Do You Really Need a Dryer?
Two different recently-married readers contacted me this week about dryers. (Hi Lindsey and Michelle!)
- Michelle wants to know if she should get a washer and dryer, and
- Lindsey bought a washer and no dryer at the beginning of the summer. Now her clothes feel crunchy, and it’s making her crazy!
- Does your line-dryed laundry every smell moldy?
What do you think? Does a person need a dryer? Does that crunch bother you? I thought we could brainstorm a little and come up with some solutions for these girls. And while we’re at it, there’s a third thought that’s come up in the comments sometimes.
Stretch those typing fingers, ladies and gents. Let’s tackle these drying dilemmas!
- When do you need a dryer?
We have some friends in Hamburg, Germany. It is so rainy, overcast, and humid there that their car actually has moss growing on it. You walk around the neighborhoods, and you can tell who has a garage or comes from another part of Germany based on the roof of the car. In Hamburg, Germany, you need a dryer.
I suspect there are plenty of other situations where you might need a dryer.
But I’d rather not buy one. I’d save the money to visit a cute little family in Berlin. (I hear they know of some awesome basil + tomato pizza places…) Or I’d use the money to invest in a higher quality top-loading washing machine like Miele or Bausch that could last for 20+ years, save energy, use less water, and make my whites WHITE, not dingy-white.
Buy a drying rack or line for indoors or outdoors, and see what you think. You don’t have to commit to anything. It’s just so much easier to start without a dryer than to start off with one and decide you don’t want it.
What do you think?
What would you tell Michelle?
- What do you do about the crunch in your air-dryed clothes?
Confession: line drying clothes takes more time. In Europe where line drying is prevalent, everyone I know also wears the same clothes longer. They just don’t do laundry as often as Americans. (Remember my classmates in German class in Berlin?) Clothes are only crunchy at first. If you wear them 2-3 times before washing, that’s a little less crunch in your week.
Sun and breeze help a lot.
I think I’ve heard vinegar in the washer helps. (anyone know?)
I think it’s just something you get used to. It was weird to use my first line-dryed towels. Now I don’t even think about it.
Can you offer Lindsey any advice on coping with the sandpaper feel some line-dryed clothes get?
- Does your line-dryed laundry every smell moldy?
In the middle of January in Berlin, we had no sun and everything was cold, humid, and gloomy.
We had a problem with stinky towels and jeans.
They were not drying fast enough. We put our drying rack by the heater. We aired them outside. And if we would have had sun, we would have put them right in it (the best solution of all). Yes it was a pain. I guess we all have to weigh the pros and cons. One month of struggles is worth the savings of not having a dryer in our apartment. (Where would we even put it?!)
In the Rocky Mountains where it is sunny and where it’s so dry you have to beware of serious lip gloss addictions, we have no problems… except lip gloss addictions. But no moldy smells here.
What about you? Can you offer any suggestions on this topic for struggling Making This Home readers?
Oh and just some last food for thought – make sure you’re preventing the moldly smell in your washing machine with this two-second trick. And here are 4 reasons we love line-drying clothes.
Here’s hoping for a good mid-week (without too much laundry, of course)! I look forward to your thoughts, as I know these lovely ladies do, too.
September 15th, 2010 at 9:02 am
I LOVE the concept of going dryer-less, for both the cost-savings, reduced carbon footprint, and also the space-savings in the home.
If I were in their boats, and it was a priority, I’d try just having a washer first. If it drives you crazy, then get a dryer second.
I have several reasons why I wouldn’t go without, at least in this stage of my life:
1. I have cats and dogs. Their hair gets on everything and drives me bananas. Lint rollers don’t seem to work so well, and they seem so wasteful – all that sticky trash. I like to run the bedsheets through the dryer to get the hair off. I do hang-dry many of my clothes, but then I toss them in the dryer for a few minutes on no heat just to get the hair out.
2. Having 4 pets means you have to do more laundry. (Even though I wear clothes a few times before washing them.) Rags, dog beds, slipcovers. . . I feel like if I line dried everything, I’d need a whole room devoted to the task. :)
3. I can’t stand musty smelling laundry, or crunchy towels. Although I think that if I shook the towels vigorously after drying it might fix it.
September 15th, 2010 at 9:08 am
My husband and I lived in England for over 3 years and we didn’t have a dryer. I’ll be honest, now we’re back in the US in a 1500sq ft rancher and we bought a dryer.
