When I asked recently for reader feedback in terms of what you wanted me to write about, one reader asked for a post about drying laundry in the winter without a dryer. We’ve been in our current house (sans dryer) for more than two years now, and the last year we lived in our old house we didn’t use the dryer at all. So we’re heading into our fourth dryer-free winter. I agree with Penny that dryers are a want rather than a need, although for me personally, I don’t want one. I honestly prefer to live without one.
The one and only downside that I’ve found to not having a dryer is that our bath towels aren’t all nice and fluffy when I put them on the towel rail. But after one or two uses, they feel about the same as they did back in the days when we dried them in the dryer, so I can live with that. There are several upsides to not having a dryer:
- Our clothes last longer
- We get to take advantage of the free stain-bleaching provided by the sun (I love this! It’s especially amazing for diapers).
- No need for dryer sheets (that nice “spring breeze” scent? It’s a bunch of nasty chemicals).
- No need to spend money on a dryer, anti-static sheets, or electricity to run the dryer.
- It’s a chance for us to “walk the walk” in terms of teaching our boys about living lightly on the earth and conserving natural resources whenever possible.
- Stains don’t get accidentally baked into our clothing by the heat of the dryer. Nothing ever shrinks (we always wash in cold water).
Line drying clothing is relatively easy here, because we live in a dry climate. However, we do have about six months a year of quite cold weather (bitterly cold for a few of those months), and there are plenty of snowy days in the winter. And I also spent two years in Africa where there was a “rainy season” that was no joke: It really did rain every day (usually for at least six hours at a time) for two or three months, twice a year. And not only were there no dryers, but clothes had to be washed by hand, in a bucket. Which meant that no matter how hard I wrung them out, when they were hung up to dry (indoors, obviously) they were still a lot wetter than anything that comes out of a washing machine. During the rainy season, it was not unusual for it to take a week for thicker clothing (like my one pair of jeans) to dry. That led to two thing: one, I hardly ever washed my jeans, and two, I tended to wear lightweight clothes that dried relatively fast.
So although I live in an area where most of the time, clothes dry in just a few hours, and I also have the luxury of owning a washing machine that spins most of the water out of the laundry before I hang it up, I know that even without those things, it isn’t really that hard to live without a dryer.
In our old house, there was no space for a clothesline. The backyard was tiny, and the clothesline that I have now (a set of T-poles about twenty feet apart, with four lines) would literally not have fit within our yard. So for the last year that we lived there, I dried all of our clothes on folding racks. I would set them up inside the house on rainy/snowy days, and outside in the back yard on sunny days. It worked well, except when the wind would blow over my drying racks and scatter diapers around. I do prefer having a clothesline and clothespins. But our experience there, with very little outdoor space and no clothesline, made it obvious that we didn’t really need a dryer, especially with lots of room for a clothesline in our new house.
When we bought our new house, there was no washer or dryer here. So we had to purchase them, which made it even easier to forego the dryer – not needing one meant that we didn’t have to spend money to buy one. We got a great second-hand front loading washing machine, and ended up with some extra space in our laundry room by not getting a dryer. My husband found clothesline T-bars at a scrap metal yard soon after we moved in, and we’ve been using them ever since.
With a family of four, I wash about seven loads of laundry a week (clothes, diapers, sheets, etc.) Using a clothesline means that I can’t do all of those loads in one day. So I make an effort to not let laundry pile up. I tend to do about one load a day, which works perfectly. I can fit two loads on my clothesline at one time if I need to, and I do still have a couple of drying racks that I can use for extra space if I get behind and have to wash more than two loads in one day. Diapers have to be done on a pretty regular schedule (otherwise we’d run out of diapers), and I fit the rest of the laundry in around that. If you’re going dryer-free, I highly recommend getting into a routine of washing laundry as soon as you have enough to fill a load, rather than waiting until the laundry pile is the size of a small car.
Unless you live in Phoenix, you’re probably going to have to deal somewhat frequently with weather that isn’t conducive to drying laundry. It is a bit tougher to be dryer-free in the winter, but once you get used to it, it’s not a big deal. Even in the winter, I do use our clothesline quite a bit of the time. Clothes still dry when it’s cold, and the sun still bleaches out stains in the winter (we get plenty of sunny – but freezing cold – days around here in the winter). I do use the portable drying racks more in the winter though, and set them up in the dining room if it’s raining or snowing outside. I have two racks, and I’ve never needed more than that. If I’m going to be using the racks, I put shirts directly on hangers straight out of the washing machine, and hang the hangers over the shower curtain railing. The rest of the load goes on the drying racks and is usually dry within 24 hours. Sometimes during really wet weather, it can take two days, but then I just remind myself of my damp jeans hanging in my mud brick house in Africa for seven or eight days to dry, and I realize how lucky I am.
