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hi does any1 hav any ideas for drying clothes and nappies? dont have a tumble dryer and it seems as soon as i put washing outside it rains , have got 2 clothes airers inside but no room 4 more and takes ages 2 dry hav got huge pile of washing getting a bit depressing and with toddler , baby and messy partner the clothes just keep coming lol any suggestions apprecieated

1. Buy a tumble dryer (AAA rated).
2. Go to a launderette.

Persevere.....

Get your OH to be a bit more careful, or make him wear overalls or something, he really doesn't need to be adding to your workload..... Set your clothes horses infront of a radiator or window... try to keep humidity levels down in your house....

We dry on a clotheshorse, a pulley above the woodburner, and outdoors anytime it is dry.... I do go mad getting everything washed when the weather is good as it makes all the difference getting stuff hung out, even just for a few hours.

It can be done

thanks 4 the ideas

Might sound a bit obvious - but does your washing machine spin effectively?? I'm assuming that you don't wash by hand here!

I remember visiting a friend just after her baby was born and she was in tears about her washing. I rolled up my sleeves to help out and discovered that her washing machine was hardly spinning the wash and everything was coming out of the machine dripping wet. Things like jeans and woollies were taking ages to dry and ending up a bit smelly. As she didn't have the cash for a new washer, she bought a cheapo spin dryer on ebay - made getting stuff dry much easier.

Check yours is working OK then make sure you spin stuff as dry as you can. Then, if it vaguely dry outside, get it on the line or, as Annpan suggests, plonk your airers near a window. Also, I had one of those round thingies with little pegs on you can hang on the line - I used to put the little things like baby/toddler socks and vests etc on it. If it rained, I could whip it straight off the line (saves time in the rain too!) and hang it in the airing cupboard or over a radiator.

Alternatively, send OH to launderette!

I have a sheilamaid and it's fantastic - it's one of those airer things that hangs up on a pulley system on the ceiling. We picked ours up (minus the cording at a carboot sale for £2.50.

Mine is above the hearth over the wood burner - so things do dry real well there, if you don't have a fire, somewhere warm / breezy or both would be a good place to put one.

Mine's helped dry nappies and overalls for two small and a mechanic / woodsman / lorry driver of a husband! And I don't know where I'd be without it.

Lorna x

i have/had similar issue. i would suggest putting clothes through an extra spin after the wash has finished.
what about putting clothes airer over the bath. you can get radiator airers for a couple of pounds at places like wilkinsons.
in the past i've been known to put clothes over the bannister on the stairs, over radiators (turning them approx every 20 mins) and big towels over internal doors. i have 3 airers that i used in the winter.

I've resorted to a dehumidifier. I have a damp problem in my laundry room anyway and so a friend lent me one. It's fantastic as clothes dry overnight.

Spinning is good as well as long as it's something you don't want to iron, so for nappies it'd be ideal. Do you have a fast spin setting on your washing machine? If the weather's rubbish then I wash all my stuff on a gentle wash which only does a gentle spin. But then I take out the stuff that doesn't want to be spun and put the rest back in on a fast spin. It really helps.

If you can pop the airers outside between showers, even just for a few minutes, it'd help a lot. You may have to peg stuff onto them.

Good luck with it.

Zoe

thanks 4 all the ideas will def try and invest in more airers and we are trying to build a kind of undercover drying area nxt to gara\ge so it gets wind but no rain hopefully will let u kno how it goes lol

I put a rack in the greenhouse in the winter and leave the door and slats open ,it' makes a real difference and you are not falling over it all day and it goes in front of the fire when we go to bed.

I sympathise! I have a 22 month old in nappies, a VERY mucky 4 year old, and a 38 year old that seems to think that a t-shirt can only be worn for two hours before needing a wash.....

I have two different types of the shaped nappies - the terry ones, I admit, are a bitch to dry indoors; but on a clothes horse in front of a sunny window seems to do the trick (we only have one radiator in our house, and that doesn't get switched on until November, LOL!) in about 48 hours. Even if slightly damp, popping them in the airing cupboard does the trick. The other ones I have are the fleece type material - they are wonderful! They dry really, really quickly - not as quick as outdoors, obviously, but certainly within a day. If you don't have any of the fleece ones, try asking for some on Freecycle - you never know your luck!

With the nappies, I try to wash some every day. I have twenty in total; and I use about 6 a day (he's a very heavy wetter so he does still have disposables for night-time), so when I have 6 dirty, I have 14 clean, so the 6 can get washed and dried without me worrying about running out of clean, dry ones. By using a combination of the fast-drying fleece ones, and the heavier terry ones each day, it kind of works out that I have enough clean and dry for when I need them - I've yet to run out. It is a pain having to use the washing machine every day, though, but they do fine in an economy wash.

My 3 are out of nappies now, but I found that organisation really is the key - it's amazing what you can stick where, I did find drying nappies difficult in the depths of a damp winter so I got a heated towel rail in a small room and that did the trick - it's also much more economical to run than a tumble drier and doesn't take up so much room.
x

We have a safety fire guardin front of our open fire, you know the kiddie box type one? We use the heavy shaped nappies and we put them over the fire guard in the winter, works a treat, in the evenings when we are sitting in the room i dry smaller bits of laundry on it. T shirts ect are dry within the hour.
Apart from that i hang bath towells and bed sheets over internal doors.
Good Luck! xx

Much like the other posts, we just find places to hang stuff: especially nappies. Dh did put two airers up in the kitchen to make use of the heat from the cooker and that has really helped, but I appreciate you may not have very high ceilings. We have hook-over airers on every large radiator and I used to hang dd's shaped nappies from the handles of the velux window in big sister's south facing room. We also (on bad days) hang stuff on the ladder backs of our kitchen chairs (good for toddler knickers and socks) and over the bannister (especially good for towels and flat nappies).
It can be a pain, so I hope you find a solution that works for you.
Sarah

wow thanks 4 all the tips :) am slowly gettin through it now we are havin sum gud wether hav got a lot more done now as hav started putting 2 month old in sling while doing jobs lol shes one of those babies that refuses to be put down :p thinking about getting a traditional wrap sling soon