So I washed my clothes earlier tonight (in two cycles, because 2 of the 3 washing machines in the laundry room were non-functional). Then I discovered that none of the three dryers worked (only after putting my clothes in, paying for the load, and leaving them there for an hour each). So I’ve got a large load, including most of my underwear, hung over chair backs, over the edge of two drawers and a suitcase, several socks at a time over several hangers, etc.
What do I need to do to make sure they dry without getting moldy?
What’s the weather like where you are? If it’s winter, they’re less likely to mold.
If you have central heat, turn it up. That dries out the air.
Hang up as much as you can. You can put hangers on the shower curtain rod, if you have one. I’ve had great luck hanging hangers from doorframes, and drying things there.
For the things that aren’t hanging up, turn them over every now and then.
They’ll be fine. I air dry clothes all the time. If you have a shower/tub enclosure with a shower rod instead of glass doors, you can move the shower rod back (most of them are adjustable) to the middle of the tub and hang everything on hangers over the tub.
What I usually do is hang up the thicker clothes on the shower rod, turn up the heat in the bathroom, and point a fan at the door. Make sure there’s enough space between the clothes for adequate airflow.
Worse, some of the clothes fell on the floor/edge of the tub/next to the toilet. My freshly washed clothes. So now those clothes are germy and dirty again.
What a night. (Note, night, almost midnight, so no windows with sun. :))
They’ll be fine, the only question is if they’ll be dry by when you need. Hang up as much as you can, if you’re all out of hangers and string (dental floss?) then flip over stuff that’ll laid out. FWIW laundry mats often open early, you could stop in for 30 minutes or so and watch some AM talk shows.
I’ve never had a problem air drying clothes, even in my basement in the winter.
And a dehumidifier doesn’t do much good in the winter; may freeze up if the indoor temperature is too low. I keep my house at 64, so I can’t run one (not that I need it – things are plenty dry, even in the basement.
I have a dryer, and still usually airdry. If you’ve run things through the washer, including the final spin cycle, they’re not really wet, just damp, and they won’t mildew. Jeans may take two days to dry completely, but other than that, you really don’t need to do anythings special.
Not recommending this as I don’t want to be held responsible for a calamity, but I have in an emergency put sneakers or a couple of small items on an old cookie sheet in the oven, set on warm (200 degrees), oven door cracked open, nothing touching the heating element, and WATCHED them like a hawk, checking every few minutes. Cotton is fairly safe, nylon not recommended! … Or, just ironing something thoroughly a few times on a heavy towel, it might still be damp, though.
I suppose it’s too late to run a couple of clotheslines in your apartment. I airdry most of my stuff, too, on clotheslines in my basement (underwear goes in the dryer just because I’m too lazy to hang all that fiddly stuff up). This summer I plan to put some clotheslines up in my back yard - I eagerly await sheets and pillowcases that have been dried outside in the sun.
As for the OP, if you put your clothes in a loose pile overnight and take them to a laundromat in the morning, they’d still be fine. I’ve forgotten my load of clothes in the washer overnight more than once.
Place two chairs, three or so feet away, back to back, place a broomstick or something similar across the backrests, you can hang clothes directly or on hangers.
For future occurrences, I recommend one of these. We use one all the time, and most things dry within a day or so. Ours folds up and we keep it next to the dryer (well, actually, it’s often out anyways, because we lay sweaters on it to dry!)
(Note, night, almost midnight, so no windows with sun. :))
I airdry most of my stuff, too, on clotheslines in my basement (underwear goes in the dryer just because I’m too lazy to hang all that fiddly stuff up). This summer I plan to put some clotheslines up in my back yard - I eagerly await sheets and pillowcases that have been dried outside in the sun.