Any other tips from readers who don’t use a dryer?
Connie says
I live in an apartment and rarely use my dryer. I have a very small balcony so I tie an old extension cord (perfect short-term arrangement) from one side to the other. I dry shirts on a hanger and jeans and towels on the cord. Smaller items are simply draped on the the couch.
I have found that if I try to wash a load that is too big for the amount of water I have the washer set for. The clothes don’t rinse properly, and some clothes end up with quite a bit of lint on them. That has been the only thing I have had to be careful about when line drying.
Amanda says
You just inspired me to stop using my dryer! We’ve been having days over 100 degrees, so it’s purely out of laziness and procrastination that I’m not using it(working on that). More than my towels, I have certain shirts and pants that get too stretched out if I don’t dry them, so I’m trying not to buy things that do that.
Our dryer went out a few months ago. I didn’t want to replace it, but the 4 other people in my household did, and we found one for $20, so we bought it.
Meg says
We have a dryer, but it has been on the fritz over the past couple of months. Personally, I prefer to let my clothes air-dry, but hubby loves his dryer. Typically, I do my laundry and he does his. On days that I do both of our laundry, his clothes go out on the line. We have a retractable clothesline that has 2 lines on it that we use alot of time in the Summer and early Fall. When it starts to get cold, I like to dry my pants on a quilt rack by the fireplace. Not only does it help keep a little bit of moisture in the room, it dries my clothes extremely quick.
We have talked about possibly putting the retractable clothesline on our covered front porch so we wouldnt have to worry about the elements, thought that has not been crossed off the “honey-do list” yet. Luckily, we live out in an area that people hang dry their laundry all the time – so we wouldnt get into trouble.
Maybe one day we will be completely without a dryer. Until then, I will line dry my items and try to get hubby to “come over to the other side.”
christy says
My grandmother has never owned a dryer. She hangs all her clothes on three clotheslines strung across her large basement.
Sunny says
So you don’t wash your diapers in hot water? I think I have my husband washing them in warm but if we could use cold and they would still get clean I’m all for that!
Kaytee says
How do you tell when clothes are dry in the winter when they’ve been line dried? We try to line dry all our clothes in the summer, but it must also coincide with a not-raining weekend day because we both work during the day. I’ve been contemplating the want to replace our washing machine. We have one that we picked up at a yard sale and it works, most of the time. About 1/3 of the time the spin cycle fails to properly spin and our clothes come out as a dripping, sodden mass. We’ve tried a re-spin at the end, but haven’t gotten it work yet. The basement where our w/d reside floods every spring and we only store stuff down there that can get moldy. We’ve opted not to try and dry things in the basement – one of the downsides to renting an apartment rather than owning your own place. You can’t necessarily fix or upgrade things!
Our clothesline is buried in snow during the winter, but we used to have drying racks. Our cat seems to have decided that drying racks covered in clothing are great fun and has pulverized several of them by belly-flopping onto them. I guess we need to find drying racks rated to withstand a jumping force created by a 12 lb cat… or install springs on our drying racks so she bounces off of them.
FrugalBabe says
Sunny – I used to wash diapers in hot water, but I was inspired by The Green Baby Guide to start using cold water and pouring in a little H2O2 with each diaper wash. I haven’t noticed any problems, and I’ve been doing it ever since our baby was born. http://greenbabyguide.com/category/diapers/
Kaytee – LOL about the cat. Our cat likes to hang out under the drying rack when it’s full of clothes, but she’s far to lazy to be jumping around on it.
Leah says
I rarely use a dryer (one exception are the iron-free shirts and pants my husband wears for work, but he wears both multiple times so we usually have one pair of pants and two shirts per week, which makes for a small load to dry). We use racks inside our apartment. The racks can hold two loads, so we also don’t let laundry pile up. To be honest, I don’t even understand people who have difficulty getting laundry done (especially those who use a dryer) — it takes just a few minutes to start/transfer a load, and you can fold while doing almost anything else.
I look forward to someday being able to line dry outdoors, but we don’t own and are not able to put up an outdoor clothesline here. I occasionally carry the racks outside, but most of the time we appreciate the extra humidity indoors.
