No driers, but lots of rain!

Ive never had issues with my combi washer/dryer. Maybe we're just lucky? Never experienced crunchy clothes with line drying either - and my clothes have always been line dried, when weather prevailing. My British mother introduced it to our neighhors..

Aslo, if you have space, I recommend this fridge/freezer whole heartedly. I bought it last summer when re-doing our kitchen and even after a massive Costco shop, it still doesnt get full. Love it.

After coming home to nearly 5 weeks of a backlog of laundry, I think my DH is *finally* convinced that we need a tumble dryer. We've simply run out of radiator space in the house to dry the 1000 things I've had to wash....including the dress shirts he needed for work. Right away. *sigh* OH WELL.

While he has no moral, environmental objection to the idea of a dryer, since he doesn't do the laundry himself he's never seen the "need" for one.

Now he does.

We have the space for a dryer, so I'm getting one. (We still don't have a freezer or a microwave or a dishwasher, but I can live without those...)

Happy (belated) Mother's Day to me!

In the olden days we had a twin tub washer with "spin dryer" which was OK-ish for the two of us. But once the kids arrived (this was 30-odd years ago) I insisted on a real dryer! When we moved house we were fortunate to have a basement so it lived down there, although it was a drag trundling the wet wash from the kitchen down the cellar stairs.

I was born and raised in the UK and have never had a drier, despite living in Manchester   When hubby comes to live in May I know it is on the top of his list!

I think for some of us UK folks, we have had it drummed into us that driers cost a lot to run and are not good for the enviroment (energy used etc). I think it must be programmed in us from birth! When I have visited hubby and he has just thown things in the drier I get this little inner feeling of 'oh dear that's bad' not sure where it comes from   That said he lives in MN so it is 10 feet of snow for 4 months of the year!

I do think a drier will be on my list though when Hubby comes to live. I have trouble drying clothes and hate when they take so long they need washing again as they get a bit smelly, especially towels   PlusI imagine having a drier on for a bit can't be as costly as having my radiators on for practically a day to dry the lot!

I am just going to have to get over that innate Brit feeling of driers being bad and get one, hubby coming over is a good excuse  

I think for some of us UK folks, we have had it drummed into us that driers cost a lot to run and are not good for the enviroment (energy used etc). I think it must be programmed in us from birth!

I agree and think it's a really good thing! The US could use a bit more of that kind of thinking, in my view.

There's nothing wrong with having a dryer for back-up and using it when you really need to, but I do think the US mentality of relying on one on a nearly daily basis is pretty detrimental.

(We still don't have a freezer or a microwave or a dishwasher, but I can live without those...)

Happy (belated) Mother's Day to me!

OMG! I would go nuts without the freezer and microwave! I couldn't survive without it! Well...I probably could, but wouldn't like it! LOL! (I don't have a dishwasher either and I feel like I'm ALWAYS doing dishes! But I can live without it!) 

There's nothing wrong with having a dryer for back-up and using it when you really need to, but I do think the US mentality of relying on one on a nearly daily basis is pretty detrimental.

Absolutely! I have to use the dryer all winter for some stuff, but I have a clothes rack in the furnace room that gets a lot of use. Once the snow is gone I hang everything outside -- although we seem to be the only household in the neighbourhood which has a clothes reel!

Once the snow is gone I hang everything outside -- although we seem to be the only household in the neighbourhood which has a clothes reel!

First thing my mother had my father install in their house when they moved to it in 1974. Mother told me at first she was the only one with a clothes line and then over the course of ten years about 10 or so all of our neighbours had one installed. They all still use them.

Line dried clothes smell sooooo much nicer then ones dried in a dyer. And if its windy enough, you dont need to iron the washing either 

My partner and I didn't have a tumble dryer until we moved to our new flat in October. I hated hanging my clothes all over the house..We always seemed to have undies as decorations just about anywhere you could look. Our washing machine also went out so we had been going to the laundromat for a year which was expensive and a pain... We waited until we moved to get a new washer and a tumble dryer because our old flat was up 33 steps and we didn't want to do all that heavy moving... When we got to the new house I ordered a new washer and dryer. It was FANTASTIC.. I think British washing machines are incredibly slow but I still love having one of my own now. As for the dryer...I had misjudged the size of the space in the kitchen for washer and dryer but you better believe I took out a couple of shelves in the bedroom and slid the dryer in there! I actually like having the dryer in the bedroom. It makes clothes easy to put away! I am also amazed by the fact that the dryer has a tank that holds the water instead of having to have a pipe to the outside... It all works well, no more undie decorations!

Well, I use a JML Dri Buddy.
http://www.jmldirect.com/Dri-Buddi-PD2001/

Sure, it takes two hours to dry a load of shirts ... but ...
hardly takes up any space (and folds away after use)
dry them on hangers (just move the hangers to the wardrobe when finished)
uses LOADS less energy than a conventional dryer
Warms up the room (with no noxious fumes)
But this is the main bit:  Heats out the creases ... no more ironing

Oh, and 50 quid instead of hundreds

On our recent self-catering hol, the cottage that we rented had one of those combi washer-tumbler dryer units.  It was a Hotpoint & all digital everything.  Once I figured out how to work the silly thing (it was complicated!), I actually really liked it.  I had often heard not-so-good things about combis, but now I told DH I wouldn't mind getting one of those.  I wouldn't use the tumble dryer all the time - because I like hanging my clothes out & don't mind hanging them on an airer inside the house, etc...but at some times of year & certain weathers, etc - it would sure be nice to be able to get jeans, towels & bedding dry faster!  We don't really have room for separate appliances & I liked my experience with that one, so I'm hoping we'll get one sometime in the near-ish future.  I'd wash a full load, then take some out for hanging up & only used the dryer to dry the heavy/bulky items - like jeans, or finishing up stuff that was pretty well dry already.