Forgive the pun, but drying laundry in summer is a breeze. You hang the clothes out on the line and in just a couple of hours, you are collecting the bone-dry clothes that have that summery, musky fragrance and warmth. But come monsoon or winter, and the story takes a dark, twisted turn. The constant showers during monsoon or the cold, dewy winters do little to nothing in drying out clothes – if anything, they just make matters worse.
And as you are left with a soggy pile of clothes, you turn to the internet in search of smart ways to dry laundry at home.
Fortunately for you, you are in the right spot. Here’s everything you need to know about drying laundry indoors.
Rinse, Spin, Repeat
If you are one of the lucky few who have a built-in high-spin setting or a separate tumble dryer in your washing machine, you are already on the track to smart ways to dry laundry at home! Let your washing machine do all the heavy lifting as it wrings out all the water from your clothes. In this manner, you would effectively be cutting down the drying time by almost half!
However, remember to act fast and put your clothes to dry immediately after as the longer they sit in the washing machine or dryer, all scrunched up and intertwined, the more they will crease. And so, whatever time you save on drying would go into ironing!
Get Innovative
If you do not have a washing machine with a dryer at your disposal, then don’t despair just as yet. All you need is a little creativity to wring out the water before putting your clothes to dry. For a start, you can wash your clothes and drape them around the bathroom faucet to let the water drip out. As such, a large volume of water would have seeped out even before you put the clothes to dry.
Do remember to give your clothes a good shake before you put them on a hanger on the clothesline to minimise creasing. Also, this technique works only if you hang your clothes for 9-12 hours (depending on your location and climatic condition), lest the damp clothes raise a funky smell in your bathroom.
Invest in the Right Equipment
If you are in a pinch while drying your laundry indoors, you could always make do with a ladder, window grill, or a simple clothesline inside your home. However, if you are looking for smart ways to dry laundry at home, you need to find the right tools to get the job done. In other words, purchase clothes drying rack or stand.
Fortunately, you will have a world of options at your convenience – from the highly portable tripod drying stand to the space-efficient expandable drying rack to the fancy pulley operated racks to a simple wall-mounted one. Given this variety, you can comfortably pick the one that meets your requirements, fits your budget, and serves the purpose. The ROI on such a purchase would be massive.
Hang With Care
You have to be smart to find smart ways to dry laundry at home. After all, simply purchasing the racks/stands is not enough to magically dry the laundry!
First, ensure that all items of clothing are well spaced out, at least by an inch, so that the clothes can dry quickly. Next, you can speed up the drying by running a small fan, blower, or heater to circulate the air or to keep the environment warm and dry. You can even consider running a dehumidifier for yourself and the clothes if your room feels suffocatingly uncomfortable. Ideally, nights would be the best time to dry your clothes indoors as you might anyway leave the fan or the heater running in your room. As such, your clothes might dry as you sleep!
Tone Down Your Laundry Load
Since you have to make the most of the limited space available to you while drying your clothes, consider doing laundry in small but frequent batches. Smaller loads will offer your clothes sufficient space to dry out quickly and easily. Plus, it typically takes clothes approximately 24 hours to dry indoors – a purely speculative duration that can vary with conditions.
Use this period as a baseline to strategise the frequency at which you do your laundry. At the same time, you can air out your clothes and wear the odour-free ones a couple of times so that you do not have to wash them as often.
The above smart ways to dry laundry at home will come to your rescue when the weather turns inclement. When all is said and dry, remember to put the clothes away only after they have dried completely. Damp clothes, if kept in dark, poorly-ventilated cupboards or closets, will only breed mould or mildew, which will ruin your clothes and everything around it. Contact a HomeLane expert for more tips on how to make the most of your indoor space to dry laundry!