What saved my life during the dark, wet days of England was taking our jeans, sheets, and towels to the laundromat to dry them. Otherwise we found that it took literally days for some of our heavier items to dry.
I also remember resorting to using a hair dryer to dry shirts that didn’t dry overnight and that I desperately needed to wear to work the next day.
September 15th, 2010 at 9:45 am
I didn’t think I had much to add, but I would like to say that I TOTALLY AGREE with Jane!!! Pets really do add a dryer necessity. So much more laundry! Especially with 2 white dogs and a wardrobe that leans towards darker colors. Pet hair is such a challenge, and lint rollers are rather wasteful!
Also, if you work out a lot or go on several sweaty cardio sessions a week, and sometimes more, a washer and dryer are very important. You just go through so much more in the way of clothes with 2 people who are exercising to the point of stinkiness on most days! Lol, gross, but true.
September 15th, 2010 at 10:02 am
Hamburg, Germany sounds a lot like Portland, Oregon – impossible to line dry during the winter (rain, rain, rain and even more rain!). Would a liquid fabric softener help with the “crunchiness”? It’s not always the green alternative, but I know 7th Generation makes a good one that I use frequently. Just a thought???
September 15th, 2010 at 10:19 am
I’ve gone back to line-drying most of my clothes and all of our kitchen & bed linens – I did this all the time in my early married years until we could afford a washer & dryer of our own. Now that the kids have come and gone and our laundry pile is greatly reduced, my return to line drying is an effort to save on the electric bill and, in some ways, to be ‘green’ – and I DO love the smell [by the way, I still have that same Maytag dryer, 27 yrs later]. As for crunchy towels, actually they offer a nice scrub-down after the shower that makes me feel even cleaner.
September 15th, 2010 at 11:00 am
I love my dryer rack, but here in damp western Washington state, I am very thankful to have a dryer, too. What I do is dry my laundry on the rack overnight, then fluff it on a low dryer setting with a Seventh Generation dryer sheet tossed in the next day. I have seen a big difference in my utility bills, and, even better, I feel I am doing a little something for our precious planet. With this method, our laundry comes out wonderfully soft and it smells great.
September 15th, 2010 at 11:58 am
Actually the “crunchiness” (boy would the greeks laught with this “problem”) IS caused by using softener when washing. Apparently the softener ruins the fabric. And I found this out myself, too, a year ago when I started using white vinegar instead of softener. All the new, unused bath and kitchen towels that only had been washed with vinegar are still as good as new. My old ones are still stiff though. The same thing happened with the jeans. They get amazingly soft with the vinegar treatment.
Does someone need a dryer? If she lives somewhere that rains 200/365, has 5 children, a job and a husband to feed then I’d say yes! Otherwise…no! Too much waste in energy. Nothing beats the smell of sun dried clothes, provided you do have some sun.
It’s also therapeutic. There is something really soothing when I line dry clothes.
Imo, the new washers that spin really fast and hard, leave the clothes almost dry. Alas with wrinkles.
Extra info: did you know that the sun helps remove stains from clothes? From tomato sauce to rust to poop stains on cloth diapers, it’s like magic!
September 15th, 2010 at 12:14 pm
We need the dryer. Our area of Germany is just too damp. Also, the waistband of my husbands pants always seem to go sour. At first we thought the sour on his pants was b/c they just weren’t clean, but even after 60 C wash temps we still had that problem. Unless it’s the dead of summer, the pants always have to spend 10 min in the dryer. Yes, even new pants of different brands. Go figure. I also hate crunchy towels. Even after 2 uses they’re still ‘crunchy’ to me and it makes me crazy! =P
Wrinkle-resistant shirts only seem to be as such when they’re dried in the dryer – another reason for the dryer. My husband wears collared, button-down shirts 6 days a week, and since I detest ironing we buy wrinkle-resistant. I tried air drying back when we didn’t have a dryer here and it achieved only so-so results (ie, not wrinkle free enough).
I will say I air dry as much as possible, even towels (in the summer), b/c electricity is so much more over here, but for us a dryer has proved to be very important!
September 15th, 2010 at 1:37 pm
I live in England and don’t own a dryer. I line dry in the summer and use drying racks in the winter/wet weather. I have a floor standing rack, use racks that hang over the radiators and a small hanging rack lives in my airing cupboard where the boiler/hot water tank is.I also use fabric softener to prevent my laundry from feeling stiff!
