Tried & Tested Ways to Dry Your Clothes Without a Dryer

Confession Of A Crazy, Thrifty Wife

I don’t spend a single penny on drying my clothes. Yes, it’s true! In fact, I have never spent money at all to dry my clothes in my entire life. And the most amazing thing is that, it’s not hard at all, even if you are staying in super cold climate.

After months of extensive DIY experimenting, I can proudly say that I have mastered the art of drying my clothes quickly without a dryer at home, while travelling or staying overnight in a hotel, even in a cold winter days. You can even convert your old dryer into more energy efficient and cost effective one and avoid your ironing too.

Are you impressed? Are you excited to save your hard earned money on drying your clothes? Yes? Here you go.

Well, you have two options.

A) Try Eco-Friendly DIY Alternatives For Your Dryer

• Why should you ditch your dryer?
• How to dry more clothes in limited space and sun exposure?
• Can you use heater to dry your clothes?
• Some very simple DIY ways to dry your clothes without a dryer

OR

B) Make Your Current Dryer More Energy Efficient, Greener And Cost Effective

• How to dry two loads in one go
• Are dryer balls effective?
• Infographic-What’s best for your dryer?
• Additional tips for efficient drying

A) ECO-FRIENDLY DIY ALTERNATIVES FOR YOUR DRYER

To be very frank, being an Indian, I never had to use a dryer because of the natural availability of plenty of sunlight.

When I came to Netherlands, I used the dryer for the very first time. Since beginning, I was not much impressed with its performance as it used to take a lot of time and electricity. The output was not that great either.

Why should you ditch your dryer?

Dryer could be really helpful in winter, but…

• It consumes lot of energy
• Sometimes, it also affects overall texture and colour of the new clothes making them dull with every use
• Clothes coming out of dryer have lot of wrinkles and ironing them becomes necessary

In my opinion, we simply don’t need a dryer if we have plenty of sunlight to dry our clothes naturally. Hence, I prefer skipping the dryer and hanging our clothes out to dry.

If you have the space to do so, even you can take the advantage of it.

How To Dry More Clothes In Limited Space And Sun Exposure?

When I moved to Netherlands (Europe), which has very limited sunlight as compared to India, I tried this idea to dry my clothes quickly and without much efforts.

• We already had 2 ropes in our balcony, but they were not sufficient enough to hang all the clothes. We were staying there on a rent and it was not allowed to put a nail in a ceiling / wall and ultimately tie more ropes.
• Also, due to insufficient sunlight, only one side of the clothes used to get dry.
• As the nights were too cold, keeping the half-dried clothes outside overnight, used to make them little damp, smelly and really cold to wear.
• So, we had to take them down every night and again hang them at morning, which was really consuming a lot of time and energy.

I searched many innovative DIY techniques on Youtube to dry our clothes easily. But they were still too complicated to work out, especially with limited resources.

I wanted something really simple and easy. Something that could be done without purchasing anything new or taking someone’s help to assemble.

I strongly believe, if a solution is complicated, then it is not a good solution at all. Just keep digging and you will find something better.

I kept on scratching my head, but nothing really clicked in my mind.

It was like playing a super addictive ‘Candy Crush’ game. Sometimes the level is so hard that no matter how much you try, it never gets solved. We lose all the lives, get frustrated and keep the mobile aside.

Next day, suddenly the same level gets solved very easily in single attempt, just to realize that, the level was not that hard at all.

Same way, when we are stuck in a real-life problem which is not getting resolved even after breaking your head and trying many things to solve it, just give it a break.

And then, time itself will come with a simplest solution to your hardest problems.

I did the same, and one day suddenly, I found many hangers in a box while cleaning a storage area. And I almost screamed, “Eureka, Eureka!”.

I hung the clothes on hanger and placed them on a rope. But as the rope was not in a straight level, they started sliding towards a slope.

I wanted to restrict their movement. So, I took some plastic clips, and placed them on rope with specific intervals. And done! Really easy, isn’t it?

Pros:

• You can dry your clothes in just a few hours
• It doesn’t require any electricity or any complicated setup
• It is free of cost. You may have to buy some hangers if you don’t have them at home. But still, it is a one-time investment and it will be far cheaper than using a dryer or buying big clothes drying rack.

• It takes a lesser space as compared to traditional method of hanging clothes. So, you can dry more clothes in one go
• As no specific side is exposed to the sun, clothes get dried from both the sides uniformly
• It extends the lifespan of your clothes by reducing wear and tear in the dryer
• Most importantly, in this method, clothes don’t get wrinkles. Which means, once the clothes are dry, you don’t have to spend hours to fold them nicely or iron them. You can just straight away hang them inside your closet. All super lazy people are going to thank me for this! Aren’t you?

