1. Dryer Balls: Throw these felted wool balls into the dryer to separate wet clothes as they tumble, helping them dry faster with less stress on the fabric. Hint: a clean tennis ball works too!
2. Handheld Steamer: When you don't want to drag out the ironing board, a portable steamer is amazing for smaller jobs or delicate fabrics. It heats in 30 seconds if you need to quickly touch up your outfit on the way out the door.
3. Sock Clips: It's a laundry cliché, but so true: sock pairs never emerge without a few missing soldiers. Sock clips prevent losing individuals, but also save time in sorting your socks back into pairs later (my personal nightmare).
4. Salad Spinner: Thou shalt never wring out your delicates! The rough treatment will negate the care you took by hand washing them in the first place. As a final step, give them a spin (just like the spin cycle of your washer) to get them partially dry. This also prevents the stretching that can occur when you hang a sopping wet garment. You may want to pick one up specifically for the laundry room so you don't have to share with your salads.
5. Sweater Drying Rack: It may seem unnecessary — you do have a towel and countertop, after all — but a drying rack really is one of those tools that makes hand washing your sweaters miles easier. The circulating air cuts the drying time in half so you can wear your favorite sweater that much sooner. Hint: store your drying sweater in the tub in case of drips.
(Images: As linked above)
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I keep my socks attached together with a very small safety pin. I keep the pin attached to the inside cuff of my sock even when I'm wearing them, so at night I just pin the two dirty socks together and throw them in the wash. I've done this since I was a kid (my Dad taught me this trick), and it's probably saved hours of sorting socks. AND I've never lost a sock!!
For my toddler's socks, I put them all into a mesh lingerie bag for washing. Never lost a single sock (at least not during the laundry process!)
The concept of dryer balls is interesting to me; I have a combination washer/dryer and while I'm pretty happy with the way it works, it takes a pretty long time to dry the clothes. Would dryer balls help? Would wool ones be ineffective in a combination washer/dryer because they'd be soaked?
I read about using tennis balls with pillows in the dryer to keep them from bunching/clumping up. The only thing is they smell of chemical out of the can! It nearly knocked me over when I opened it. We have a dryer that vents to a cup on the floor...the basement stunk like the heated chemical. I would advise running the balls in the dryer with a dryer sheet to try to knock down some of the chemical stink. Or get the felted balls. They seem like a better way to go.
I use the Nellie's dryer balls I got at C&B, I haven't bought fabric softener in years.
i tried the "washer ball" but it doesnt seem as effective as actual detergent.
Ditto to C about the lingerie bag for baby socks. Someone gave one to me at my baby shower and now I give one to every expecting mom I know. Bonus: you can put bibs in them and not worry about the velcro eating other fabric.
That salad spinner idea is genius!
I love wool dryer balls! I made a few on a whim, and now I will never go back to dryer sheets.
Not only can i just leave the balls in the dryer and not think about it, but as a cat owner, the decrease in static saves me hours of getting cat hair off my clothes!
Ditto, C. I'm one of the ones who gives lingerie bags at baby showers. My dad owned a laundromat and put coin-operated laundry equipment in apartment complexes. He told me that his number one repair over the years was removing a baby sock from the water pump of a washing machine.
Great tip, Lisamfb!
Weatherman, check your dryer's exhaust path -- all the way out to the outside of the house. If your dryer is not drying efficiently, it's very possible that you have a ball of lint that's blocking the damp air leaving the dryer. My DMIL was ready to buy a new dryer. DH cleaned years of impacted lint out of the duct and DMIL's dryer drys like new!
Love my dryer balls! Love!
I have never heard of felt dryer balls! If it keeps dog hair off the black sweaters, I want a bunch of them.
I love my steamer more than words can describe. I don't iron anything anymore.
If you roll up hand-washed clothes in a clean, dry towel, it gets an amazing amount of water out without stressing the fibers at all. Lay it out flat on the towel, roll it up like a yoga mat, squish it a bit, and its just like the spin cycle but without the flinging about.
A couple things: Oh, the sock clips--I doubt they'd save me any time.
Missing socks: Check the dryer hose. I cleaned mine out and found two socks in there. They were about six inches from actually coming out of the exterior vent. !!! The recommendation is to clean this out twice a year to prevent fires.
I have a stack of old towels that I use for hand-drying my clothes. Lay them flat on the towel, roll tightly, and then knead the towel with your hands or knees. It's really amazing how much water it removes. Sun dry and even jeans will be ready by the end of the day.
Hey - And here I thought I was the only one who used an extra Salad Spinner for my delicates! It works very well to speed up the drying process. Adore Apartment Therapy site - keep up the great tours. Cheers from the Great White North
Forget the steamer on everything but those that require precise pressing or are extremely delicate. Spray your garment with distiller water and throw it in the dryer for a couple of minutes. DONE! I still use my steamer on delicate dresses but that's about it.
