Doing laundry is dull and seemingly never-ending household tasks that can be pretty laborious, particularly when the weather turns colder.
While the acutal washing part isn’t so bad – simply toss your dirty clothes in the washing machine, add some washing powderand let it go to work – the frustrating part is when the drying comes in, especially in autumn and winter. As temperatures start to plummet in autumn it means clothes often have to be hung up to dry indoors and if you don’t have a tumble dryer or heated airer, you can end up with damp clothes cluttering up your home for days on end as your wait for them to dry.
Using a clothes airer is your best option for drying clothes indoors as they’re cheap to buy, energy-saving and can be folded away after use. The only downside is it can also take a long time for clothes to dry – especially if you don’t want to run your heating yet to help the process along. But experts say there’s a nifty way to speed up drying that won’t cost you a penny extra on your energy bills.
According to laundry experts, you should wrap your wet clothing inside a dry towel to help soak up some of the excess water before hanging it up, as this will help to get your clothes dry much faster.
Lifestyle Clotheslines explains: “If you want to quickly dry your clothes without a dryer, try the towel roll method. This technique involves wrapping wet clothing in one or multiple dry towels to absorb water then adding paper towels on top for extra moisture extraction. Doing this technique can help speed up the drying process significantly while saving time and effort along the way.
“Start by taking each piece of clothing from its damp state and rolling it tightly inside one single dry towel, when using multiple garments at once make sure to separate clean linens if possible.
“Once that’s done, twist both ends of the towel – ensuring that it’s tightly twisted to guarantee that it successfully squeezes excess water. Insert some sheets of paper towels into the creases that were created during folding-in so any additional drops get soaked away too.
“Finally, inspect how effective this has been. If not, you may have squeezed too many items at once. Remove some items then repeat the steps until you achieve the desired results.”
Martin Seeley, sleep expert and CEO of MattressNextDay, says this technique is also effective for drying bed sheets, particularly if you can’t use your washing line due to the cold or wet autumnal weather.
He said: “I always recommend drying your bedding indoors or using a tumble dryer to keep it pollen-free. If you’re worried about your bed sheets taking a while to dry, I’d recommend washing them first thing in the morning so you can take advantage of warmer temperatures and natural airflow throughout the day.
“Before hanging them up, give your sheets a really good shake helps separate the fibres and speeds up drying. Another trick I use is the towel technique: lay your damp sheet flat on a dry towel, roll them up tightly together, and press down to absorb excess moisture before hanging the sheet to finish drying.”
“These simple hacks can dramatically reduce drying times indoors, making it much easier to keep your bedding fresh.”