Cons:

• It may not work that effectively in cloudy, rainy days
• It requires some space and may block a good view from your balcony
• Your local housing laws may not give you permission to hang your clothes outside

If you are not impressed, there are many more cheap tricks coming. I am sure that you will not regret reading this article till the end.

And if you are already excited to try this, there are some tips for the beginners.

Things not to forget!

You can use this method for outdoor as well as indoor use.

Just keep following things in mind:

• Hang them inside out:

  I had a beautiful black dress. After few uses, I found a lot of colour difference in both sides of the cloth. It became very dull.

  I used to wonder how it happened, as it never actually lost any colour while washing. Then I realized that, it’s not because of the washing, but a wrong method of drying.

  Earlier, I used to hang my clothes right side out. Harsh sunlight can affect the colour of your clothes very badly.

  Hence, always hang your clothes inside out. This not only prevents them from getting faded, it also helps them to get dried quickly by exposing all the hidden extra margins and pockets inside your clothing.

• Give a good jerk:

  If you are using a washing machine, it generally squeezes the excess water from the garment. But if you are hand washing the clothes, twisting or wringing your clothes with hand can form some wrinkles.

  So, whenever you will put the clothes on a hanger, give a jerk to remove all the wrinkles naturally

• Maintain sufficient gap:

  Keep a gap of approx. 2 inches between each clothe to allow air circulation and faster drying

• Ensure good ventilation:

  Using this method inside your house may increase the humidity of that room and as a result, the walls may end up catching/absorbing excess of moisture.

  This can affect your wall paint and catch mold in long run. So please ensure a good ventilation by opening the door / windows.

• Beware of water dripping:

  Some type of materials are difficult to twist / wring or remove water from. If you hang them directly in your room, they will drip.

  So, never ever hang such clothes near any electronic devices like computer, TV etc. Hanging them in a bathroom or an outdoor area is the best option.

  Still, you can also keep a bowl or a dry cloth below them on ground to stop the dripping water from spreading inside your room

• Don’t dry them in the kitchen:

  Because of all the food preparations going on, our kitchen is mostly hotter than other rooms. So, you may think about hanging wet clothes in your kitchen to dry them quickly. But just don’t.

  Most of the Asians use many spices and ‘Tadka’s in food preparation and if we hang clothes in the kitchen, they may smell like spices.

  You may not feel it strongly at home, but once you reach your office, which has air-conditioning facility, your colleagues would be easily able to guess what’s inside your lunch box.

  Some people may not like the smell at all, which could be really embarrassing. So just avoid hanging clothes in your kitchen.

• Make it faster:

  To speed up the air-drying process, you can hang the wet clothes in front of a table fan, under a ceiling fan, outside the AC box (near a hot air vent), or near the fireplace (at a safe distance)

Heater: Killing Two Birds With One Stone

I really love my natural air-dry method for clothing. But, it is more efficient in summer.

Fall came with wind gusts, rain and dull cloudy days. Daylight started decreasing rapidly. It was really hard to get a good sun exposure. My clothes started taking forever to dry.

Winter was coming.

All the Game of Thrones (GOT) fans know why everyone is afraid of winter, but my reason was different.

In India, average temperature in winter is almost 15-20°C, whereas in Netherlands, during winter, temperature easily reaches -10°C. With all those frozen canals and heavy wind gusts, it becomes almost impossible to dry our clothes naturally.

I was hell bent on using as less energy as I can. So, I kept on experimenting.

Ohh… these stubborn wives never retreat nor surrender!

We had heater in our house, but hardly ever used it. We were happier with our own DIY ways to reduce the use of heater.

One day, just for the sake of experimenting, I placed my clothes directly on the heater in our bedroom and turned it on. Heating was kept very low.

I thought, the hot coils of the heater would not only keep the room temperature balanced, but also make my clothes dry quickly. To get better results, I even closed the door and went to the kitchen for cooking.

One hour later, when I opened the room again, I saw something that, I never had expected. all the windows were wet. Water from the clothes was condensed on them and the humidity in that room was almost suffocating me.

Still, I was crazy enough to run towards the heater to check the status of my clothes. They were hot, but not dry. I was disappointed.

This trick totally failed for me, as it not only consumed energy in heating, but also the results were not that great. Heater was too small to place all my clothes on it.

I even had to clean my wet windows immediately to avoid any mold related issues in future.

What I learnt from my failure?

