WWW.GREENMATTERS.COM / HEALTH & WELLNESS

Interior Expert Shares Simple Trick to Dry Your Bed Sheets Without Using Power-Hungry Tumble Dryers

An interior expert recommends these dos and don'ts of drying bed sheets indoors by utilizing unused spaces and large surface areas.

BY GREEN MATTERS STAFF

PUBLISHED 2 DAYS AGO

An individual loading a bed sheet into the tumble dryer. (Representative Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Eleonora Galli)

Every odd task now has a device to accomplish it. Think of the pre-digital age, when clothes and laundry were dried by harnessing the sweet breeze. Since the industrial boom, human life has mostly been indoors, and therefore, the invention of tumble dryers. Similar to washing machines, tumble dryers are power-hungry and hold an expensive spot in electric bills. Sizeable laundry like towels and bedsheets can be a strenuous task, especially doing it indoors or during winter months. Interior expert and online bedroom retailer founder, Georgia Metcalfe has some wise and sustainable hacks to swiftly dry bedsheets, per the Mirror.

Laundry day on living room with washing machine, basket with clothes and drying clothesline. (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Anastasiia Krivenok)

Expert's hacks for better drying indoors

Metcalfe, who founded French Bedroom, points out how large surface areas are essential for laundry to dry quickly indoors. She suggests utilizing the hallway banisters by draping wet linens around them, maximizing space for the fabric to breathe and eradicating chances of molds. "Bedding needs a large surface area to dry quickly,” she said. The entrepreneur added that some people use an airer but these are often inefficient for larger sheets. “You could also create a beautiful scent by using lavender fabric softener in the washing machine as this will act as a diffuser whilst the sheets dry,” she shared.

A woman spreads out a bed sheet on the bed. (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Tetra Images)

Doors have great potential for indoor drying of laundry, notes Metcalfe. However, simply hanging sheets or clothes from the door could do more harm to the fabric than good. She suggests using adhesive hooks in unused rooms like guest rooms or personal rooms during the day, to hang clothes on. She recommended, “Place hooks on the backs of doors and even walls to create an internal washing line as this will provide an open space above the floor, then hang up washing to dry.” Rearranging the room for the greater convenience of drying is also advised.

A woman drying laundry indoors. (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | People Images)

Don’ts of drying laundry indoors

While we desperately try drying our laundry indoors during the winter months, some of us often come up with our own genius hacks, like using the radiators at home. Radiators, as tempting as they might seem, are not good alternatives to tumble dryers. Metcalfe explained that this practice can cause the rust particles from the radiator to transfer into the bedsheets, posing a massive health hazard. It can also affect the quality of the linens as the small particles will be difficult to remove. “A layer of clothes over a radiator will also reduce its efficiency in heating up the room and raise bills,” the expert noted.

Towel and t shirt drying on radiator, energy saving, residual heat. (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Claudio Borquez)

She warned hanging clothes on them directly as the topmost part of doors is often unpolished which brings the possibility of wood bleeding into the laundry while drying. Also, wood fragments could pierce the clothing items and permanently damage them. Besides that, well-ventilated spaces are crucial for a mold-free environment for the laundry as the trapped moisture promotes the growth of molds. Black molds will be a common sight in the laundry during winter and autumn seasons if the space is not properly ventilated for drying. Metcalfe suggests opening windows only a tad bit to allow the evaporated air to pass through during winter will help tackle the bigger problem of trapped moisture.