If you are putting soaked clothes in the dryer, tossing in a towel with your load may help absorb moisture and can possibly help speed up drying times. Be mindful to remove the towel after about five minutes for smaller loads, rather than keeping it in the dryer for the entire cycle.
It's advisable to avoid drying laundry in the rooms where you spend the most time: for example, the living room and bedroom. Instead, you should place the drying rack in the bathroom, the kitchen or hallway where you spend less time.
So, when drying clothes indoors, pick a warm, dry room with good ventilation. Of course, there are also some technological solutions that can speed up this process. Heated clothes airers accelerate evaporation via hot bars, while tumble dryers use a flow of warm air to heat the clothes and carry moisture away.
Mildew and mold buildup are some of the most common culprits of foul-smelling laundry. According to the CDC, mold, and mildew develop in the presence of excessive moisture. You may have excess moisture build-up if you wait too long to transfer your clothes from the washing machine to the dryer.
For a load of laundry that was spun in a washing machine, and hung indoors in average conditions, the "easy" items will be dry in about 5 hours, and the "difficult" items will finish in about 9 hours.
Another cheap option is to use a traditional clothes airer. The trick is to space your clothes out, so they dry evenly. Instead of placing them by a radiator, you could put them next to a warm oven after cooking to make use of the excess heat (just don't put them too close!).
Do clothes dry better inside out? When you dry your clothes inside out, you're helping to prevent color fading and lint buildup on the outside of the items that may occur from tumbling in the dryer. Drying your clothes inside out helps to prevent damage to the garment as a whole.
Typically, a gas or electric dryer should take about 30 to 45 minutes to dry a full load of clothes. Dense fabrics—like a quilt or a load of thick bath towels—may take up to an hour to dry.
Regular/Heavy: Fastest and hottest setting of your dryer. It's best to use this setting when you're drying white or light-colored clothing. Delicates: Low heat, so drying time will be longer. It is best to use this setting to use for delicate fabrics.
Jenny Turner, a Property Manager at Insulation Express, warns that drying wet clothes in the house could cause a mould buildup or make existing mould problems worse. This is because the moisture from the clean washing could evaporate and settle onto ceilings and walls.
Hang dry your wet clothes
To make the drying process faster, be strategic about how you do it. That might mean opening the window to allow better airflow in your laundry room, placing a fan near the clothes or hanging them close (but not too close!) to a heat source, like a radiator or heating vent.
In the winter, a heated airer is a good option, especially if your house is particularly cold. We like the John Lewis & Partners 3-Tier Heated Indoor Clothes Airer — it has plenty of flexible hanging space and clothes and towels dried quickly in our tests.
It can really help to place it near a source of heat, such as direct sunlight (though first make sure the fabrics aren't partial to fading in the sun) or a radiator. If your radiators are big enough, you can hang clothes straight on them – just make sure you take them off once they are dry so as not to waste the heat.
The late morning to early afternoon hours, between 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., is the best time of day to hang your clothes out to dry. During this part of the day, the sunshine will adequately dry and disinfect your clothes. The sun's powerful ultraviolet rays (UV) are their strongest in this timeframe.
If you need to dry clothes overnight but don't want to leave them outside, you might decide to hang them on a clothes horse indoors. However, repeatedly letting clothes dry inside can lead to dampness and mould in your home, according to Dr Nick Osbourne, a Senior Lecturer in Environmental Health.
It is never normal for clothing to smell bad after being air-dried. The most common reasons for odours include laundry mistakes, high humidity or air-drying fabrics that do not respond well to the method.
Using a dehumidifier to dry your laundry is not only easy to do but will save you money, time and space. For best results, setting up your dehumidifier in a small room with your laundry will help them dry quicker and will make sure the dehumidifier is working effectively and efficiently.