September 15th, 2010 at 1:58 pm
We live in Portland, Oregon and because of the damp weather we find that we do need our dryer more than we did when we lived in Idaho. However, our “laundry room” was built in such a way that we have to leave an 18″ gap between the washer and dryer for the forced air heating vent on the floor. In the fall, winter and early spring we just hang our clothes above the vent and cut down on using extra electricity that way. The clothes are a little crunchy and slightly wrinkled but a quick swipe with the iron takes the crunch (and of course the wrinkles) away.
September 15th, 2010 at 3:02 pm
Add Vancouver to the list of places where you need a dryer. (Sad but true!) I’ve been trying out the vinegar-to-make-clothes-softer trick and haven’t actually noticed any difference whatsoever. {Shrug}.
September 15th, 2010 at 5:30 pm
I thought that in Europe the machine to have was one that washed AND dried the clothes. Listening to all of you I’m beginning to doubt that info. :)
September 15th, 2010 at 6:40 pm
I use vinegar and I like the results. I hang most of my clothes up (and I do have 5 kids). We do also have a dryer, but use it only when it’s raining. Our area is in a drought right now because of lack of rain, so it’s been a while since we’ve used it.
September 15th, 2010 at 6:56 pm
When I was a new mom with a baby who spit up alot and a great distance,
I needed those towels, sheets, and clothes dried rather quickly and I’m grateful
I had a washer and dryer in the home. Living in Seoul with school age kids
and in a korean high rise apt, the clothes actually got dirtier in my opinion from
hanging on the line because of all the city polution or mold from humid or rainy days.
Back in Calif, we’re happy to hang dry most of our clothes. Jeans must be washed
first thing in the morning though in order to be dry by dinner time. I agree with
Juliette, though if you have a husband or yourself who wears button down, collared shirts
then a dryer is the way to go. Just an idea, put the money aside now for a dryer in the
future incase your baby decided to be one who spits up all the time and you don’t have
a closet full of linens to pull out every time and clothes to change into. A dryer just
might be needed baby equipment.
September 15th, 2010 at 7:15 pm
I am commenting on your link to the moldy smell for front load washers. I have cloth rags in a basket above the washer and when I am done with the washer I wipe out the gasket (which is full of water). I mop up all the water in there and then leave the door to the washer open overnight. Also, when I wash towels I throw in some Borax (1/2cup). That takes care of any funny smells as well. In my opinion it works even better than baking soda (which I have also tried and works fine as well).
I line dry everything except the jeans and anything heavy. Like jackets and sweaters that are OK to be in the dryer. So I run about one dryer load a week for four or five washer loads. In the winter I also dry the towels in the dryer. But I don’t mind the stiff scratchy towels from line drying either.
September 15th, 2010 at 7:23 pm
Detergent/soap remaining in your clothing can make the fabric crunchy. To test, place a clean (laundered) washcloth in a bowl of warm water. Give it a THOROUGH hand washing in the water, and see if there are ANY suds in the bowl when you wring out the washcloth. If there are lots of suds, you know that you can use less detergent/soap from now on! Maybe even run a couple of loads with NO soap to use up the residual that is already in the clothes.
I use MUCH less detergent in the washing machine than it calls for (about one-quarter…but see what works for your own family), and I have no complaints, although I do use an enzyme additive (Biz) on certain loads. I follow the rinse cycle with a SECOND rinse just because I dislike the strong smell of detergents that are not thoroughly washed out… although strong-smelling detergents in your clothing will keep mosquitoes away! LOL! (True!)
We use a dryer here near Austin, TX, because of high humidity most of the time. I keep my washing machine door open, to dry, too, before closing it… and no smells… except the one time it got closed.
Kathryn Kistner in Texas
September 15th, 2010 at 8:50 pm
I have a passel of kids, including a bed wetter, so a dryer comes in very handy. When the sheets, blanket, quilt and mattress pad need to be dry by bed time, a dryer is necessary. Also my husband has to wear dress pants and shirts to work. Putting them in the dryer saves a lot of time that would be needed for ironing. One thing that never goes in the dryer is my shirts. I am tall and shirt sleeves are always just barely long enough. If something accidently goes in the dryer the sleeves end up too short. So for us, somethings we dry in the dryer and somethings get hung up. I will say though that I can’t hang anything out on a line (I can only use an inside rack) because of the birds in my yard. We have a yard full of trees and anything that gets left out in the yard gets bird droppings on it.
