tumble dryer, but we seem to be in a minority. Does anybody else believe that tumble dryers are superfluous?
Advantages of not using tumble dryers, IMO:
Saves energy.
Reduces microfibers, particularly synthetic fibers (plastics), in the air and in water.
Improves the air humidity, which makes the indoor climate more pleasant, specially in winter. It also does our wooden floors good, or so I read.
No noise.
Disadvantages:
It takes longer.
You cannot set a timer.
The clothes hanging around are not pretty to look at.
The cat steals the socks.
I did have one, but gave it away (it came with the house - didn’t use it once).
I’m same as you, except the wooden floor and stolen socks.
Then they go in the airing cupboard.
I live in the Pacific Northwest and have a ventless propane heater that puts a fair amount of humidity into the air. Hang clothes to dry around here in November and they might be dry by late May, although they’ll be covered in mildew. Yes, I tumble dry my clothes, although in the few summer months I do string up a clothesline out back.
I usually do 3 loads every time I wash. Undies, socks, pajamas and workout clothes in one load, jeans, sweats and a couple towels in another load, and then a “won’t go in the dryer” load. This includes tees and blouses, bras and dress pants. Those items get hung up on hangers on a rack to dry.
I’ve always done this, this is how mom taught us to do clothes. Anything I don’t want to shrink or ruin the vinyl logo gets hung up. And then they conveniently get hung in my closet.
The only time I didn’t use a tumble dryer was when I lived in a bachelor’s flat and had no washer or dryer, period. I washed my clothes in one of these, hand-wrung them out (I later got a spin dryer that looked kind of like a giant electric salad spinner), and then hung them on a rack.
Pros:
clothes got cleaner (really. Washing machines are a lot dirtier than I think I ever realized).
Cons:
Hand washing takes forever, is a big PITA.
Clothes take forever to dry, especially in winter in a humid climate.
Couldn’t wash big or thick things like heavy jackets, bedspreads, etc. They would never dry.
Denim dries stiff, towels dry scratchy
I like having a tumble dryer and wouldn’t be without one again unless I was living somewhere where it was dry and hot year-round and I was single.
About 8 months of the year, I line dry virtually 100% of the time. Towels, which can dry very rough to the touch, I will often stick in the dryer for 10 minutes, then hang them; that’s all it takes.
In winter I have a big wooden collapsible rack I set up in the bedroom where it will be out of the way, and almost everything dries there; the humidity is very low in winter here.
In winter I will damp-dry very heavy clothes like my flannel-lined jeans and insulated duck jacket so they don’t take two days on the rack.
We also run the wood stove all day in winter so for things I need very soon I have a smaller rack that goes next to that.
I have saved billions of dollars and the planet thanks me for my service.
About half and half for me. Blankets take too long to dry on their own and some clothes need the dryer to restore any stretching that’s happened from wear.
Our washer and dryer are in the basement, as is a clothesline for items we don’t want to have the dryer experience. My better shirts, my jeans, partner’s wool socks, and a few other items we worry about shrinking, being pummelled and twisted, or otherwise suffering, those go on the line.
But the dryer still sees a lot of use. Like Hampshire said, undies, (most) socks, bedding, towels. And unimportant t shirts, lounge-around pants, etc
We have and use a gas dryer, which is in the garage so I don’t think it’s causing any problem for our wood floors. We could hang our clothes dry, my Japanese husband does for some of his clothes but not things like sheets and towels.
In Japan, very few people have dryers (at least where I’ve lived or stayed), they have a balcony which is rigged up to hang things, and sometimes in extremis they may hang them indoors. It is so common to hang laundry (and to air out bedding) outside in the sunny weather that TV weather forecasts routinely show whether tomorrow will be a good day to do so – NHK has four levels: perfect, pretty good, marginal or at your own risk, and absolutely not.
This isn’t exactly on the OP’s list of disadvantages, but I’m afraid I would find it an enornous PITA to have to hang up/spread out all my wet laundry to dry.
I was interested to see a couple of people complain that air-dried towels are rough and scratchy. I actually LIKE scratchy towels, so I hang those up to dry. Everything else goes in the dryer.
I live in a condo now, but when I had a house with a back yard, I would hang stuff on clotheslines when the weather allowed it. That’s one of the few things I miss about having a yard.
It’s very dry where I live, and I could probably be using the dryer a lot less. Maybe I’ll pick up one of those indoor drying racks.
That’s the thing for me – the OP listed “takes longer” as a disadvantage, which I assume means it takes longer for the clothes to dry. But it isn’t just that; it also takes more time/effort to hang them up and take them down later.
I keep telling myself that I really ought to put up a clothesline in the backyard, because I live in a climate where it gets really hot and dry in the summer; ideal conditions for line drying clothes. But I really just don’t want to spend the time hanging them up; it’s so much less work to just dump the load into the dryer.
We are opposite: We love the feel of denim and towels that are hung dry. We are sad when we use the last air dried towel in the fall.
We use outdoor clotheslines for the roughly 5 months per year we can use them. We don’t have the room to dry everything indoors in our small house, but we do have one rack we use for air drying things that never go in a dryer (sweaters, delicates, my jeans, etc).
I hang up my shirts inside on the clothes rack, other things get the dryer.
If I tried to hang up my clothes on a line outside, they would, in no time, smell like a) curry, b) fried onions and peppers, c) fireplace wood smoke, d) fabric softener, e) dog poop, f) any combination of a) thru e).
I don’t how a landlord would know this, but a lease we signed on a rental house once specifically stated NO INDOOR CLOTHES DRYING.
What do you do if your HOA forbids outdoor clotheslines? I remember Doonesbury had an arc about clothes dryers vs clotheslines vs HOAs; I don’t remember it being all that funny.
We live in Arizona, the skin cancer capital of the United States. Even if we did have a clothesline, which we don’t, I wouldn’t use it because the same sun that ruins skin also fades colors quickly. A neighbor bought one of those tent garage things and set it up. The sun and wind tore it up in less than a year, clothing is much less durable than canvas tents.
Besides, I’m too lazy to hang things up and then iron them.
