It’s the worst time of year for anyone who appreciates nice, quiet, dryer sheets. If you can dry your laundry outside most of the year and don’t have a tumble dryer (or if you do have a tumble dryer but can’t afford the increased cost of running it now), how should you go about drying your bedding normally right now?
Bed sheets and duvet covers have a lot of surface area, which makes them difficult to hang on a clothes horse, and if not dried properly, they can get moldy. There’s no point in having the best mattress, the best comforter and the best pillows if they’re covered in damp, moldy mattresses, so what’s the best way to dry them without a tumble dryer?
Eucalyptus bedding expert James Higgins offers (Opens in a new tab) and CEO of Ethical Bedding. He’s come up with some helpful tips for drying your bed sheets naturally and efficiently, without having to refer to an energy-hungry tumble dryer. Read on to learn how to wash and dry bedding and put it back in bed before bed.
1. Wash your bedding first thing in the morning
For the best chance of drying the sheets, James says, start early. If you do your laundry first thing in the morning, once you’re done, the house will be warm, improving the odds of your sheets air-drying quickly.
“House temperatures drop dramatically overnight because that’s when the house is at its coldest, so avoid drying your sheets overnight by giving them the best possible chances of the day,” he adds.
2. Dry the sheets in the kitchen
If there is a place, the best place in the house to dry the sheets is the kitchen. “The kitchen area tends to be the warmest part of the house, as it’s where we cook and gets a lot of traffic,” says James.
You can speed things up, too, if you’re cooking in the oven; Simply place the drying rack next to the oven door. “Though,” notes James, “if you’re cooking more smelly food, I wouldn’t recommend this option because it will cling to the sheets.” Running a cooker fan can also help, as the increased airflow will make moisture evaporate faster.
3. Hang sheets near the airing closet
Another warm reliable place to dry sheets is near an airing cupboard. James points out that it gives off a lot of heat throughout the day, so you can get the most out of it without using any additional electricity. Once your sheets are almost dry, we suggest folding them and placing them in the airing closet to finish them off.
4. Iron the sheets under a dry towel
If you enjoy nicely ironed sheets, you can dry and iron them in one go with this trick. James says, “We don’t recommend applying direct heat from an iron to wet bedding, but add a towel to the mixture and your problems are solved.
“When setting up an ironing board, lay your wet bed sheets on the board and place an old dry towel on top of them. Then set your iron to a medium to high setting and apply the heat of the iron to the towel. This will transfer heat through the towel to your bed sheets, drying and ironing them in one go—making them Reduce drying time!”
5. Finish it off with a hair dryer
Inevitably you’ll reach a point where everything is mostly dry, except for a few pesky pieces of your bedding that are a little thicker and take longer to dry, like the corner of your duvet cover. But James has an easy fix for that: “In that case,” he says, “use a hair dryer for a few minutes to dry those final stains.” Rank!
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