Beware! Laundry in Progress

[The Riff-Raff Element]

I thought this was quite interesting:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-20176376

It appears to have been done without the sponsorship of a tumble dryer manufacturer, so perhaps there is a grain of wisdom to be gleaned here. I imagine that practically all of us dry stuff on racks and radiators. Personally, I'd never considered it a potential health hazard, just a way of saving a few cents by avoiding the dryer.

[oldjerry]

Can't afford to buy or run a drier,(bit dodgy on the old carbon foot print front,anyhow),in the English Midlands it seems to rain\snow most of the winter,don't want kids to contract Asthma............I'VE GOT IT!!!........wear your clothes wet,they'll soon dry while you walk around......

[GeorgeSalt]

There's an over-emphasis on draught-proofing and insulating new homes with little regard to natural ventillation. You should see some of the photographs posted on fish-keeping websites where people have large tropical/marine tanks and don't leave a window open all day or haven't installed an extractor fan.. wallpaper unrolling itself down the wall, mildew on every surface..

[contadina]

I know quite a few people who swear by using a dehumidifier to dry clothes. Cheaper to run than a tumble dryer and they take moisture out of the air at the same time.

[Zech]

I'm sure I just posted to this thread saying almost exactly the same thing as Contadina, but it's disappeared. Oh well, she said it too, so that's fine.

[Skippy]

I post on a building forum and often a thread will start with someone asking why they have mould and damp in their house. One of the first questions they are asked most often is "do you dry the washing indoors?". You wouldn't spray a couple of litres of water around the house but letting it evaporate from clothes doesn't seem to registar as the same with some people.
When I was young I can remember my mother always hung the clothes on the washing line even in the winter, and I can also remember some of it freezing solid on the line too which would then be the only time washing was really dried in the house.
A friend of my mother's dried everything in the house and in so doing completely ruined a loverly old mahagony staircase.


Pete

[Mustardseedmama]

Before my CTS got so bad I'd hang loads of stuff outside, even in the winter. Yes a lot of it froze dry, and had to thaw/finish drying hanging in the garage. It worked well for us though, as we never have enough humidity in the house in the winter, and often end up running a humidifier just to keep our sinuses functioning.

Now my fingers nearly freeze just doing chores, and the pain of hanging laundry outside on cold days would be unbearable. So, carbon footprint or no, into the Kenmore they go...

[demi]

I need to buy a new clothes horse for the winter to dry things inside on. We're as i speek painting the big hallway ( it's like big room in the center of the house) and tiling the floor and i'll be drying the washing in there. Its not heated and last year if we left a glass of water out over night it'd be frozen in the morning! We're putting in insulation now and all the windows and doors are in and the house is now sealed so it shouldn't be so cold from now on.
We've got an open plan kitchen/livingroom and when im cooking the windows all steem up. If im boiling pasta or somthing loads of steam comes off. That must contribute a lot to the humidity. But it uses too much electricity to run the asperator fan thing every time im cooking.

[yvette]

Interesting thread.
When the weather is bad I dry my stuff indoors on two racks, one in the bathroom and one in the kitchen, reckoning that those rooms get steamy/moist anyway! And my mum taught me to open the windows every day, so I do, even when very cold - I do it just after we get up, just for half an hour when I am running round trying to get chores done, as I don't notice the cold so much then. Don't know if this helps or if we just have a very well-ventilated (i.e. draughty) house, but no probs with mould or damp yet.
The asthma connection is worrying though - although a while ago I remember rreading about how bad for you a very dry atmosphere could be, and there was lots of advice to put bowls of water next to any radiators to increase humidity. Rather confusing.

[diggernotdreamer]

I bought one of those old fashioned racks you (is it called a long sally or something), I had it in my modern house with no problem and when I came here it was over the range and everything dried very well overnight. Like Yvette, I open windows to ventilate the house, I know loads of people that do not open the windows and have mildew and respiratory problems. I think it is another case of being sensible, if all the windows are steaming and running water with the damp then you have a problems. I used to get terrible bronchitis when I was younger, we had one of those hot air heating systems, when I left that house I never had the problem again, so I think the very dry atmosphere that created was a problem for me.

[southeast-isher]

There was a story a few years ago (on BBC News) to warn you to not breathe in the air or something when your computer printer is printing because ink pigments get in the air. You can worry about everything it seems!

[marshlander]

Honestly, what next? Better not use a steam iron either then, that puts pints of water into the air. Then don't burn wood, that's 25% water. Cooking, loads of steam there and bathing, absolutely must give that up . Better get rid of all the people in the house too as they perspire anything from 100ml to 2 ltrs a day.

As Yvette said, no problem in a ventilated house.

Thinking about this further, the natural humidity of air varies a lot depending on temperature and no doubt, other variables.

[demi]

There was a story a few years ago (on BBC News) to warn you to not breathe in the air or something when your computer printer is printing because ink pigments get in the air. You can worry about everything it seems!

Maybe we should all start living in sterile bubbles to protect us from all the dangers of the world!

[Zech]

Opening windows is great advice. I do it whenever the air outside seems drier than the air inside, which hasn't been that much of the time this year.

[Mrs Moustoir]

Interesting idea to use a dehumidifier to dry the washing indoors. Makes sense though.