How do you dry your clothes in the cold weather?
By moonchild1au
@moonchild1au (6240)
Australia
November 24, 2009 7:36pm CST
Do you hang them out on the line till they dry, use an inside line or use the dryer? I normally hang mine out on the clothes line as I can normally get them dry. In the house I just moved from, I had one of those useless clothes lines that are attached to the side of your house & it rarely got the sun in winter & it took forever to get my washing dry. I hate uing the dryer because I prefer air-dried clothes plus the make your electricity bill sky rocket. I know I shouldn't have a problem in my new house in winter (it's summer here now) because i have a free standing clothes line.
How do you get your clothes dry?
4 people like this
25 responses
@3SnuggleBunnies (16374)
• United States
25 Nov 09
Either in the dryer wich I hate to do as well. Gotta save those pennies where you can ya know?!?! But in cold weather I usually do break down and use the dryer but then I also cut back on my heat to make up the differance. I also do is take some shirts and hang them on hangers and let them dry on the over the door hooks or clear a space in a closet for a few items. I could do it in the basement if I didn't mind smelling like "basement" 
1 person likes this
@moonchild1au (6240)
• Australia
25 Nov 09
I wouldn't like smelling lika a basement either - especially if it's a musty smelling one!! But if it's not too bad, I'd hang them up there
@cher913 (25782)
• Canada
25 Nov 09
i pop mine in the dryer for a short period of time and hang them in the basement to dry. by doing this, the heat of the furnace dries them and they are usually dry by the next day. i am in canada, so it is too cold to dry them outside right now.
1 person likes this
@moonchild1au (6240)
• Australia
25 Nov 09
That's a great idea, my friend in Tasmania hangs hers in front of the fire in winter...I have heard that it's really cold there now...my friend is flying your way right now for 2 weeks so she's going from 30C (90F) temps to freezing cold!!
1 person likes this
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
17 Dec 09
We do not have an outside line, so I dry them in the dryer. I used to have to hang them inside when the dryer did no work, but I had to hang them over the poles, or I had to put chairs outside and hang them over the chairs. My husband did not want to put up an outside line. Now he is disabled and I cannot put up one myself. I do love the air outside, and I feel that the clothes are better outside except when it is cold outside.
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
30 Mar 10
I was thinking of buying one of those umbrella driers for outside. It would save a bit on the heating bill. But I would be worried about the clothes flying away. I could get a line put in, but someone else would have to put it in as I am the type who would bank the hammer on my thumb and put things in backward.
@moonchild1au (6240)
• Australia
28 Mar 10
I don't know what I'd do without an outside line...now that I have moved house, I have a free standing one & it's great as the clothes don't take long to dry at all. I still have an inside line for when it's raining & my dryer is the last resort.
1 person likes this
@xannebull (1793)
• Philippines
25 Nov 09
Since I don't have a clothes dryer, i just hang my clothes inside our balcony which is covered with a roof so that it won't be wet with rain and when i sleep, i just hang our clothes inside the house .
1 person likes this
@moonchild1au (6240)
• Australia
25 Nov 09
That would also stop your clothes from fading too much too :)
1 person likes this
@kelly10 (678)
•
26 Nov 09
When the weather is cold I will dry my clothes outside for a short while. Obviously this is weather dependant. The last two weeks have been pretty horrible here in the UK with rain, rain and more rain, so drying clothes outside has been more or less impossible.
When clothes have been outside for a bit, or not at all, I will dry them inside. For this I hang them on a clothes maiden. I will only use the radiators as a last resort if it is an item of clothing that I need for the next day and therefore it must be dried ASAP.
@moonchild1au (6240)
• Australia
26 Nov 09
i have heard the weather is real bad at the moment...I hope you haven't been too effected by the floods where you are...I was living in Mackay in North Queensland when they got flooded on Feb 15, 2008.
You do exactly what I try to do with drying the clothes...my dryer is ALWAYS my last resort.
@kelly10 (678)
•
27 Nov 09
Yes the weather is bad. It rains every day right now, at times it is really heavy and lasts for hours, other times it's light showers a few times throught the day. walking under foot you either get covered in mud or extreamly wet, horrible which ever way.
Where I live it hasn't been too bad, but in the past it has and the whole town was badly hit by flooding. Houses were damaged and some people didn't get back into their homes for over a year. I was actually away on holiday when it happened so never actually saw it.
@wlee9696 (595)
• United States
25 Nov 09
I use my dryer. I feel that my time is worth as much as the electricity the dryer uses. I also live in a neighborhood and the home owners association would not allow a clothes line. I have a separate laundry room but I don't want it filled up with an indoor clothes line and I don't want to wait on the clothing to dry. My time is just too important to give up to laundry. I would rather be playing games with my kids.
1 person likes this
@moonchild1au (6240)
• Australia
25 Nov 09
i can see where you're coming from...where I have moved to, I can hang my clothes up at 7 am & they are dry enough by 10am (I'm in summer though) & I just do other things in the mean time. I have never heard of a home owners association not allowing clothes lines - must be different in each country..
1 person likes this
@jennybianca (12912)
• Australia
26 Nov 09
I have a clothes drier, but I avoid using it all costs. They use way too much electricity.
I have purchased two indoor clothes hangers. One is particularly good. It is free standing with 4 side ways attachments. I can oput a lot of clothes on it. It is transportable too. So if the weather is dicey, I can pull it outside when the sun is out, or drag ity in if it looks like rain.
