I lived in Japan for 4 years and didn't have a dryer and hated it! In winter it took two days to dry and I can't tell you how many times I had to rush home because it was about to rain. Or how many times I had to rewash my clothes because I couldn't get home. Weather reports aren't always right!
The two-day dry time when it was cold or when I had to hang inside made it really hard to plan my outfits (I also had to wash more because every where you go someone is smoking). I think I ended up wasting energy and water because I had to run so many small loads!
Here's a picture: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2413/2382654649_97d7184c14_o.jpg

I live in HK, in a rural area outside the city and we, and most of the people in our village, do not have a dryer. Dryers are not big in Asia. It's fine. We dry our clothes outside. When it gets really bad during the rainy season, we run the dehumidifier in one room and dry clothes there, or maybe take them to the local laundromat. But I like not having a dryer, just as I like not owning a car. It's a good way to save energy and save the planet. I know in cold climates it can be harder, but during the summer when it's nice weather, what's the point in using a dryer? Clothes dried outside smell much nicer too.

I live in Italy. Sorry for my bad english... Most people in Italy doesn't own a dryer. I think 99% of people. For us it is prefectly normal to live without and it isn't a problem. in the summer clothes and other things out , in the garden, or on the terrace, and in few hours it is dry. Otherwise in the winter, we put things inside. My way is , to wash every morning few things , so the day after they are perfectly dry.
So it is possible save energy and spend less money.

i live in Toronto, Canada.
My wife and I have been dryer-use-free for almost 2 years. In the summer, we dry on a combination of outdoor line and indoor drying racks. in the winter we just use the indoor racks.

the racks are really handy (we have 2) because they're light and foldable. we keep them stored when not in use, then bring them out and set them in a sunny spare bedroom when its clothes drying time!

it is TOTALLY possible (nay - easy) to live dryer free. clothes drying time is between a few hours and 1 day. i think having a good front load washer really helps as the spin cycle gets much of the clothing 75% of the way there.

I've never owned a dryer in my life (or a dishwasher)-I don't think dryers are quite as prevalent in the UK as they are in the US. So if we can do it with our crap weather, anyone can! When I've used dryers on holiday/at my mother-in-laws, I dislike the feeling of artificially dried clothes.

First step is to make sure you're using the setting on the washing machine that spins the clothes sufficiently.

On dry days it's a breeze (ho ho), on wet days it's not so bad either. I don't leave clothes outside if I'm going out-they only take a day to dry even inside.

We have a maiden (drying rack) which I position near to the bedroom radiator, but I also have these mini racks you hang off the radiators-most things dry in an hour when next to the radiator and at this time of year I have the radiators on every evening. I seem to have a picture hanging off most of my radiators so I also hang my shirts on their hanger, then hang them off the picture. As hot air rises, they dry fast too. In the summer things seem to dry faster anyway even indoors.

My husband and I have been using indoor racks since this summer, and really like it. Sure, it takes longer to dry, but it really saves on the electric bill. The one thing that can be unpleasant is your amount of clothing that needs to be ironed will definitely increase. Overall, it usually takes about a day to fully dry, though is seems to take a little bit longer now that it's getting colder. But it really seems to work for us.

i have a dryer, but i didn't use it all spring and summer, and most of the autumn until it began snowing. last winter i air dried all winter inside after converting an unused phone-booth sized shower stall into a drying rack by adding hanging rods. in the winter i still use the dryer for towels and big things because i don't have the room inside to hang them, but i'll hang clothes up. colorado is so dry that even in winter stuff will dry in a day.

Even when I had a dryer I rarely use it because I wear a lot of t-shirts that I try to keep from shrinking too much. Now I'd much rather use the space in the laundry room for storage. Also, I'm cheap and try to keep my utility bills down.

i'd never actually seen a dryer in a private house before moving to the US. people don't really use dryers all that much outside of the US/canada.

i have lived across three continents and saw dryers being indispensable only in the USA. We have lived wthout dryers all our llves...even now...we have a clothes drying stand which stays in our house....It is nice that the stand fits exactly one washer load of clothes..so its win win all the way

I lived in Brazil for two years and no dryer necessary. The only thing I missed was my jeans shrinking a bit. It definitely extends the life of your clothes!

Air-drying clothes definitely helps them last longer. As someone else mentioned, it's important to make sure the clothes are getting fully spun out in the washer first-- that really helps. If you're anywhere near a Japanese market (bigger cities often have them) they have great space-saving circular racks for hanging socks and other small items.

I lived without a dryer in England, and it was seldom inconvenient, even with four people in the flat and only two drying racks. Things took a day or two to dry, no matter the weather (we didn't have a place to dry outdoors). Now I tend to do one dryer load to every two washer loads and dry the other half of my clothes on racks.

We air-dry a lot of our clothes--in our apartment we used drying racks, and now that we have a house we use a combination of racks and clothesline. However, we do use the dryer for towels, sheets, and heavy items. My guess is that we use the dryer for less than 1/2 of our laundry loads--probably about 2/5.

I have been dryer free for 2 years now (with an 18 month old and mechanic spouse, no less!) Weather permitting, clothes go out on the line, and if the weather isn't cooperating, they go on the indoor line and on our two drying racks. I saw the article on apartmenttherapy for a $5 indoor laundry line and we put one up. Clothes go on it and 24 hours later they're dry. We had to improvise because our landlord would not allow a dryer, only a washer, so we had to get creative on how we dried our clothes. The laundromat was just too expensive. My house always smells fresh and clean and we're saving $60 a month in energy bills. Combine that with the savings from making my own laundry soap and we're saving a bundle!!