Amanda, I find that my jeans rebound decently well when I line dry them. I don’t wear super tight jeans, so perhaps that’s why. As far as towels/shirts being “crispy,” I just give them a good shake when I take them off the rack and everything seems to be fine. I totally prefer line drying my clothes. I learned when I studied abroad in the Netherlands (everyone had indoor racks and dryers were few and far between), and I enjoyed it so much that I’ve kept it up ever since.
H says
We live in a small apartment in NYC but rarely use the dryers in the basement. We keep two folding racks in our closet. We do one or two loads a week – the washers are bigger than home size. We often run out of rack space, and then we bring out hangers to hang items on the shower rod and on door knobs. Clothespins also help save space.
We started this to save money but we really noticed how much wear and tear the clothes get. And we also learned that you’re not supposed to machine dry towels if you want to keep them absorbent. I’m from korea and people don’t like to use dryers there because it’s bad for the clothes, so this is normal for me.
I do wish we had a balcony though, it would be lovely to sun dry. But the neighbours might be aghast!
nopinkhere says
I have to admit that my main reason for using my dryer is that for much of the year my clothes/sheets/towels would get covered in some kind of pollen if they hung outside. My house is full enough of other things that I’m not sure where I’d go with drying racks. Hmmm. Have to think.
Kristi says
Thank you for inspiring me not to use my dryer a couple of years ago. We have two racks which live in a spare bedroom. Every other night or so we fold the load on the racks and hang up a new load. We are an older couple with no children. One thing I do is to tumble the wet clothes with no heat for 10 minutes, which really helps with the wrinkles.
Lisa says
My husband and I are fulltime Rvers who travel often to areas with no or questionable laundrymats. So i have been using a wonderclean pressure washing machine, and using gool old wringing technique, i hang these clean garments on a custom built line, or on a line strung between 2 poles or trees, whatever is handy. I have come to love the smell of mtn air on our clothes, and realize we have no exposure to other peoples germs, and dirty laundrymats. I get exercise turning the barrelwasher handle, and also wringing clothes too! its virtually free!
pamela says
Always use the dryer for 1/3 of my laundry..always will!
Heather says
My husband has a laundry line for us that is behind our curtains in our dining room area. He made it to clip to the otherside/window across the room. I turn on the washer while we get ready, hang them first thing in the morning (takes little time), and then unload later when we are back home. We just fluff our curtains out and no guest can see them to question. My family has pollen allergies so we do this all year round and use what sun we get from the windows. Google benefits to sun drying clothes!! Amazing what the sun does.
colleen says
We have a gas forced air heating system so in the winter our clothes actually dry faster on the racks than they do in the summer! I do a load every other day and it works perfect for drying ‘room’ and makes me keep up with the piles when you need the rack space.
Sense says
I throw a little white vinegar in a downy ball with the wash, and my towels and jeans don’t come out ‘crispy’ when they dry.
I live in New Zealand and dryers are extremely rare, plus the clothes there aren’t made very well–a dryer would destroy them after one or two cycles. I was desperate for a fix for the ‘hard towel’ symptoms–I HATE THAT FEELING, so I searched online until I found the vinegar solution. Cheap, no chemicals, and it really works. The vinegar smell is extremely faint after the washer load is done, and it completely goes away once the clothes are dry. Plus, vinegar cuts the detergent and cleans the washer a bit. :)
FrugalBabe says
Sense – I loved putting vinegar in the Downy ball when we lived in our old house with a top-loading washer. I knew that Downy balls don’t work in front loaders, so I haven’t used it since we moved. But your comment reminded me of how much I liked using vinegar in the rinse cycle (and for cleaning everything else around the house!). I’m going to try putting vinegar in the fabric softener dispenser in my washer and see how it works. Should do the same thing, I imagine. I’ve never used the fabric softener dispenser, so we’ll see… thanks for the reminder!
Molly On Money says
For years I had a dryer but didn’t use it in the warmer months. Last summer a mouse climbed into the vent and died (shudder). Rather than fixing it we decided to go without. It was inconvenient but it proved that is was a want and not a need. Our house is small and space is a luxury so we’ve decided to take the dryer out and put our garden seed station in it’s place. Sometimes a good push is all I need to make a change!
Alison says
We don’t use our dryer either, we have one, but I have only used it once in the past year. When we were apartment dwellers I hung a 20 foot computer cord that my dog chewed up as a clothes line, it worked great.
