My laundry´s online

That´s what I can reply whenever somebody enquires about those still-humid items I pull out of my washing machine. It is, of course, a bit tongue-in-cheeky, but the core of it is that we don´t use an electric clothes dryer. Instead, I have a folding wire contraption I can set up for towels, pantys and such, and everything that would go on a hanger for storage will go on the same hanger, and a mobile clothes rack, for drying, too.
I used to have a combined washer/dryer that was, for one, prohibitively expensive to buy in the first place, and when I used the dryer function I found out quickly that it had two settings: "boil" and "fry", meaning that either the clothes were still sogging wet when they came out, or the heat did severe damage to everything inside that had just a trace of synthetic in it. Either way, the only thing I could put in there to dry was towels and bedsheets. So, I started to line-dry my laundry the good old-fashioned way.
When the old washer/dryer finally expired, I had to decide what to replace it with, as there´s only room for one machine in our bath-and-laundry room. I opted for a washer-only model, preferring to spend a bit more on that to spending the same amount on a so-so washer/dryer.
I have never regretted the decision. Of course, I still look at driers sometimes in the shops when I am window-shopping. But since they are required to put the amount of electricity used for a dryer cycle on the machines, just the thought of what it would do to my electricity bill to use one stops me rather fast.
And there´s another, even more compelling reason.
Everybody who owns a dryer knows about dryer lint. That´s the fluffy batch of dust you can remove from the lint screen after each use. It´s also the amount of fabric rubbed off your clothes in one drying cycle.
At my parents´ place we had an electric dryer for towels (they were doctors and needed plenty of them at their office). These terrycloth  towels were used once, then washed and dried. Every about five years, they needed to be replaced because the washing and drying had taken off the "terry" and left just the "cloth", so to say, rendering them unusable.
Now if a dryer can eat up thick terrycloth fabric like that, of course it won´t be any kinder to whatever else you put in there.Synthetic fabrics may not rub off as much in the dryer, but the heat weakens the fiber, making them more prone to tearing. I always wince when I see someone who takes care not to use too hot a setting for laundering the items and then dumps them into the dryer as if the dryer heat were less harmful than washer heat.
My clothes have never even seen the inside of a dryer, and they take a lot longer to wear down than those towels of my parents´.
But what happens if I need something to dry fast? In wintertime, I put it on or in front of a radiator, and in summer I set a big electric fan in front of the clothes rack. The moving air will dry things as fast as a dryer, at a fraction of energy costs, and with no damage to the garments. And the fan is something I have anyway, instead of air condition.
Oh, and the shirts and blouses require less ironing, too.
The initial investment of a clothes rack and waterproof hangers has been recouped long ago, just in terms of electricity bills being lower.
Nowadays, I wouldn´t take an electric dryer for a gift, because the follow-up cost is just too big. Even if I had room for it in my bathroom.


Julia