September 16th, 2010 at 12:07 am
When we lived in China for 2 years we went without a dryer (there were none for sale in our city). Our towels were crunchy, and in the rainy winter months our clothes smelled like mildew. Even on nice sunny days, our clothes came in from the line stinking–from pollution. When it was really humid and rainy (which it was for about 8 months a year), our towels and bedding would NOT dry, so we resorted to spending hours ironing them dry each time we washed them. Ah, memories! Despite the difficulties, though, we learned that we really don’t NEED a dryer. The other 3 million residents of our Chinese city didn’t (and still don’t) have them, and we all got by just fine without.
Where we live now (Taipei, Taiwan), we need a dryer. It rains more here than in the Amazon Basin. Crazy, but true! When it’s summer and the air is drier sometimes (under 80% humidity), I do hang up a lot of our clothes. But there are times when I don’t have a choice but to use a dryer, or some things never, ever get dry.
My tips:
Vinegar in the wash for softness and to reduce odors.
Baking soda and/or hot water for mildew smells.
Running an iron over freshly line-dried clothes or sheets removes the crunchy feeling.
September 16th, 2010 at 6:59 am
I live in London in a tiny flat. Our kitchen is only 36 square feet (sound familiar?!), the flat in total only has 600 sqaure feet and we have no garden or other outdoor space. I can only dream about the day I get to move with my husband into our first grown up, purchased house.
The very, very first thing on my list when that glorious day arrives is to buy a dryer. That and a clothes line for the garden as I miss being able to let sheets dry outdoors.
Laundry always ends up on the radiators and clothes dryers in my living room, and the weird slow-dried smell is sometimes a problem. I do find that my steam generating iron sorts out any crunchy textures, and I do use vinegar in the wash sometimes too as DH is very allergic to fabric softener.
Oh, and combi washer dryer machines are terrible in my experience. I’ve lived in 4 apartments that have had them, and every one was inefficent or badly vented. The machine we currently have has a drying setting too, but we never use it as it seems to steam the clothes at a scalding temperature and uses a huge amount of electricity for very little result.
September 16th, 2010 at 7:00 am
Here in Calgary, it feels like I am the only one air-drying clothes. This year has been so rainy that we haven’t been able to use our outdoor line much. Our indoor rack is right over a heat vent, and heavy items take about a day to dry. As we do have a dryer, I put dry jeans and towels in it with a dryer ball for about five minutes, which takes care of the crunchiness and a lot of wrinkles. Our utility bills have gone down substantially since I began air-drying, but the main reason I do it is to preserve the environment for our kids.
September 16th, 2010 at 7:16 am
Conquering the Crunchy:
We never dry our jeans in the dryer, but I can’t stand that they can stand up on their own when we are done air drying them. My husband found the perfect solution. Buy your favorite fabric softener sheets and give the jeans a rub down with a few sheet before you hand them up to dry. No more crunchy, but that nice clean smell you love.
September 16th, 2010 at 8:42 am
Have been reading your blog for a while now and really love it…thanks so much for sharing your life with us! We started line drying our clothes in any nice weather (even very cold, but sunny) to save on the utility bill. Here’s an anti-crunch tip: use 1/2 cup of white vinegar (for a regular load; a bit more for largfer loads) in the rinse cycle and your clothes will remain nice and soft. Strange as it may seem, I kind of like the crunch!
September 16th, 2010 at 1:29 pm
I try to go eco everytime I can, so I use vinegar as softener and I think it’s great. I add some drops of my favorite essential oil (lavender) and tea tree too (antibacterial). The final smell is good (absolutely no vinegar smell!) and it’s good for the dishwasher too! Ciao!
September 16th, 2010 at 2:48 pm
Like most people in Sydney , I own a dryer, but only use it when we have extended rain periods, and I’ve never seen a dryer sheet, though I understand it’s a cloth impregnated with wax (which causes dryer fires when it clogs the vent). Most of the time, my washing is outside on the washing line. I have no idea what this “crunchiness” is that you are all talking about and think that perhaps your clothes aren’t being rinsed properly, or your towels are made of cheap cotton. Very quick drying will make clothes hard, so you should put your drying rack in the shade or take the clothes in as soon as they are dry.
If you don’t have sunlight or heat, you need a current of (dryish) air to dry your clothes on an indoor rack.
The way to prevent mould in washing machines is to leave the lid open until the machine is throughly dry. In fact, unless you have an active kitten, there’s no reason to close it.
September 17th, 2010 at 1:18 am
Crunchy chicken http://www.thecrunchychicken.com has a ‘hang your laundry’ challenge for October, for anyone who would like a nudge to hang more and dry less.
