Woman ‘swears by’ 7p an hour method to dry clothes indoors

It’s the household task that becomes one of the most difficult – or the most expensive when the weather isn’t warm outside: drying clothes. If you have a tumble dryer, you’ll be forking out eyewatering sums in order to dry your washing pile at this time of year when temperatures plunge and it’s too cold or wet to hang clothes outside.

That’s especially true given the cost of electricity has flown up in the past few years with another Ofgem price cap rise in place from today – and tumble dryers are some of the most power hungry appliances you can own. And if you don’t, you’re probably battling wet smelling rooms, mould, or freezing open windows as you attempt to dry clothes inside on a cold or rainy day.

But one savvy Reddit user has found a way to dry clothes for ‘just 7p an hour’ – and they swear by it.

Posting on the UKPersonalFinance subreddit, one user said they ‘couldn’t see the tip around’ and so decided to share it with other savvy penny pinchers.

Explaining how it works, she said: “Fundamentally, water is removed from clothes due to evaporation of water molecules held on clothes.

“Heat will increase the rate at which this happens, but it’s the hardest and most expensive way to do this at present.

“What I’ve started doing is to do an extra spin and drain cycle on my laundry, meaning there’s less water to remove from my clothes. I then set up my airer with a dehumidifier in the room PLUS, this is the key bit, pointing my oscillating fan at the laundry at the lowest fan speed.

“This creates an artificial breeze that is cheap, quiet, and really does dry your clothes quite quickly.

“I can’t say I’ve found a cheaper way of doing it this winter, so thought this might help people out!”

Laundry firm Lenor backs this up, but adds that excess water should be removed when drying to avoid stale smells.

It says: “To dry clothes indoors without them smelling, make sure to remove any excess water before hanging them up to dry. Also, avoid leaving clothes in the machine for too long after washing and use a fabric conditioner, like Lenor Outdoorables, to keep clothes smelling fresh.”