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Soft Snuggly Laundry vs. Line Dry Crispy
Hi All,
Crazy question, but, as an American used to drying everything in a dryer with loads of fabric softener sheets (especially for places with hard water like Brussels) versus line drying that makes clothes crispy - WHAT would someone suggest, what to use and how to get clothes soft - like the snuggly soft kind I am used too! and where to buy whatever it is - I am just arrived a week ago :) Thanks!
I hear ya! I am Canadian but have lived here for 13 years! The only thing I have found is to buy a dryer! It was so hot yesterday, I line dried my towels - I hate them rough! I will say they sure absorb better.
I dry everything outside on the line as far as possible. The cost of running a drier is astronomical.
I have loads of stuff bought from Marks & Spencer and they specifically advise that you do NOT use fabric softener on towels as it both shortens the life and reduces the absorbency. I also have outer clothing from Rohan who point out that fabric softener will remove built-in rain/shower protection from any clothing.
I'm an American living in Brussels for nine years. If you have the space, buy a dryer. There are times when the rain never lets up in Belgium. If you wait for a sunny day there will not be enough time and clothes line to dry the laundry backup. You also don't want to evaporate that much moister inside your home or apartment during those time either. The risk and cost of mold growth is not worth it. I have both a dryer and a clothes line inside the garage and outside in the yard. When the sun is out, I dry my whites outside as often as I can. Take the towels down when they are damp dry and tumble dry them 10-15 minutes to soften them. The dark clothes and colors that I don't want to fade are hung in the garage with the garage door cracked a few inches for air circulation. I do this summer and winter.
During the dead of winter my dryer is necessary to get the clothes to dry before they mold. Things like jeans and towels get 20-30 minutes in the dryer and then they are hung in the garage to finish drying.
Use the highest spinning cycle in your washer that you can for the clothes to eliminate extra water before using your dryer, but note that the faster the spin cycle the more wrinkled the clothes. I'm quite sure the ironing I have to do cancels out any energy savings I make with the dryer. Until Belgium, I did not iron things fresh from the dryer, here it is a daily job.
