Drying laundry in summer is definitely easier than in autumn and winter if you don’t have a tumble dryer at home. When it’s hot outside, laundry left on the balcony, terrace or garden is dry after a few hours. How to ensure that the laundry dries quickly in the fall and winter and avoid moisture from wet laundry transferring to walls and windows, causing mold and mildew to form? It’s simpler than you think!
Drying laundry in autumn and winter may not be troublesome, but you need to be properly prepared for it. Making a few basic mistakes can result in fungus appearing on the walls and mold on the window frames over time. Unfortunately, these problems not only look unsightly, but are also dangerous to health. We tell you what to remember when putting clothes into the washing machine and later, after washing, to ensure effective and safe drying.
How to dry laundry to avoid fungus and mold?
There are a few simple rules for drying laundry, which ensure that even in autumn and winter it dries quickly and that no large amount of moisture accumulates in the house.
The efficiency of drying laundry depends on how many items you put into the washing machine at once
First of all, it is worth not overloading the washing machine. Thanks to this, the clothes will not only wash better and the washing machine will last longer, but it will also be possible to hang them wider on the lines, and if they are not pressed together in the dryer, they will dry faster.
Secondly, it is worth taking advantage of the weather. Even when the temperature outside is below 15 degrees Celsius, the sun is shining and the wind is blowing, it is worth putting the laundry out for at least a few hours. Wrapped and heated by sunlight, it will dry faster, so drying it later at home will be more efficient.
Thirdly, before hanging up the laundry, it is a good idea to shake off each item thoroughly and hang it on a line in a position that will facilitate quick drying, e.g. sweatshirts unbuttoned, trousers with legs spread wide.
Fourthly, it is worth having a plan on where to hang what things. It is best to hang thick, fleshy sweatshirts and sweaters on the outside strings, and delicate underwear and thin pajamas inside. My rule is to alternate the laundry – on every other line I hang the larger and thicker items that take longer to dry, and on every other line I hang the more delicate and smaller items, e.g. underwear, T-shirts. Then there is greater air flow between them.
Fifthly, it is advisable to air the apartment while drying the laundry. Thanks to this, moisture will not penetrate the walls, the house will not feel like a sauna and we will avoid the problem of fungus or mold.
A trick I use to make laundry dry faster
Hanging clothes on two lines instead of one allows each item to be airy on both sides, including the inside one.
Remembering all the above rules, in autumn and winter I always add one more – I hang each item not on one string, but on two, thanks to which the clothes have a chance to dry faster also from the inside, because it is not hung on one thin string and its the upper and lower parts do not touch each other.
Yes, in this case I cannot do a large load of laundry at once, but I know from experience that overloading the dryer causes the laundry to dry for a very long time. It’s better to put two washing machines in at the same time than one and then wait two days for clean and dry clothes.
