Drying washing indoors

Not if it makes the air too full of moisture, especially if there are sufferers from asthma and/or eczema in the house. People tend not to open windows in the winter and if there is no ventilation, there is nowhere for the moisture to go. Double glazing and insulation mean that there are no longer cracks and crevices that would have helped get rid of the moisture in the atmosphere in the past. Also we do far more washing far more frequently these days than our parents' generation did.

I open windows! (Just for a little while)

We've had a thread on that!

The 'news' article looks like bullshit to me. It doesn,t say where the other two thirds of the moisture comes from — people, perhaps, and too much sealing up?

I agree with absent about ventilation being important.
We dry washing in the house every winter. The house is drier inside now than it was when we came to live here during August six years ago. It hadn't been lived in for a year. Clearly our use of the house, including having heating on and in spite of drying the washing, has improved the internal atmosphere. It's better aired than it was during that empty year.

Ultimate test: the salt in the salt pig doesn't clog up any more; it did for the first few months.

PS It's always damper OUTSIDE!

So I guess air movement is what makes the difference. This used to be well known.

Trouble is, I always forget to close the windows until I realise I'm freezing!

Isn't that the usual way to tell when it's time to close the windows?

I dry indoors and always thought it would help keep air moist. Now will open a window or two as well.

I would think that the added moisture that's in the air from washing being dried indoors can be a good thing, too, though. Sometimes I hang a 'thing with water in it' from the radiators to avoid too dry an atmosphere, but if washing's being dried indoors, there's no need for this.
I remember my mother having a clothes horse holding wet washing, in front of the coal fire in the winter. That fire was the only heating in the house, and I think that was one of the reasons my mother used to buy dark-coloured clothes a lot....one of her favourite phrases was, "That's a good colour to buy - you won't be able to see the muck in it...." !

OK BAGS!!!

Exactly, marelli. People have been drying washing indoors forever. It's only recently that they've also been told they have to block every possible air inlet. So it's the modern lack of ventilation that's the problem, not the drying of washing.

Everyone used to have a 'maiden' on a pulley for drying washing. The damp climate of the West of Scotland made this a necessity. When the children were small, I used the radiators for drying their clothes. Their little trousers didn't need ironing as the radiators did the job perfectly. Still works for my own trousers if they're synthetic.

My conservatory gets any afternoon sun and is ideal for drying washing on wet days - I haven't noticed an increase in the humidity in the air (I also have a running water feature in the conservatory).

I do like fresh air though so windows are often open all day, only being closed when I go out or when it starts to get dark

What else can people do if you dont have a lot of room in your house or access to a washing line out doors? Tumbler dryers take up space, are expensive to buy and run. Unless vented outside they still produce a lot of condensation.
I am lucky to have space in a spare room indoors to hang clothes.

I remember the clothes horse standing in front of the coal fire. Yuk cold and damp!

I put washing outside when possible. It dries better where we live now than it ever did at my parents home in Bristol where the atmosphere seemed perpetually damp.
I have a pullout overhead rack in the utility room that is a Godsend for smalls. Its not pretty but that is what the utility room is for.

I don't quite understand the bit about central heating, drying the air in the house. Warm air actually carries a lot more moisture than cold air and when it is very cold and frosty the air outside is very dry.

So is it the dry cold outside atmosphere not providing the atmospheric moisture in the first place or the central heating that makes the house dry?


Do we have any science bods aout there that can answer that one for me?

I put my washing next to a dehumidifier. That also causes a flow of air as well. Take it out of the washing machine; tumble dry it for just a few minutes, hang it up next to the dehumidifier and it dries crease free. Haven't used an iron for years.

What a great idea crimson. I've got a dehumidifier and was going to give it away, but that's a good use for it!

A friend of my husbands who was always very 'careful' with his money told us about that when dehumidifiers first came out; I reckoned if he found it cost effective it must be. Mind you, not sure how having a dehumidifier on for quite a long time compares to having a tumble dryer on for less time.

I don't own a dryer, can't afford one and couldn't afford to run it. My son and his wife have one but they have 3 adults and two little children. So it's not a luxury and it would mean a great deal of clothes being hung around their house.
I have a clothes dryer/horse. As I'm on my own I do hang washing up on the dryer when it's wet outside. This country is always damp in the winter, even on a sunny day. It's bright sunshine outside today, I put out my duvet cover,bottom sheet and pillow cases to dry at 9.30am. Just been out to check them, they are no drier then when I put them out.(it's now 3.pm]

It'll smell lovely though dorset I love the smell of washing hung outside

Does anyone find that fan ovens transfer cooking smells more onto damp clothes drying inside, than non-fan ovens do? My oven isn't fan (old) but when grandsons come to stay I often notice their clean clothes smell of cooking. Daughter has a fan oven which I think accounts for it.

I don't say anything!

I live in one of the wettest parts of the country. I've never felt the need for a dehumidifier and I dry my washing indoors for several months every year.

Can't think what you can all be doing to have damp houses.

Too many baths Bags?