Tips for drying clothes when your dryer stops working.

image from the web

We are in month two without a clothes dryer.  I know!  I am shocked we made it too but we did.  The best thing would have been to call someone to come check it out when it stopped working but that costs money, something I do not have a lot of, certainly not to fix something that we might possibly be able to do without, at least temporarily.

So here are a few tips/tricks that we have learned.  Nothing fancy but very helpful.

1.  If you can have a clothesline outside in your yard, it is the greatest thing ever!  I have memories of my grandmother hanging clothes out on the clothesline when we came to visit.  I used to love to help pin the clothes to the line for some reason.  Just remember, if you are using an outside clothesline, make sure you don't have it in bird poo range and if you live in a subdivision, you might not want to hang your undergarments out for the neighbors to see.

2.   Buy one bottle of wrinkle re-leaser.  This is about $3 a bottle but it does the job and last a little while.  Once the bottle is empty, fill it with equal parts of fabric softener and water, shake it up, and use it just like the wrinkle re-leaser.

3.   Buy a lot of fabric softener.  Even though fabric softener is not the best thing to use on towels, if you don't, the towels will most likely be hard and crunchy, at least that is what happened the first time I let them hang to dry.

4.   Use paper towels and napkins.  I am big on recycling.  Usually, we use cloth napkins and paper towels sparingly but now that drying is an issue, we are using paper napkins and a few more paper towels than usual because at this point, it is more efficient.  I don't feel as bad since I do recycle everything I can so I am calling it an even trade.

5.  Last, try to wash in the morning so the clothes have all day to dry and you have time to get the wrinkles out.

~Another idea is to use your shower curtain rod as a place to hang wet clothes.  You don't have to go out and buy drying racks.  This works just as well for drying clothes inside.

I hope to get the dryer fixed at some point but until then, no problem!  A broken dryer did solve one of my biggest problems-actually getting the clothes out to fold and put away.