Well, that's all we need, isn't it? Drying laundry indoors puts too much moisture into your air (a litre per half load). That's bad for you.
But how does that compare with the ill health caused by the stress of using a washer-dryer?
We should really all be drying our laundry outside (in Scotland in November?), or finding a glass-walled, south-facing well-ventilated space in our homes. And if you don't have a glass-walled, south-facing, well-ventilated space*... I suppose you sit and wait till someone invents clothes that don't need washing. Personally, I'm not going to worry, because I reckon the moisture content in the air I breathe the minute I set foot outside our house (in Scotland in November) is probably well above what a litre per half load produces inside.
You can see the clip here, but I wouldn't bother. It'll just depress you. Everything makes you ill these days, doesn't it?
*One of the funnniest expat blog posts about laundry that I've read is this one, in which Rachel talks about how much she was looking forward to the conservatory in her new home. She dreamed of sitting there on a winter morning, sipping coffee in the warmth of the sun and watching the birds in the garden. All her English visitors to the new home commented how lovely the conservatory was... but they all exclaimed how great the space would be for drying laundry. It's one of those ultimate cultural divide things.
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here in minnesota, in the winter, when the houses are hot and dry from the furnace going night and day, we need the moisture in our houses. we have a humdifier going all night and when the air is really dry i soak a bedsheet and hang it up in the bathroom. in my old apartments, when i was in my 20s, I'd leave bowls of water on top of the radiators.
ReplyDeletenever dreamed that moisture would be anything but desired.
Cumbrian weather means washing in house most weeks of year! No space for tumble dryer here....
ReplyDeleteWe are now into that awful dry time of year when everything you touch gives you a huge electric shock, despite our built-in humidifier. I will have to start hanging wet clothes around the house to dampen the place up a bit!
ReplyDeleteInteresting; as the mum of two boys with a tendency to eczema, I'm with your other commenters; a bit of moisture in the air is a good thing rather than a bad one. Especially here in Moscow where the heating is on high all winter and the air is naturally much drier.
ReplyDeleteI can't understand how I missed that original post - it was one of the first things I complained about after moving to Seoul - the dratted washer/dryer that does neither task efficiently. Of course, it's awfully dry here now that winter's more or less here - I would even consider hanging some laundry to dry, but there is really nowhere to do it. We have humidifiers in every room, and even then, we're all always slathering on the lotion.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, I hadn't heard about this new health risk - yikes! Just visited Rachel's post - very funny :)
ReplyDeleteI read about this in the paper on Friday - and thought the same as you - drying clothes OUTSIDE? In NOVEMBER? In SCOTLAND?? (where I am for a week for half term before returning to the slightly warmer climes of the south of England.)
ReplyDeleteLOL! The authority in my house read that in the news and pronounced it 'rubbish' immediately. I think we'll be safe with the wet towels on the clothes horse!
ReplyDeleteFunny post, made me smile. I remember hanging laundry out in Minnesota when we first moved there. It was a little too late in the season and my mom tried to pluck one item of clothing off the line and it broke! She had to leave the rest till the day warmed up a bit. Stick with drying inside!
No-one has mentioned the damage that tumble driers do to your stuff! Towels go frilly where the band near the end shrinks, jeans get white lines all over them, bra straps go curly, shirts shrink, twist at the seams and go short and wide, and unless you are nimble as an Olympian, anything that needs ironing goes bone dry and wrinkled as my grandmother making the next job nigh on impossible. Evil machines. I only use mine when it it pouring with rain, the heap is totally unmanageable or am feeling vindictive towards my husband's pants.
ReplyDeleteLove, J x