On the verge of buying a dryer - help!

insahmniak · 10-21-2009, 03:31 PM

Ok, so we moved to this new house last spring and I bought an HE washer and passed on the dryer - a sort of deal with myself to commit to being dryer-free.

Well, it's cold and cloudy, now, and I'm feeling week. I actually priced a new dryer yesterday.

I've been hanging the little things in the tiny laundry room, with an exhaust fan running non-stop, but they are still not drying very quickly and I'm afraid they're destined to mildew. It's about 40F outside and overcast. I did hang a load of larger items on the line outside today, but it takes so long to dry I'm getting further behind on laundry. I have a lot to do to catch up and I have this sense that without a dryer I never will and the towels will get really rank. Only in winter of course. It's been just peachy and wonderful all summer without a dryer and I've loved hanging the clothes outside.

Help me over the winter clothes blahs. I don't have a woodstove or radiators to help. I have a fairly tight passive-solar house that I'm afraid of ruining with too much damp inside. We run a heat pump in winter, and don't have a furnace and are far from toasty inside.

Please help. I know other people do it. I'm trying desperately to get my six year old to stop throwing her clean clothes in the hamper - she changes clothes many times a day. That would help. I suppose I have to get in the habit of daily laundry, too. Ugh - that sounds awful to be honest. I don't want to look at damp clothes all over the house all the time. Does it have to be that way?

Please be kind. I do want to do the right thing. I love hanging clothes outside the other 7 months of the year. But how can I make it through the winter? Help?

maggiemae · 10-21-2009, 07:53 PM

I would get a dryer

and then hang as much as you can.

SleeplessMommy · 10-22-2009, 08:22 AM

How about a spin-dryer to reduce the amount of water you need to evaporate?

http://www.laundry-alternative.com/drying.htm

Gingercat · 10-22-2009, 11:41 AM

Insahmniak if it is any consolation I do own a drier myself and I live in one of the sunniest places on earth, Greece

I do not use it all year round of course, not even much in winter as I dry the clothes in front of the radiators, but I find that it is needed in early fall and late spring when it is dump and chilli outside and there's no need for indoor heating.
I cloth diaper my son and I'd just hate to use disposables just because my diapers are wet, so the I think that a drier is superb for such emergencies!

russianthistle · 10-22-2009, 02:41 PM

I agree with Maggiemae...
I live where winter is long, too, and I've done it for many years, but I'm very excited that I now have a dryer.

ParisApril · 10-22-2009, 06:50 PM

Clothes dry super fast in the wind! I have found it handy when the laundry is piling up to check the weather network for a good drying day. Wash a few loads the evening before so they are ready to hang first thing in the AM. Wash some more in the AM and at lunch take down the hopefully dry stuff and hang new wet stuff. Also make sure your washer is set to the fastest spin cycle to spin out as much water as possible before you hang them.

Good luck mama!

insahmniak · 10-23-2009, 09:46 AM

Wow. All the support for using a dryer - albeit sparingly - surprises me. And here I was thinking I'd get kinda bashed for considering it.

Part of the problem is that we just returned from an 8-day trip, and five days later (today) are heading out again on a 10-day trip. So I had five days to get caught up on everything, including laundry. And the seasons changed while we were gone.

I looked at the reviews on the spinner and the company really get slammed for terrible customer service. It's a great concept. I did read that it's not particularly useful for people with HE washers, which we have. But I can see it really being useful for people who hand wash or don't have an HE washer.

I called customer support at LG and learned a trick about spinning the most water out of the clothes. I haven't tried the trick yet, but I hope it will be helpful.

I've looked at the multi-line retractable clothes lines and the good ones are Australian and are pricey. I could hang one indoors in our home school classroom, I think, and maybe install a ceiling fan. The classroom is actually the master bedroom (priorities!) and has an exhaust fan in the bathroom. So I could run the exhaust fan, the ceiling fan, and close the door and not have to look at the laundry while it dries. I also think I could install the line such that I could relocate it in/outdoors depending on the season. But by the time I get the ceiling fan in, and the line, it actually exceeds the cost of purchasing a thrift-store dryer.

I suppose what I need to do is look at the energy usage of a dryer. Our meter currently spins backwards most of the time because of our pv panels. I should calculate how much running a dryer might bite into that.

Thanks for all the feedback - especially for not coming down hard on me.

SleeplessMommy · 10-23-2009, 09:34 PM

We are pretty much all clothes dryer users here, I think.

Make sure you monitor indoor humidity of you are going to do line dry + exhaust fans.