Drying laundry is a nightmare for some of us, especially if you live in a smaller living space. Often, the only thing left is to dry the laundry in the apartment, but that can be impractical, so for this very reason most people think about buying a dryer, which again has its positive and negative sides. There is also the option of drying laundry in the air, but unfortunately not all of us have large yards and huge terraces where we can stretch out the linen, nor are the weather favorable to us 12 months a year. In order to weigh the best way of drying laundry, we compared the advantages and disadvantages of the most common ways of drying laundry, and we bring you the results below.

Laundry drying inside the house

If you live in an apartment and don’t have a yard or several terraces where you can spread your laundry, then you probably dry your laundry in the house. However, you can often hear that it is the worst option for drying laundry, because it brings many problems.

Some of the disadvantages of drying laundry at home are:

• increase the amount of moisture by 30%
• bad influence on the health of asthmatics and people prone to allergies
• softeners fill the air with harmful particles
• the concentration of mites and mold spores in the air increases due to higher humidity

The culprit for all of the above is much better insulation of apartments and houses, which reduces air flow in order to save on heating in winter and cooling in summer. However, on the one hand, it is a good thing because it saves us money and energy, on the other hand, it increases the problem with moisture in the apartment that has nowhere to escape. However, some of us have no other option but to dry our laundry in the house, either because of the lack of terraces or balconies, because of financial possibilities, or because of the fact that the sun does not shine for 12 months of the year, so we are forced to bring the laundry into the house.

In order to avoid the negative aspects of drying laundry at home, we advise you to:

• never dry laundry in the room where you sleep or stay often (dry laundry in the hallway, stairwell or storerooms)
• use natural fabric softeners and laundry detergents
• hang laundry properly
• simulate the wind while the laundry is drying with the help of a fan
• avoid drying on radiators
• invest in a dehumidifier

Air drying

Air drying has many advantages, and one of the best is the fact that it’s free. By drying laundry in the air, we do not use electricity and it is the most environmentally friendly way of drying laundry, and an added bonus is that no moisture is released inside the living space. In addition to costing you nothing, drying laundry in the air is a great option because during nice and warm days, the laundry dries really quickly, and the freshness is felt for a long time.

Advantages and disadvantages of drying laundry in the air:

Unfortunately, we cannot influence the weather, nor can we ask pigeons and bugs to bypass our laundry while it is drying, but today there are various racks and covers to protect laundry drying that will protect the goods from potential rain and birds in flight.

Drying laundry in the dryer

A dryer is an option that seems to be the best solution for the winter period of the year, when it is simply not possible to dry laundry in the air or in cases where we have really large amounts of laundry to dry, for example if we rent apartments or have a large family that has at least one washing machine every day ready to dry.

The disadvantages of drying laundry in a dryer are:

• increased consumption of electricity
• reduced lifespan of clothing
• the danger of gathering clothes
• choosing the wrong program that results in clothes that are either too dry or too wet, so we have to repeat the drying cycle

Nevertheless, dryers are popular household helpers because they waste time and space. In order to be able to use our laundry as long as possible when drying in the dryer, it is important to know how to dry which type of fabric.

There are a large number of different fabrics, so it is best to follow the instructions on the label of the garment, because sometimes you may think that some delicate materials are not present, and then you are in for a big surprise when you take the clothes out of the dryer a size or two smaller. Today, new generation dryers also have heat pumps that enable safe and efficient drying of a wide range of different fabrics, unlike older models of dryers. The most important thing to remember is to dry similar fabrics together and not to overload the dryer.

Dryer, air drying or in the house?

If we compare all three drying methods, we can conclude that drying laundry inside the house is the worst drying method precisely because of the consequences it carries with it. We recommend avoiding drying inside the house, and if there is no other option, make sure that you do not dry the laundry inside the living space, but in the hallway or storage room where the air flow is much better.

Dryers are a great choice if you don’t mind the increased amount of the electricity bill and if you handle the laundry you dry carefully and follow the instructions on the clothing declarations.

Of all the mentioned methods, the best option is certainly air drying. It is free, environmentally friendly and does not disturb the humidity inside the living space. With the help of various racks and protection for laundry, we can successfully dry laundry in the air even during colder days and thus take advantage of this method of drying.

In the event that you are not a fan of first, second or third drying method and want to leave the matter to the experts and just pick up the cleaned, dried and ironed laundry, you can always contact a professional laundromat, and you can use the time you spend on the washing, drying and ironing process, for some better things.