I redid both bathrooms and my laundry room in a reno last year, and while I love all the decor touches in the bathrooms, the single improvement that has given me the most day-to-day pleasure (well, besides having the master bath be usable again) is my wall-mounted drying rack. It has a white beadboard back, which actually goes with my decor in the area, so it's attractive as well as functional, and folds back into the wall so it doesn't take up space. So highly recommended.
Supposedly a "Shamwow"-type cloth will soak up a lot of water for sweater rolling.
My big thing is to interrupt the drying cycle to shake things out and rearrange them. You know how the dryer can create the giant ball'o clothes? I think it really helps to dry things quicker.
I've seen those dryer balls before and now may get a set. Would they do double duty at kitty toys too?
I was actually hoping for an automatic folding machine gadget, but that may have to wait.
Wool fiber is capable of soaking up humidity up to 30% if its weight without it feeling even damp. If one uses these felted balls, they should be dried reeeally well afterwards. They might feel fairly dry to the touch but there most probably is dampness left in the core of the balls.
@mdorothy What is a DMIL? And a DH?
"Darling/Dear Mother in Law" and "Darling/Dear Husband"
My hand-washables go into the washing machine and through the "delicates" spin cycle. Works great, and the clothes hold up just fine. If you have a timed, heat-free dryer cycle, it can speed drying time.
Hang-drying in the South can be tricky. Humidity makes the clothes dry slowly and go sour, pollen will coat your clean clothes outdoors in the spring. I have a hanging rod in the laundry room and keep a table fan on the washing machine. I hang up the clothes and turn on the fan to keep the air moving. Clothes dry quickly and it uses less energy than the dryer.
@chinadoll. Thank you for explaining. I can't stand how twee and condescending those terms are, but at least I now know.
Keep those mesh bags!
Each person in the house here has one (3 kids still at home), not only does it keep socks together, it stops fights about who's socks are who's!
Am I the only one who doesn't loose single socks?
As much as I loved that sweater dryer, because it was compact and worked well, it rusted! I had to toss it. ):
You can make your own dryer balls.
http://www.homeforhireblog.com/2012/10/diy-wool-dryer-balls.html
lgs, that remark to chinadoll was mean and uncalled for.
Reply to lorelski, I agree! Internet for Beginners: Question: What is 'DH'? What Does DH Stand For? Answer: DH commonly stands for "Dear Husband" or "Darling Husband", a form of written digital affection in the 21st century. e.g. "My DH should be back from the store in a minute".
Not twee, not condescending, and information easily accessed elsewhere. Welcome to common terms used in internet postings EVERYWHERE. lgs, so sorry you have been raised under a rock by rude people. Not the way we do it here at AT.
I'm very intrigued by the wool dryer balls and will probably try them. Thanks for the tip and comments; I'd never heard of them. Like @Tarainsevenvalleys, the smell from tennis balls bothered me in the dryer. I love the idea of sock clips, but how do you enforce family participation? I think I will make this the discussion topic at supper tonight. I can already picture my kids rolling their eyes!
I purchased dryer balls from Target a while ago - the look like spikey, soft plastic tennis balls that a dog might enjoy as a chew toy more than a useful laundry room item. I rarely use dryer sheets now as they help to reduce static and also help to keep everything moving around and everything comes out nice and soft. I also just try to dry the heavy things like jeans, towels and bedding as most of my other clothes get air-dried on a massive drying rack I got from Ikea.
I've made dryer balls for my entire family, felted, while watching tv. The best part for me is that they attract any hair, dog's, cat's, mine, my long haired husband's - and don't have to pick them off the clothes. And not using dryer sheets or any further chemicals that annoy my sensitive skin. Oh, and also the cost of all that stuff! Not much, but we are almost retired so every penny helps. You can use them as cat toys, but they'll end up covered in hair that's not quite as clean as what comes out of the wash. And just try finding them after the cat stops playing with them!
The clothes steamer does work great instead of ironing -- and I also use mine to clean the grout in my shower. Run over it with the steamer and the crud comes off with a light scrub. Probably a dedicated cleaning steamer would work even better, but this way I don't have to buy another appliance.
I fixed the problem of losing socks by buying only one kind of sock (all black). Problem of orphaned socks solved. There is always one with a hole or a lost one but it doesn't matter because you just need to grab two out of the drawer. (I also stopped folding socks)
How is saying DH condescending? Its darling husband! Igs, calm the frick down, if you think Darling Husband is condescending then maybe you should go back to the rock you live under.
....I should try dryer balls, i always have cat hair on my clothes.
I have a great set of those wool dryer balls from the Etsy shop "Bog Berry Handicraft" and I absolutely love them (they do sometimes double as cat toys...). Check them out here:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/BogBerryHandicraft?ref=seller_info
@weatherman, these are only for use in the dryer (not the washer)
Thanks for including a link to my diy dryer balls! I wanted to update the link since I recently changed my blog url + name. You can find the post here:
http://www.nicolejoelle.com/2012/10/diy-wool-dryer-balls.html
Good stuff. I'll have to try these as I too hate doing laundry now that I don't have my own washer dryer. Just blogged about laundry in NYC here: http://onechicklette.com/2013/03/26/nycs-dirty-laundry/