Clothes Drying Advice please ?

Had just hung out a line full of sheets and bed linen and in the space of a few minutes or so the heavens opened (stair rods and hailstones), stopping me from getting it back in. It is dripping wet now but at least, fir the time being, rain has eased off.

i just hang things on rails on radiators, always have, also from picture rails, and shelf above doorway in loo.
obviously windows are kept slightly open, and nothing here is air-tight anyway !
not even water tight but that's another issue.
i see nothing ugly at all in the sight of clean laundry, i rather like it.
i often feel unusual on this site, so i don't expect agreement. each to her own.

Airing cupboards and tumble dryer.

I’ve just remembered my DM had a drying cabinet thing - about the same size as a washing machine, white steel, with a lift off lid and a row of wooden rails inside to hang the clothes over/on. I think it was useless, but wish I could remember the name of it!

welbeck I just love ❤️ the smell of line dried washing (I am a self confessed laundry sniffer)
But …..if a subtle fabric conditioner is used, then it can be just as pleasant indoors as long as the condensation doesn’t build up.
Drawback? The pup is partial to socks (and knickers) whether washed and hanging on radiators or from the dirty linen basket?

Probably a Flatley Georgesgran. I had ine and it worked fine. .

I hand washing outside whenever possible, if the flagstones are dry or drying then out it goes.
Failing that I have a conventional clothes rack and only use the tumble dryer for towels and bedding.
It really doesn’t bother me having clothes drying in the living room or spare bedroom ?

Thank you for starting this thread Fanny! I’ve been wondering how to get washing dry on wet days without resorting to the tumble dryer.
When I lived in an apartment in Switzerland ( several decades ago) we used drying lines under the ( draughty) roof space, which seemed to work well on wet days.
So inspired by the Swiss roof space lines, my husband has kindly put up a line in the apex of our small barn, so that I can dry shorter items over the bikes etc. It’s a bit awkward to access to peg items out, except at the ends.
I’ve seen lines that stretch over streets in warmer climates ( in films) with a pulley system to pull the washing in and out from high above the street. Does anyone know what these pulley systems are called?
A couple of friends have the Lakeland heated dryer and find them very useful and much cheaper to run than a tumble dryer.
My mother used to hang sheets to dry from the landing over the stair well, which helped drop out the creases.

rooms, the house generally, must be well-ventilated of course.
some younger friends of mine were having problems with mould in their rented flat.
it was modern, double-glazed, warm.
i was puzzled, until it came to light that they never opened any windows, ever, except in hot summer.
they knew nothing about trickle vents in windows.
i explained and no further problem.
this should have been explained when they took the flat. they come from a tropical climate and things are totally different there.
i often hear of mould in flats and wonder if younger people do not understand about ventilation. seems obvious to me. but guess it depends on experience.

George’s gran- my GM had a similar drying cabinet- but I don’t remember what it was called- possibly GM called it an airer? She did not have an airing cupboard. I suspect the heated airers are the modern equivalent?

I found a photo of the Flatley. Ours had been mum's but she gave it to us to dry the baby clothes when we lived in a top floor flat.

and the selling points!

That’s the one I had . We were in a second floor flat with no outside space and it did the job well.

i think they have things like that in Canada, often built-in. but newer safer fittings, of course.

12 Guineas was two weeks wages , think of today’s equivalent!
I must have got mine second hand.

12guineas was a lot but the Lakeland dryer starting around £100 isn't cheap either. I'd need to save from my pension.
A new launderette has opened near us. Perhaps I should use it. The machines are big enough to wash duvets.

www.revolution-laundry.com/en-uk/

It was a Flatley. Thank you GNs who remembered. It was driving me potty!

Germanshepherdsmum

I have seen the dryers in the Lakeland catalogue and they look good. Cheap to run too. I would feel more confident buying from them (as I often do) than getting a similar item from Amazon.

Sorry GSM thought I had said mine is a Lakeland one bought through Amazon. £30 cheaper and no delivery charge. I have got it up right now as the rain hasn't stopped here for days!

I’d be careful about condensation when drying clothes in the house. For some reason, a few years ago , I put a clothes horse in the living room and I had black mould growing behind some of my furniture. It was a huge time consuming job getting rid of it. Up until then I’d dried the washing in the hallway next to a radiator and a dehumidifier. So any drying of clothes indoors needs to be ( imo) done in conjunction with a dehumidifier. I’ve always tended to dry washing in the house after finding bees in my washing when hung outside to dry. It doesn’t seem to happen to other people. But when I heard a buzzing in my washing basket one day and found a bee inside my sons jeans it freaked me out and I never got over it.

I've just dried my washing overnight using the 20L dehumidifier in a closed room, it collected over ten litres of water.

I'm very nervous of condensation here as I've just had all the floors replaced because of mould, I'm saving for a positive ventilation unit in the loft.

DH couldn’t bear washing drying indoors (dates from our having to dry towelling nappies round the open fire) so I have a posh drying rack in the garage which has moved with us from house to house but dry outside if I can. Tumble dryer was a godsend when DH was creating an inordinate amount of laundry but only use it to finish things off and fluff up towels. Still have a hot water cylinder in the airing cupboard which is also very useful.

I line dry wherever possible and use the tumble dryer to finish off, or when the weather’s really bad, or just pop things on the radiators if they’re nearly dry. I can’t stand a damp atmosphere so wouldn’t ever hang wet clothes around our Victorian house.

We bought a Lakeland 3 tier dryer and cover when some of the family were living with us for a few months over winter and had clothes that couldn’t go in the dryer (they’re much posher than us ). I found it very slow to dry things and did notice some condensation from it, even with the cover on. When I checked out the cost of drying a full load the tumble dryer was marginally cheaper, and of course much faster. But even if the line dryer were more economical it’d take forever to recoup the initial cost.

The Lakeland did come into its own as an emergency heater when our boiler was out of action for a few days last winter. I wouldn’t want it as a permanent feature in a living area though.

I wish someone would reinvent the Flatley! We had a second hand one for years, it was brilliant! Doubt if the originals would pass Health and Safety these days, but with a few tweaks I’m sure they could make a comeback!

We all probably wash our clothes too often anyway.
A df whose adult son lives at home plonks his "dirty" clothes to be laundered every day. Df sniffs them and hangs out most back in his wardrobe. He never notices.

That's amazing about the 10L of water in the dehumidifier Razza

Do you remember those wooden airers popular when my DC were small? Beloved by Shirley Hughes, the children used to turn them into play houses.
They are probably collectors' items on Antiques Roadshow.