@moonchild1au (6240)
• Australia
26 Nov 09
I agree, dryers do use heaps of electricity!! You definitely have a good mobile clothes line :)
@cream97 (29087)
• United States
25 Nov 09
Hi, moonchild1! We usually will take our clothes to the laundromat to dry them. That is how our clothes normally gets dried. When I was younger, I used to live with my grandmother. She would hang her clothes out on the line. She still does this. I know that she said that she would like to have a dryer. But, where her washing machine is, she won't have any space to put her dryer there.. Since I got married, we have either dried the clothes at the laundromat or we dried them in our own place. We only lived one place where we had our own dryer before. After that, it was the laundromat that did the drying.
@moonchild1au (6240)
• Australia
26 Nov 09
That's fair enough...I use my clothes line whenever I can but sometimes, it's just not possible like when it's raining.
@flywelcome (54)
• China
25 Nov 09
General I am hanging my clothes outside in winter,it may be very easy to dry,if there is much water in the sky,it's difficult to dry,so I will use the dryer to dry it.
@DrRichason (34)
• United States
25 Nov 09
We use a dryer for most laundry but some of my clothes cannot be done like that, mostly shirts. For those in cold winters we just hang them from a ceiling fan, it will dry them in just a few hours.. You could try that if you have a ceiling fan other than that if you have a large laundry room or space to use you can make hangers for clothes and dry them in doors since the room will be heated with rest of the house.
@moonchild1au (6240)
• Australia
26 Nov 09
I have tried doing that & it does work - with the ceiling fans...my new house doen't have any but we have a free-standing (hills hoist) clothes line now so hopefully I can get my clothes dried this winter :)
@Jayervin (64)
• United States
25 Nov 09
I use my dryer to dry my clothes. I just don't like how sometimes they clothes shrink and get all messed up sometimes. You can never trust a dryer at times -___- but anyway, I hope they'll invent something in the near future that will cost us less and that will make our clothes dry faster and won't make them shrink.
@moonchild1au (6240)
• Australia
25 Nov 09
This is very true plus they come out all crumpled & need ironing moreso than hainging them out on the line.
@jester248 (1)
• United States
25 Nov 09
I just use the dryer at my moms house :)
once in awhile i lay them out on my balcony..but that takes quite a bit longer
@moonchild1au (6240)
• Australia
26 Nov 09
It does take a bit longer but it saves money on the electricity bill.
@bucketkid (237)
• Australia
25 Nov 09
i always dry my clothes outside. we have a patio type area out the back which is covered where we keep a couple of lines of string so that we can dry stuff in wet weather.
the cold isnt that bad usually.
if we have to we have a small drying rack for inside.
the dryer is only used in emergencies because of its energy consumption.
@moonchild1au (6240)
• Australia
25 Nov 09
I did have some line strung up in my carport 2 houses ago...I'm thinking of doing that in my current house for the rainy days...I only use the dryer for emergencies too
@VANILLAREY (1470)
• India
25 Nov 09
In my place it does not take too long for clothes to dry in the winter. So the after cleaning and spinning the clothes in the washing machine they are hung on the cloth line to dry.
@moonchild1au (6240)
• Australia
25 Nov 09
Hopefully mine won't take too long to dry this winter - I normally hang my clothes on the line unless it's raining.
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
25 Nov 09
We used to have a Hills Hoist clothes line out in our backyard. (very rare on the Gold Coast!)
Then it broke so I removed it and since we already had a line under the roof over our decking, that is all we ever really use these days.
As you know, the winters here are short, so clothes dry pretty quickly even in winter, but if it is one of the rare cold damp days here in winter, then we hang them on a clothes horse inside or over the railing that divides our house. We have a split level home! We do not own an electric dryer!
@moonchild1au (6240)
• Australia
25 Nov 09
This is true...Here on the Sunshine Coast, they seem rare too...in my house I just moved from, the clothes line is on the western side of the house which doesn't get much sun in winter...I have a hills hoist in my new house & being 2 streets away from the beach getting the sea breezes, I am hoping I don't have this problem next year
@WBtheMP3guy (227)
• United States
25 Nov 09
Dryer, most definately. I set the mop out to dry 4 days ago, and it's still wet. It hasn't frozen, though, so I guess that's a bonus.......
@moonchild1au (6240)
• Australia
25 Nov 09
You must live in a fairly cold climate...dryrs are a must in those areas.
@freeze386 (73)
• Philippines
25 Nov 09
I usually hang them outside and let it dry. one of my technique is to hang them at the back of the refrigerator because ref exhaust hot air. if you have aircon you can use it as will. after i hang the clothes outside over night if it still moist i iron it to dry. i use this i deas because i dont have dryer at home.
@rhea2009 (49)
• Philippines
25 Nov 09
hanging my dry clothes in the clothes is not a bright idea for me. i am using electric fan to make it dry quickly especially if i need to wear it already. though it wasn't a good idea, i still use this practice whenever i'm in a hurry. and even though theres no summer here in the Philippines, i usually apply this during experiencing storms or heavy rains and no clothes to wear.
@moonchild1au (6240)
• Australia
25 Nov 09
That's a great idea to use a fan..circulating the air wouldhelp your clothes to dry.