• If you are using heater regularly, you can use this method to dry some of your clothes very quickly by placing them on a heater. This way, you can kill 2 flies with one slap.
• But if you are not using the heater, there is no point in putting it on and wasting so much of energy just to dry your clothes.
• Also, as I never used the heater before, all the moisture in the room combined with the one in the clothes resulting in excess of humidity and condensation.But there won’t be any serious condensation problem if the heater is used on regular basis

Some Very Simple DIY Ways To Dry Your Clothes Without A Dryer:

If you don’t have time / facility to tie the rope,

Or, if you are looking for a temporary solution to dry your clothes while travelling or during an overnight stay, you can try these very basic tricks.

1) 2 chairs and a rod:

You can simply keep any available rod on 2 chairs and hang your clothes on that rod. In this case, I have used the rod from an old scrapped broom and few hangers.

Top

2) Towel roll:

• Put down a large, fluffy towel on the ground
• Lay single wet garment on top
• Roll up the towel tightly with the clothing inside
• Twist the roll slightly to squeeze excess of water out of your clothes and into the towel
• This way, the towel will absorb most of the moisture from your wet clothe.
• If your towel gets too wet, use another dry towel to repeat the twist and remove remaining moisture from the garment.

3) Iron and a towel:

• Lay your wet garment on an ironing board
• Lay a thin towel on top and start ironing the towel uniformly using a high heat
• Turn the garment over to press both sides
• This will make your clothes dry faster without damaging/wrinkling them

Caution:

• Do not put a hot iron directly onto the wet clothe as it may damage the fabric.

4) Hairdryer:

• Wring out the wet garment and lay it on a clean, dry surface.
• Take a handheld blow-hairdryer and turn it to a warm or high setting.
• Start drying your clothing patiently, spot-by-spot with quick blasts of hot air, until the whole thing is dry.

Caution:

• Don’t point the blow-dryer at one spot for too long, as some garments may get too hot and catch fire
• Don’t hold it too close to your clothes as it may burn/ damage them

5) Put them on

• If the clothes are slightly damp, and you are running out of options and time, just put them on
• They will get dry quickly after wearing it due to your body heat
• But never ever wear too damp clothes at it may invite some skin problems and make you freeze even more during winter.

6) What about a microwave?

Can you put your clothes in a microwave to dry them quickly? No! They can catch fire. So, it’s a big No No.

B) MAKE YOUR CURRENT DRYER MORE ENERGY EFFICIENT, GREENER AND COST EFFECTIVE

• If you don’t have a proper space or suitable weather to air dry your clothes or,
• If you are simply not comfortable with the methods shown above,

you can try these simple tricks to make your conventional power-hungry dryer more energy efficient as well as eco- friendly without taking any extra efforts.

1. Dry Two Loads In One Go

I desperately wanted a cheap solution to dry my clothes even in the winter, and I found one. I almost hated the dryer, but our roommate was exactly opposite and preferred using dryer almost throughout the year.

One day, I was having a bath, while dryer was running. Within few minutes, the temperature inside the bathroom increased significantly because of the hot air coming out of the dryer.

It was definitely not good for me, but what about my clothes? Bingo! It was my another ‘Eureka’ moment.

Our roommate used to wash his clothes on weekends, and I took advantage of it. I simply washed my clothes just before him and placed them on a rod inside our bathroom with the help of hangers as earlier.

When he washed his clothes and started a dryer, the hot air coming out of the dryer hit the wet clothes hung on the rod, and as a result, I managed to dry my clothes in just few hours, without using any additional energy.

Now,

• I don’t even have to go to the balcony to dry my clothes.
• I just remove them from the washing machine and hang them near dryer.
• Earlier, I used a rope for my balcony, but now I am using a rod.
• There are no wind gusts inside my bathroom. So, I don’t even have to use plastic clips to restrict the movement of the clothes.
• As almost every bathroom already has a ventilation system, I don’t even have to worry about the condensation problem.

How can you use this same technique in your life to reduce the energy consumption of your dryer by 50%?

• Well, you can wash all your small clothes like undergarments, socks, t-shirts, tops etc first.
• Hang them somewhere near your dryer with the help of the hanger.
• Now, wash all the heavy clothes like bedsheets, jeans, towels etc. and then, put them in a dryer.
• All your small clothes from first batch will get dried quickly with the heat coming out from the dryer.
• Keep the door of that room closed for quicker results.

Yippie! You have just reduced the use of your dryer bye 50%

2. Use Dryer Balls:

Normally while rotating in a dryer, clothes develop a static electricity effect called as static cling, where clothes cling together, ultimately slowing down the drying process.

As a result, it takes more time to dry your clothes and consumes more energy.

There is a very simple solution to fix this. Using dryer balls!

Do the dryer balls really work?

