Jasmine Birtles
Your money-making expert. Financial journalist, TV and radio personality.
Stop Soggy Clothes This Winter! How to Dry Fast on a Budget
Annie
8th Oct 2024
Winter means outdoor drying isn’t exactly on the cards thanks to the UK’s wet weather. It’s a shame, because drying laundry outside in the summer will save a nice chunk of change. So, how can you save money drying your clothes this winter?
Only Wash When You Need
Did you know that many items of clothing can be worn several times before they need to be washed? Things like jeans, jumpers, and even bras don’t need to be worn until they are either stained, stretched, or stinky!
Reducing how often you wash clothes will also extend their life, which means you’ll spend less on clothes in the long-term, too. For delicates like bras and underwear, you can also handwash in the tub and hang to dry on a small radiator airer when you’ve got the heating on anyway. They’ll dry quickly and you’ll save money on running the washing machine.
Put Clothes on an Extra Spin
Do you know what each function of your washing machine actually does? Many of us are baffled by the buttons, so it’s worth spending some time re-reading the manual to find out what it can do. Some modern machines will have sensors that change the type of wash depending on the weight of laundry, for example. This saves electricity and water.
Most washing machines, whether they are fancy smart ones or basic push-the-button-and-go ones, will have a spin cycle. This is the important one for winter! Sticking your clothes on an extra ten-minute spin once they have been washed will significantly reduce the amount of water they hold. It will speed up drying time to stop that musty smell we all know from laundry that takes four days to dry…!
Ditch the Tumble
Yes, tumble dryers get the job done. But they EAT electricity! They aren’t environmentally friendly due to this, and they can also damage your clothes or cause shrinkage. That means your clothes wear out faster, and you’ll spend more on buying clothes in the long-term.
Limit your usage to heavier items, such as towels and blankets, if you can’t ditch it altogether. If you absolutely have to use it to get some clothes dry, reduce the time used so that clothes still come out a bit damp. They’ll still dry faster, your energy bill will be lower, and your clothes will have time to hang out the wrinkles.
Try a Heated Airer
Heated airers cost around 14p an hour to run – much cheaper than roughly 40p an hour for a tumble. They can be space efficient, too – and work even better if you have a cover to go over the top.
They use electricity to generate heat on the bars your clothes hang from. You can also get a fan-assisted heated airer, which uses a fan to distribute hot air within a cover to speed up drying. These are more expensive and the amount of clothes you can hang in them can be limited, but they can be faster than a heated airer.
Get a Dehumidifier
The home’s secret weapon is a dehumidifier. In winter, use it to pull moisture from the air in the room your clothes are drying in to get them dry faster. It works even better when coupled with a heated airer! In summer, many dehumidifiers can be used to reduce the humidity and eliminate that ‘sticky’ feeling, reducing the temperature in a room.
We were lucky enough to try out the Meaco Arete 12L dehumidifier, and it performed beyond our expectations. One of our team has already been using a Meaco dehumidifer for a few years to help tackle a damp problem and they swear by it, but this newer model is a big step up.
This model just looks sleeker than we’re used to from dehumidifiers – looking like a fancy bit of tech rather than a tank! It’s got a swanky digital display and can be connected to via an app, meaning you can control it from your phone (but it’s just as easy to control manually if apps aren’t your thing.)
It’s whisper quiet – so if you’re a sensitive sleeper who can’t stand noise, this shouldn’t cause you too many issues (and indeed, the gentle noise can function as white noise to help you sleep.) It also has a medical-grade HEPA filter for better air purification.
Perhaps the best feature however, from a MoneyMagpie perspective, is it’s very energy efficient – with a running costs of 3p / hour – so it’s a great way to dry your clothes without putting on your tumble dryer or turning on radiators. There’s even a clothes-drying setting to make sure it’s finely turned for performing this function. It’s also great at tackling damp so it’s useful for everyone – from families who want to keep bills down to student accommodation which can often have a lot of extra moisture in the air.
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