Thursday, November 12, 2009

A Less Expensive Way to Dry Clothes


One of the most disappointing things about my current apartment is that I don’t have in-unit laundry. Fortunately, I do have laundry in the basement, which is more convenient than going to a Laundromat, but is more expensive than in-unit.

The machines in my building cost $0.75 for washing and another $0.75 for drying. While I do line dry many things (by simply hanging them on hangers in doorways), I also don’t have any outdoor space, so I have to do some machine drying. I have found I can reduce the cost of drying clothes by drying 1½ loads at a time.

If I add a clean, dry towel to the dryer with the wet laundry it will dry 50% more items in the same amount of time. Even if you had your own dryer, trying this trick could save you some money because machine drying clothes uses a lot of energy.

8 comments:

  1. Hmm- good to know. I just fluff everything in the dryer then line dry it- but that would cost the same as a whole load for you. darn.

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  2. smart! i too only have community laundry and i'm always trying to find ways to reduce my money spent there.

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  3. good idea now that the cold weather is here I do put more things in the dryer. I'm going to try it. thanks
    vickie

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  4. Great idea! I'm going to try it today...because I ALWAYS have laundry to do..LOL!

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  5. I'm definitely going to try the towel trick. Now that it's cold, my clothes take forever to line dry!

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  6. We use two dryer balls in each load and find that it cuts the time by at least 1/3. An added bonus is that the sheets don't twist as much. Of course everyone already knows that they should shake things out before they go into the dryer, right?

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  7. Innkeeper Seely, I use dryer balls too. I find that they primarily help me to reduce static in my clothes.

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