• Yes, they do.
• Just throw them into your dryer along with the wet clothes and these balls will prevent your clothes from clinging.
• They also allow hot air to circulate more evenly and efficiently around your laundry more quickly.

There are various types of dryer balls available in the market.

a) Plastic dryer balls:

Pros

• Affordable
• They are reusable and can last for decades
• Soften your laundry without any additional fabric softener

Cons

• They are not biodegradable
• Can make a lot of noise while rotating in a dryer.
• May release some chemicals with heat over the period of time
• They can’t be scented with your favourite essential oils.

b) Aluminium foil balls:

Pros

• You can make them at home with very less cost
• Efficiently eliminate static while drying.
• They last long. If they ever begin to fall apart, toss them and crumple up some more foil.

Cons

• They won’t soften your clothes that effectively. You will have to use fabric softener.
• Can make your dry cycle little
• They can’t be scented with your favourite essential oils.

c) Wool dryer balls:

Pros:

• 100% biodegradable
• Softens laundry naturally, makes clothes fluffy
• Reduces static cling.
• Shortens drying time, saves energy
• Create no loud banging noise while hitting the drum
• No need to use dryer sheets and chemical based liquid fabric softeners
• Great for babies and those with sensitive skin as no chemicals are involved
• Reusable and lasts longer (1000+ loads: approx. 2-3 years)
• Saves money
• May pick up pet hair from clothes
• They can be scented with essential oils such as lavender, orange, lemon etc. for a fresh, natural smell

Cons:

• You may get a distinct odour of sheep in the woollen balls. (Just wash them in a washing machine with natural organic soap nuts and it will fade away.)
• Don’t reduce static much as compared to other materials

Conclusion:

Woolen dryer balls are the ultimate winner. They are good for you as well as for the environment. Definitely worth trying.

Still confused? Let me put it in a simpler way through an infographic.

Temporary alternative to dryer balls:

In case, you don’t have dryer balls at home, you can try this simple technique. It won’t help you with the static cling but will reduce the time for drying.

• Put a dry Turkish towel in a dryer along with your wet clothes and start the machine. (You can use more dry towels depending upon your load.)
• This towel will absorb the moisture from all the clothes.
• Pause the dryer after 20 minutes and remove the towel. This way, no energy will be used to dry that towel again.
• Continue drying other clothes. They will dry comparatively quicker.

Additional Tips For Efficient Drying

1. Clean lint filters

Cleaning the dryer lint filter can actually save you money. As your load dries, the lint that gets collected in the filter, hampers the flow of air from the heated dryer which makes your dryer work harder and less efficiently than necessary.

As a result, it dries the load more slowly and longer drying times leads to increased energy costs.

Apart from the increasing energy costs, lint can also have following side effects:

• Can Cause fire hazard:

  Lint is combustible and if it builds up in or around the filter, it can pose a fire risk. It is a main cause of approx. 20,000 house fires every year resulting in millions of dollars of damage.

• Can invite mold issues:

  The build-up of dryer lint can also cause mold problems. Hence, always remove the lint regularly to dry your clothes faster with less energy as well as to keep your house safe from fire and mold.

2. Spin faster

While washing the clothes, choose a faster spin cycle. The faster you spin clothes in the washer, the less time they’ll need in the dryer.

3. Keep it full

Dry only full loads, but don’t overfill the dryer in order to make it work more efficiently

4. Don’t mix materials

Try not to mix fast and slow-drying clothes. Otherwise, more energy will be consumed unnecessarily by continuing to dry clothes that are no longer wet.

For example, light weight synthetic clothes will dry faster than the heavy Turkish towels. Hence, separate them and dry similar types of clothes together.

5. Remove them quickly

When clothes stay in a dryer for a long time, they form more wrinkles. Hence, dry your clothes on a lower temperature setting and remove them promptly from the dryer while they are still slightly damp. This way, they will be mostly wrinkle free and you can even skip the ironing. That’s why I almost never iron my clothes.

Cool! Isn’t it?

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So, that’s it for now. Thanks for reading till the end. Really appreciate your patience! Are you as crazy and thrifty as me? Do you have any expert tips to share? I would love to hear them from you.

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References:

• https://thehomemadeexperiment.com/how-to-use-wool-dryer-balls/

• https://www.cnet.com/how-to/use-a-ball-of-aluminum-foil-to-eliminate-static-in-the-dryer/

• https://www.houselogic.com/by-room/bathroom-laundry/laundry-room-energy-savings/

• https://www.thespruce.com/cleaning-the-dryer-lint-filter-1908436

• https://www.thespruce.com/dryer-vent-lint-fire-hazard-2145839

• https://www.wikihow.com/Dry-Your-Clothes-Quickly