I live in (damp) England, with 3 children (1 bedwetter), a husband who wears black uniform (DD1 also has black school uniform) and 2 fawn coloured dogs and no dryer. 2 of the children at any one time were in cloth nappies.
It is possible. Yes, my clothes and towels are a bit stiff, and a bit scratchy, (though I use soapnuts, so I don’t get detergent build up) but I can live with that. Stiffness goes very quickly, and on the scale of things, my crunchy jeans are not worth the energy it would take to worry about them (personal and electric). I don’t notice anymore.
Big stuff like sheets, mattress protectors and towels are dried over the bannister or over internal doors if the weather is bad. I dry stuff on airers in the winter, so they can be whisked in or out according to the weather (obviously an impossible luxury in a flat). On wet days that I’m at work, I dry by radiators, our hot water boiler or the fire.
September 17th, 2010 at 1:24 pm
Thanks so much for the tips! I can’t wait to try out the vinegar and im pretty sure i’m using too much detergent. Thank you Katie for putting my question up so we could get some answers! w00t for line drying.
September 18th, 2010 at 10:08 am
For Michelle, about the dryer – it really, really depends on your situation. I’ve lived without a dryer but right now, I feel like I REALLY need one. I have 8 kids and in my neighborhood, you’re not allowed to have an outside clothesline. We live in a very hot climate and our AC runs 2/3 of the year; hanging that many clothes (and adding to the humidity) is almost impossible space wise, would overtax our AC unit (which has a dehumidifier), which would make my landlord very, very unhappy. Our home was built in the last decade and was NOT built for self-sustainable living.
So it depends on climate (if you live in a perpetually damp area, or very humid area, clothes can take days to dry), life situation, and local ordinances.
About moldy clothes – if we end up with moldy towels or mildew, I take them outside to dry in the full sun! Works every time.
Sure fire cure for stinky/smelly/sour wash:
Wash once in plain water, NO SOAP.
Wash again w/ half or even 1/4 as much soap as you usually use, but fill the fabric softener cup up with plain vinegar.
If smells remain, lay it in the sun.
September 23rd, 2010 at 12:54 pm
i love the smell of clothes dried on the line outside. love it, love it, love it. That said, we can’t do it in the winter because we have damp, cold winters. But, inside is fine int hew inter because the heaters dry the inside air quite effectively – and with it, our clothes.
We have a washer and dryer, but try to avoid using the dryer. I don’t mind crunchy towels; I like the massage effect and find they actually dry better than ones that are too fluffy. And I like the fact that sunshine acts as a disinfectant. We have created a ‘socks-n-undies’ load that we wash in hot (the only load except sheets that we wash in hot), and we will use the dryer for that load specifically. socks and undies take a long time to hang!
lived in europe for six years. never had a dryer there. none of my relatives do, either. and they’re all good. even with families and/or pets.
September 25th, 2010 at 5:49 am
I did not replace my drier a couple years ago when it died. I dry everything now on a couple clothes drying racks. Here is what I do for the crunchy issue, first rinse with white vinegar it gets our more of the left over soap than just adding more chemicals to your laundry. Then I vigorously shake every article of clothes before putting it on the rack. This seems to shake out the wrinkles from laying in the washer. Then I go through the same shaking routine when the are dry. They are then soft enough for me.
I think for the energy and environment I can live with towels that are not soft. Plus I think they actually dry better when they are not soft. Another thing I have did when I need to replace a towel I am replacing it with a chamis towel. They are little more expensive up front but they are really easy to wring the water out of and dry in a matter of what seems like minutes compared to regular cotton towels.
October 7th, 2010 at 9:07 am
I prefer dryer, have Miele and don’t have to iron anything because it has some special way to dry and smooth allt ogether. I don’t like to see a drying rack in my apartment, it is ugly for me and in the winter I would have to wach it every day and would need every day more then one rack in a room (taking about space) since I wash a lot – having cats.
My dryer is on the top of the washing mashine…
“I like to run the bedsheets through the dryer to get the hair off. I do hang-dry many of my clothes, but then I toss them in the dryer for a few minutes on no heat just to get the hair out.”
Oh yes, this also!
For dryer free option maybe to use fabric softener?
I also do sports and have special bras, pants etc. and I need this every second day
But i do use very small amount of deterdgent (1/3 of a former amount) since I use my eco washing ball
http://www.betterware.co.uk/images/default/en/catalogue/alt/medium_1/056506.jpg
Every 2 months or so I wash my bedcover (2 x 2 m) and 3-4 big blankets, it would take days in humid winter to dry that…