Not everyone is lucky enough to have a garden or balcony so that you can hang your laundry outside to dry. But sometimes it is also rainy weather for days that forces you to hang your laundry inside of your house.
However, since drying laundry indoors can be tricky, you will find some helpful drying laundry indoor tips in this post.
The best way to dry clothes indoors
In order to be able to dry laundry indoors as effectively as possible, it is imperative that you ensure that there is good ventilation to avoid mold in your house. In cold weather, 5-15 minutes of intermittent ventilation a day is sufficient, while in warm weather it is best to leave the window open all the time. Give your fabrics enough space to dry and, if possible, don’t hang up too much laundry at once.
The advantages of drying your clothes indoors
If you dry your laundry in the air instead of using a dryer, you can save a lot of money in your everyday life. Because not only the purchase of a dryer but also its operation can sum up to quite some money at the end of the month.
But drying indoors can not only save money but also time – set up the drying rack and off you go. In this way, you save yourself the way to the garden or outside.
If the laundry dries inside, the weather outside doesn’t matter. Even with spontaneous summer rain, the laundry doesn’t get wet again and even in a storm, the laundry stays exactly where it is.
The disadvantages of drying indoors
The main disadvantage of drying clothes indoors is the risk of mold. Wet laundry increases the humidity inside of the room. The risk of mold increases especially in the cold season, when the window cannot stay open all day and the walls are cold.
Unfortunately, the high humidity can also have another major disadvantage: the musty smell. Even if you are already following all our tips for fragrant laundry, your laundry might smell musty again after hanging (you will find the solution for this later in this article).
Another big disadvantage of hanging laundry in the house is the space factor. Not everyone has enough space in their home to set up a clothes horse without any problems. Especially when the laundry takes longer to dry, the drying rack just keeps getting in the way.
Drying clothes indoors solutions
The laundry needs enough space to dry
Make sure you hang the pieces of your laundry far enough apart and allow them enough space to dry. Items of laundry that hang on top of each other often take longer to dry.
Good ventilation is essential
The most important aspect of indoor drying is good ventilation of the room where your laundry is hanging. In the cold season, you should therefore open the window at least once a day for 5-15 minutes. During the warm months, it is best to leave the window tilted or fully open all day so that the moist air can constantly escape to the outside.
At the latest, when moisture settles on the windows, this is a sign of excessive humidity in the room. Unfortunately, humidity in the house can quickly lead to mold growth. Such mold stains on the walls are not only bad for your home, but can also be harmful to your health. Therefore, you should always ensure good ventilation when drying your laundry.
If you don’t want to rely on ventilation, you can also set up a dehumidifier in the room. This device filters the water from the air and thus prevents unwanted mold growth. You can find dehumidifiers in electronics stores or on Amazon here.
Your laundry dries faster when it’s warm
If you want to dry your laundry as quickly as possible, you should ensure that the room is sufficiently warm. An example of this is to place the drying rack in the sun, if possible. If you rely on heating, you should consider that the wet laundry in combination with the warm heating air ensures even more humidity. It is, therefore, crucial that you ensure sufficient ventilation in the room.
Well spun is half dry
The longer your washing machine’s spin cycle runs, the drier the laundry will be when it comes out of the machine. In this way, the laundry not only dries faster but also releases less moisture into the air.
So pay attention to the number of revolutions per minute when buying a new machine. Because the more spinning revolutions the machine performs per minute, the more moisture is pressed out of the laundry and the faster your clothes will dry.
Shake it
Before the laundry is placed on the drying rack or hanger, make sure to shake it out a little. This will help your laundry to expand so that moisture can not accumulate in folds or clothes knots. This can also reduce wrinkles and subsequent ironing time.
The big ones come first
When hanging your laundry, it is best to start with the largest items. This dress code allows you to better distribute your laundry when hanging it. By doing so you will prevent the laundry pieces from hanging on top of one another, as you can simply hang the small pieces in between at the end.
Timing is everything
When it comes to washing clothes, everyone has their own personal favorite time. Some swear by washing their laundry in the morning so that the laundry can dry in the sunlight that shines through your windows during the day and thus dry faster. In addition, washing clothes is often done in one day, as you can put the dry laundry back in the closet in the evening.
Others swear by washing clothes in the evening. Like this, the laundry can dry overnight and don’t get in the way when walking around the house during the daytime. Since the clothes rack hardly disturbs when you sleep at night.
When it has to be fast
A great tip if you want to dry your laundry as quickly as possible is to use a fan. Simply turn it on facing your laundry. When the fan starts the movement of the air, it causes the laundry to move with it. Because of the movement, the laundry dries even faster. Perhaps you’ve already noticed that your laundry dries way quicker outside when it’s a little windy.
FAQ about drying laundry indoors
Is drying laundry over the radiator dangerous?
This question is difficult to answer across the board. It all depends on which radiator model you are using. Even if the risk of fire is quite low with most modern models, the risk of mold increases despite drastically everything. In addition, drying your clothes on the radiator often creates a musty smell. It is therefore generally not recommended.
Can I dry my laundry in the basement?
In theory, there is nothing wrong with drying your laundry in the basement. Boiler rooms in particular are a welcome alternative for many, as the laundry doesn’t get in your way this way. However, it is important to make sure that the basement is properly ventilated, otherwise, your clothes can smell musty and mold might start to grow on the walls. So make sure that the humidity in the basement is not too high.
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