Once we moved into living in houses we’ve been lucky enough to move into homes with existing clothes lines. In the winter I hang everything inside on drying racks or on an extra shower rod over the bath tub. I position the drying racks over air vents & that speeds up the process.
This summer we had many days that were 110 degrees plus humidity & that made hanging wash outside without nearly passing out difficult. It actually got so hot that the plastic coating on my line started melting & leaving marks on our clothes! (I’d say that has been the only negative I’ve ever had to hanging out my clothes.) I ended up putting clothes on the line at dusk, left them up to dry overnight, & then took them down first thing in the morning.
We also use all natural laundry supplies: I make my own laundry soap from Borax, soap, & washing soda, & we use vinegar in the rinse cycle. It washes our clothes, rags, & cloth diapers very well.
I can honestly say that after hanging laundry, I will never go back to using a dryer. I LOVE hanging wash, getting outside, & enjoying the weather. It makes laundry a lot more enjoyable.
Rachel says
We just moved to the UK in May and have no dryer in our flat. This is a first for me and after some trial and error, plus some great suggestions from other dryer-less families, I am finding it pretty easy. Like you FB, I have to be on top of my laundry and not let it pile up. If it is warm out and there is a breeze a load will dry in half a day on our little balcony. If it is cold and wet it could take two days in doors.
All my friends in the US and Canada think it is archaic that I have to hang everything. But I like all the benefits you mention in your piece and electricity is quite expensive here so we’re saving quite a bit without a dryer.
Leigh says
While I quite enjoy reading your blog, I find it ironic that right next to your second and third bullets:
“No need for dryer sheets (that nice “spring breeze” scent? It’s a bunch of nasty chemicals).
No need to spend money on a dryer, anti-static sheets, or electricity to run the dryer.”
Is an advertisement for Bounce… Is it a good idea to criticize the company that pays to advertise on your site?
Frugal Babe says
Leigh,
Good point, although I don’t choose those ads. I’m part of the BlogHer network, which I’ve been in for several years now. They do allow bloggers to opt out of campaigns, and I’ve done so for things that I feel very strongly about (infant formula and political ads that I disagree with are two that I’ve banned, for example). For the most part, however, I let them run whatever ads they pick. They are running constantly-changing ads in that space on my sidebar. I’m not sure if the ads are linked to keywords in my post (which would explain why the Bounce ad showed up in a post about dryers – software like that can’t tell whether the post is positive or negative) or if it was just a coincidence that it’s the ad currently running. BlogHer accounts for a very small chunk of my blog revenue (which is very small overall). The blogs that are in the network are never obligated to recommend a product just because it’s being advertised by BlogHer. We’re simply required to not be running paid promotional posts from other companies next to the BlogHer ads – so no sponsored posts – which is fine with me, as I prefer to keep my content my own.
Laurel says
I love this post. I was laid off my job in 2009 after 28 years in the corporate world, have now started my own artistic business on a shoestring and I practice frugality to allow myself live my life and follow my dream. My dryer’s heat sensor went out about 6 months ago, so nothing actually dries in there. Because I chose not to spend funds on hiring a repairman to fix it at this time. My sister passed on a portable clothes-drying rack to me that she no longer needed, and I dry my clothing on that rack and on hangers hung from the shower rod. I do turn on a couple of fans in the house, and even through the humid summer we have had, the fans generate enough air flow to allow the clothes to dry fairly quickly. I actually enjoy doing my laundry this way. The only draw-back is laundering sheets and blankets. I live in a condo where there is nowhere to hang items this large. I these cases, I do visit the laundromat once or twice per month since I have a couple of sets of sheets to carry through on the off times. When I do visit the laundromat, I wash the sheets and blankets at home and tote them to the laundromat to dry them. I am not sure what it is, but for some reason, I get more of a homey and comforted feeling by hanging my clothing to dry than from stuffing it into a dryer. It just feels better to me.
Great blog, by the way.
Mingus says
Thanks for this blog…I’ve been considering life without a dryer and my family has about 3-4 full sized loads of laundry a week. This has inspired me to go for it and try to stay true to living as green as possible. We are in a tiny 800 sq ft apt but California weather is on our side!
pippi says
I used to line dry all our clothes when it was just me and my husband, but now with two kids, one in (cloth) diapers, and an 800 sq. ft., 2 bedroom apartment I have given up :(. The baby would knock over the rack as the only place to put it is centre of the living room. It takes 24 hours for anything to dry in the summer and 48 in the winter for diapers so my dream of line drying everything is on hold. In the meantime I try to console myself that we save a ton of energy by living in such a small space.