I haven't used a dryer for the majority of my clothes for at least 20 years. I started because I had little money and also didn't want my shirts to shrink in the dryer. I noticed that my clothes lasted longer. I started hanging my shirts on the shower rod right out of the washer and don't need to iron anything -- sometimes you have to spend some time smoothing out something like cuffs while the clothes are damp. And I love it that my clothes are ready to hang in the closet once they are dry. However, more for space issues, I usually use a dryer for underwear, socks, bedding and towels. But I only wash and dry those items when I have a full load. However, I wonder how much space I'd need for a couple of drying racks. And in the winter it would be nice to have a little more humidity. Hmm.

I'm from NZ & Australia, and like most people outside of the US, we didn't use dryers. I lived in one place that had a dryer, and we used it only for when it was wet for weeks on end and we needed to dry sheets (they were too big to hang up inside).

i live in Los Angeles and have a washer, but no dryer. i have a clothesline outside and it works fine for me.

Love living without a dryer... Although, I must admit, I still use the dryer when I launder my bed linens. I simply don't have the space to line dry a comforter or sheets :(

I've learned the vinegar trick when laundering towels; a half-cup of vinegar into the rinse cycle removes most of the detergent that gets left behind, leaving the towels much softer when line dried than one would normally get!

There is nothing better than the smell of sun dried clothes straight from the clothes line. Sure, not everyone has the room outside or the climate, but if you do, use it. Solar power is free! And don't think of a rain shower as a negative, its just another rinse cycle........

I lived in Scotland for 6 months without a dryer. We lived in an apartment with high ceilings. We had a drying rack that was suspended from the ceiling and lowered by a rope. Even with a regular load of laundry, everything hung out of the way. With three of us, we never had a problem with drying space or drying time. We all just kept two sets of bedding so that we could change to a new one while the other had time to dry. As convenient as dryers are, I have never felt inconvenienced without one. The same goes for not having a microwave while living in Italy. Seems to me we felt more like we had the time to cook meals plus we enjoyed the work more. Cooking stopped being a chore, but a pleasure.

I live in Canada and so use an indoor rack in the winter. It's foldable so I stick it under my bed when it's not in use and just pop it up in my bathroom when I need it. It's not much of a bother at all, and on top of being "green" it's saved me a lot of money. I see no reason to ever go back to using a dryer.

I'm from outside Chicago, and my family wouldn't have a problem using a clothes line to dry everything outdoors... but it really gets to my mom's allergies. Has anyone else had this problem?

My mum had a dryer from when I was young (maybe 7 or 8 years old). It was used mainly after the summer, when we couldn’t hang washing outdoors. I missed having a washer and dryer when I first moved out. And when I moved to a bigger place with my OH we bought our own washer and a dryer. My OH’s parents had always had a dryer so maybe that’s why we got both. It lives under the stairs. We use it mostly in non-summer months – and in the UK that happens more often than we’d like. But it’s worth it for towels, bedding and underwear. Maybe it depends on how warm your house is but it can take 2/3 days to dry clothes and we both detest those radiator racks!

I'm English, now living in Australia, and I'm in total agreement with all the posters who've said that dryers only seem common in the US (& possibly Canada) - the rest of the world copes perfectly fine without them, regardless of the weather.

When I was at uni, living in halls for a year, with just one room to call my own, I used the provided dryer because I simply did not have the room to hang my stuff to dry and be able to use the room - it was big enough for a sink, desk, wardrobe and bed, with a small rug down the middle, and nothing more. Other than then, haven't seen the need for one, even when I was living in an apartment where the rules forbid me from hanging anything on the balcony to dry - that place had a living space, so it was easy (I did miss drying stuff outdoors though).

Line dried clothes feel nicer, last longer, and don't actually increase the amount of ironing necessary if you flap all the creases out first. And the bonus in our current house is that there was space in the laundry for a dryer, which we've instead used for a little chest freezer - soooo useful!

I live in Greece where 90% of the people don't own a dryer. Line drying here is very easy because almost every house and apartment has a balcony with lines for the clothes to dry. In winter it takes a day, in the summer a couple of hours.

We own a dryer for "emergencies" but don't use it. We started by hanging clothes outside in the fall, spring and summer, and then we strung a double-line in our kitchen for rainy days and winter. Now I use my dryer maybe 2-3 days per year. We saw our electricity bill go down by over $90 a month, and that was five years ago. Sometimes it's a pain to navigate around the laundry in the kitchen, but it's worth it - our clothes last longer, drying adds humidity to our house, and we're saving money and energy.

We upgraded to a high efficiency front-load washer and that helped a GREAT deal, plus we have a wood stove that we use to primarily heat our kitchen and part of our great room. When we have guests, the line is on hooks and just comes down. I start a load of wash at night, and then we hang it early in the morning. By supper, it's dry and comes down. I can sometimes do two loads a day if I plan it right. Small things (socks & kids' underwear) just go on the radiators.

In the warm months, I can dry 2-3 loads on the line. The key is to plan ahead and to do laundry every day rather than in one big fell swoop. I do use fabric softener which helps - but I only use petroleum-free, phosphate-free products as we are in a public watershed and we have a septic system. We love it!

I live in an RV and do most of my laundry with a WonderWash and spin dryer (http://www.squidoo.com/doing-laundry-by-hand-in-an-rv). The spin dryer is basically an electric wringer. It gets most of the water out of the clothes and then I drape them on a drying rack. It takes a day or two for them to dry completely. I don't mind because I save a ton of money, but I will admit that the drying rack takes up a lot of space in my 125 square foot home. When I am somewhere that outdoor drying is permitting, then I take advantage of the sun. Drying is faster and my clothes smell great!