Hang Drying Clothes Indoors After Washing

Didn't want to hijack the other thread, so moved this over here...

Pancake Bill was interested in my favorite RV accessory which is the Haier compact washing machine (in my 28 foot Class C)

my favorite RV accessory is my compact washing machine (wash, rinse, spin) that fits nicely in my little old 28 foot Class C. That was the best $250 I ever spent. For 3 years I've had clean clothes, towels, sheets, rugs and doggy bed without the hassles of a crowded laundry room.

Given that many of the far flung parks I go to have no laundry room at all, this has been a huge time and money saver for me.

Compact washer
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002KXMT4/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0002KXMT4&linkCode=as2&tag=recreationalvehicles-20

PancakeBill said:

Interesting, how well does it do the spin cycle?  Have you had any CG issues with hanging laundry out to dry?  I have seen some places that ban clotheslines.  Our tub has a skylight over it, and with the glass enclosure, it is a great place to hang a few shirts to dry. 

Back to RV accessories, just received and set up our new GPS!  RV specific, more on the use later.

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Pancake Bill:

Spin cycle is awesome. It has 3 stages. The first is slow, to get the water out, then it starts again, going mid speed as more water flies out, then the third spin it takes off full speed boogie.  It's a quiet machine  with no dancing, but if you've overloaded it or the spin is out of whack it stops blinks and beeps you to come fix this. Once you learn not to overload it (do multiple loads, rather one crammed load.) Also, a little soap goes a long way, if you over-soap then your clothes will be stiff instead of soft. I use a Downy ball softener for towels but haven't needed it on anything else (except new bluejeans.)

I pin undies  and socks with clothes pins to the hangers, for blue jeans, I open up the waist to let the air in, pin them to a hanger and open the legs so the air can dry them.

I use plastic clothes hangers and clothes pins for non-shirt items too.

Like I will pin up one towel per hanger, then hang about an inch apart in the shower on an overhead rod I installed near the ceiling or hang the clothes hangers on an overhead rod I put near the ceiling in my bedroom near the outside wall (out of my way.) I bought 2 dozen extra hangers just for drying the laundry.

I most often do dry indoors, and clothes really dry quicker than you think, they just don't get hot like a dryer. Feel your clothes in the closet, then feet the ones drying if you are new to air drying. Since the washer does small loads at a time, there isn't a huge load to dry all at once. I just loosely drape the bed sheets over a hanger and they dry  just hanging like that. I have a powerful 12 volt trucker clip-on movable 6 inch fan if I want to speed up the drying. The 120 elec model clip-on fan was much slower than the trucker fan, so that is why I prefer it. I have a 12 volt converter thing to plug it into if I move it too far from the 12 volt outlet.

The washer will let you re-rinse or re-spin. It has about 20 different settings.  Has a super small setting I use to toss in my microfiber rags to wash alone. The washer length time is based on water pressure and water level, it has a heavy wash setting too if you have something super dirty. I even toss in my outdoor vinyl table cloth with some bleach and it comes out looking new again minus any mold from rain that sometimes stick to the felt backing etc. Matter of fact, I use a huge oblong tablecloth to cover my bicycle, then when it gets crummy, I toss it in to wash alone with a tad soap and bleach.

Currently I am traversing the sea islands, being able to wash the salty air out of my clothes is heavenly. Even washed my bedroom fuzzy shoes (bought in men's department because of my wide feet) and they dried out fine.

I put the small dog bed in the washing machine by itself and then fluff it up inside out to dry. I even use cloth napkins now and wash those.  My little doggy has his harness vests washed, plus he gets cold super easy, so I was his sweaters, jackets and blankie.  I wash the bath mat and throw rugs in there one at a time (shake all the dirt off outside before washing.)

When my friend took a 5 week trip with me, he flew in with only a small bag of clothes because he knew we could wash most anywhere so he didn't have to pack a ton of stuff.

Many RV's don't leave you any extra space for extras, I surely wish these daggum designers would leave room for this magic washing machine. For me it's heaven on earth. My bedroom had a corner where I could fit mine, luckily. The hoses reach around the wall into the bathroom sink, where it quick connects to the faucet and drains down the sink too.

The top of the washer is slightly angled. On top of my washer I have a non-skid round bar tray. I glued rubber shelf liner to the bottom the tray too, so it is non skid on both sides. So when I am not washing, the bar tray sits on top. The rubber grip that comes built-in on top of the tray keeps things from sliding off and  ditto for the rubber I glued on the bottom, so basically my washer is an end table when I am not washing.

Using park laundry my wife used to overload the dryers so everything came back damp (I don't often have that problem)  So we hung stuff everywhere possible.
If it was not raining I have a cloths "Frame" (PVC retangle with lines strung across it) that fits on my bicycle rack in place of ye old Bicycle.

My daughter in DC has one of those washer and uses it a lot.  It does a good job and she has had it about 4 yrs.  If I ever put a washer in my 5er it will be one like that and hang clothes outside.

Your daughter was very smart to buy this washer. ;D

I must admit I am having a love affair with mine because it makes my lifestyle far more comfortable. I spend a lot of time in Federal, state and county owned parks and campgrounds.  Many do not have washers. Ditto for where I volunteer workamp half the year, no laundry facilities.

Whether hanging clothes inside or out, my laundry always manages to dry. People forget that the world got by for for hundreds of years without having clothes dryers.

I feel a bit friendly to the environment that I am not wasting resources by using electric or propane dryers.

One huge advantage to the compact size of the washer, is that each load is small. So even when drying indoors, I am able to wash 1-2-3 small loads, hang it indoors to dry out of the way, then when it's put away, if there's more laundry, I can wash and hang again.

