How do you dry your washing during winter?

[Gemini]

During the summer I love to dry washing outside. We have two garden washing lines and all clothes, towels and bedding are dried there unless it is wet.

In winter I give up trying to dry things outside. The days are short and unless it is totally dry with some wind, things will be hardly any drier when you bring them in than when you put them out.

We have an ancient tumble drier (it was mine) in the garage which we rarely use. We tend to combine the use of airers and hanging clothes up on coat hangers to dry washing indoors. I hate washing hanging about and love it when we can start to hang it on the washing line again.
I have seen heated airers. Has anyone tried one of those?

How do you get your winter washing dry?

[Daisy]

There's no point hanging washing outside in our garden during the winter. The sun never reaches the washing spinney thing. I've got a tumble dryer stacked on top of the washing machine, on the work surface in our tiny utility room and I put as much as possible in there. The bedding's in at the moment. I've got a sort of umbrella thingy without the umbrella bit with 3 arms and I can put things like jumpers, t-shirts etc on there on hangars. I've also got a fold up and down airer thingy for flat things, trousers etc. I hate having wet washing lying around, but I put both of those in the dining room and shut the doors on them until they're ready for ironing, or, better still, folding up and putting away.

I don't care what the laundry instructions say on anything - they get spun at 1600 rpm, regardless, so they are fairly dry when they come out of the washing machine.

[Avo]

I do have a tumble dryer but just use it to finish off towels in summer so they are soft and not hard and in winter the duvet covers and towels. Otherwise I use a clothes airier in the utility room.

[Oma]

I love my Tumble dryer , everything but my cardigans go in there ,
I have a boiler cupboard on the landing with a shelf , I have hooks on the edge I hang cardigans on hangers and hang them in there , they dry very quickly ,

I always dry towels in the tumble even in the summer I don't like hard towels ,
In the summer everything apart from Towels go outside , i have a underwear hanger for socks pants etc that hangs on the line to save space ,
One thing I do do though ,as soon as washing is dry I bring it in ,
I hate the smell of fresh air on the washing , silly isn't it but I just cant stand it especially if its later in the day and they have hung out all day then B has to bring them in

I am strange I know

[Lizzie48]

My balcony is covered and I can very often get the washing dry out there in the winter, I did the other day in fact. Otherwise I have 2 pull out racks in the small spare room to hang the washing on and it soon dries, many years ago we were camping in Hungary, I needed to get some washing dry so bought one of those spinning things to hang on a tree at the time. It is still spinning and I use it a lot. It is so handy. I also bought a wall folding drier thing at Lakeland when we got our new balcony about 13 years ago, it is ideal, folds flat against the wall when not in use. I don't like looking at a line all the time, I do have a pull out line for sheets etc.

Unlike most people, I love a rough towel.

[Gemini]

I have a circular plastic hanging thing that we dry our undies on, whether inside or out. It doesn't spin like Lizzie's though!

[Gemini]

I do think you are strange regarding the outdoor washing smell Oma 😊😄

[Oma]

I have a retractable line that I can pull down to the bottom fence then back up again to the other wall to fasten to a hook giving me two long lines ,
when im finished I just unhook it and it retracts back into the holder , so never have a line out when not needed

[Nanto2girls]

I love being able to hang washing outside when i can.
When the weather is bad, i have an airer in the spare bedroom,they don't take long to dry on there.

[Gemini]

We dry in a spare bedroom too Nan2, or sometimes on the landing

[Daisy]

I'm with Avo - I always tumble towels even if I've dried them outside. Oma - I can understand what you mean about the smell of freshly dried washing. Usually it smells lovely and clean and fresh, but sometimes it's almost too much and I don't like it. But it soon goes away so I just keep my big girl pants on and put up with it.

I'd love to have a retractable washing line, but there's no where to hook it on to in our garden, and for some reason OH refuses to stand there and hold it up while the washing dries! Haha.

[Oma]

Oh J Iam disappointed in you , you could at least stand holding the line for a couple of hours a big strong man like you , hahahaha

Could you not put a hook on the shed or the summer house Daisy to hook it onto ?
We have a hook on the bottom fence then in the Utility wall to make a sort of V shape line .

[Plantaholic]

I can't have a retractable line without the danger of it decapitating someone. I am a big tumble dryer user as I can't manage to put up the whirly line, anyway I have lost the socket in the lawn. I have a lobby where I can put an airer and woolens and trousers go on there.

[Glammanana]

I line dry as much as possible during the summer I don't have a tumbler anymore now the weather is so bad any washing to dry is put on the fold up/down airer in the wet room near to the radiator and things are dried quite quickly,jumpers etc I still do what my mum used to do and even after spinning roll them in a towel for half an hour funny how you always do what you saw your mum doing isn't it.
I don't have too much washing now I am on my own no jeans/shirts/fleeces etc at the minute I am wearing lounging clothes which are changed ever couple of days as I don't go anywhere do I.
Can't wait for warm sunny days.
Gems my sister had one of those heated dryers and she said it made her washing hard compared to her drying on a maiden.

[Daisy]

Oma, I agree J could easily spend a couple of hours holding up the other end of the washing line. I think if I hooked it on to the summer house it would pull the whole place down. 😨😨😨

Glamma, I think a lot of us have relaxed into comfort clothes haven’t we. I’ve got used to not paying much attention to what I’m wearing as long as it’s warm/cool enough. 😁