Nother advantage to having this washer, is that I don't need to find space for a ton of clothes. Storage is tight in my mini motorhome which I am in fulltime year round. I keep my clothes pared down to what fits in the 19 inch closet and 3 drawers beneath it. Ditto for sheets and towels. I don't need to find storage for excess sheets and towels.

I now just own one set of sheets for each of my double bunks. I can wash a set in the morning and whether I hang dry them inside or out, they are ready to go back on the bunk before nightfall.

I've learned all sorts of tricks that take a little extra time, but the end result is clean soft laundry.

For instance, with towels I use a Downy ball with  softener in the rinse  with the towels (and new bluejeans). To make the towels come out fluffy, it truly helps to give them a good hard shake when they come out of the spin cycle, then hang them up (inside or out) to dry.

This washer enables me to run an extra spin cycle if desired. About the only time I do that is with heavy bluejeans. I tend to wash these just one or two pairs at a time. If they feel heavy when the cycle is done, I set the washer to spin again.

If you get this washer, there is a learning curve. One... never overload. If you do overload, it will alarm you and stop during the spin cycle. Once you learn to never overload, you won't have this problem anymore.

READ the manual. They explain about how to loosely toss your clothes in the wash, do not pack like you are at the laundry mat trying to squeeze everything into one load because you've waited hours just to get to finally use one lone washing machine.

Two, it's a small washer, so don't overload the soap.  The pulsator in this machine does a fantastic job of loosening and removing dirt and sweat.  If you use too much soap, your clothes are not going to be soft and comfy. Until you learn how to use just a tiny bit of soap, you may be using that extra rinse cycle more often than necessary.

On a funny economical note I shop at Dollar Tree (everything is $1) for my laundry soap, spray stain remover, and concentrated softener for the rinse ball. These very cheap products have worked beautifully for me. For $3 I have laundry supplies that last me 2 or more months.

That frees up a little money for FUN things.

Interesting stuff. Thanks.

You posted a thread about this washer a few years ago and talked me into buying one. But I soon realized I don't have any place in this RV to store it when I am not using it so I did not buy one. Since then I have decided I don't need one. Doing my laundry is very easy here now that I have a car. It takes me three trips to the laundromat to do a load and it is done. The laundromat here is never crowded so it is not a problem for me to do laundry. It would be a nice accessory to have but I really don't need it. It takes me about an hour to do all my laundry. But then again I have a secret to help me speed up doing my laundry. I threw away everything I owned that was white about ten years ago. Everything is grey or brown. Therefore I can do one load of colors. Some weeks I only do one load. All of my towels and sheets are colored and they fit into one load. I do them about once a month. So every two weeks I do one load and then two weeks later I do two loads. So that is only about $10 per month to do my laundry and about three hours per month.

What I like best about using the laundromat is I almost always meet someone at the laundromat who wants to talk, so it is a nice social gathering place.

It sure makes it easier when you have a car to get to the laundromat.

Being that I am female, not sure I can be convinced to go with everything being gray or brown.  ;D

I hate that many RV manufacturers do not leave one square inch for the occupant to have extra room for "their choice of stuff". 

Several times I have workamped in far flung places that came with no laundromat. That's how I found this washer, I showed up to workamp for 6 months in a remote location that had no laundry facilities within 10 miles. Being that I had no car and few clothes,  I could see this was going to get cumbersome for me.

Many of the campgrounds I prefer to visit just don't have laundromats.

What I truly miss is my laundry lady in the Caribbean. When I was living aboard my sailboat in various anchorages, there was always a laundry lady around. Some even had a relative or child drive their old dinghy around the anchorage soliciting laundry loads which they later delivered back to your boat.

In most cases, the laundry lady was a short walk from the dinghy dock or beach ashore.
I could give her my bag of laundry early in the morning, late that afternoon I would get it back, washed, dried and folded. She had her own supplies, so I didn't have to lug around soap etc.  I tipped her well because I was thrilled to have this service which in those days, was pretty cheap. In many ports this was your only choice, either do it on your boat by hand or trust it with a laundry lady. There weren't any self-serve facilities. Ah, those were the good old days...

DearMissMermaid said:

It sure makes it easier when you have a car to get to the laundromat.

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Yes it does. That is one of the reasons I bought a scooter last year.

Being that I am female, not sure I can be convinced to go with everything being gray or brown.  ;D

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Actually I have a lot more colors than grey and brown, like red, green and blue. But I can understand you not wanting to do away with white clothes. But remember white clothes take a bit more effort with the whole bleach thing. Plus it means you can't do your entire laundry in one load like I do, so it costs more to have white clothes.

I hate that many RV manufacturers do not leave one square inch for the occupant to have extra room for "their choice of stuff".

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Oh come on now. Every RV has plenty of space for extra stuff, it is just that we are taking a house and fitting it into an RV so there really isn't a lot of room left over. 

Several times I have workamped in far flung places that came with no laundromat. That's how I found this washer, I showed up to workamp for 6 months in a remote location that had no laundry facilities within 10 miles. Being that I had no car and few clothes,  I could see this was going to get cumbersome for me.

Many of the campgrounds I prefer to visit just don't have laundromats.

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My rule is that I inspect the laundromat before I rent a space if I am staying more than a few days. If they don't have a laundromat then I am not going to stay there. 

What I truly miss is my laundry lady in the Caribbean. When I was living aboard my sailboat in various anchorages, there was always a laundry lady around. Some even had a relative or child drive their old dinghy around the anchorage soliciting laundry loads which they later delivered back to your boat.

In most cases, the laundry lady was a short walk from the dinghy dock or beach ashore.
I could give her my bag of laundry early in the morning, late that afternoon I would get it back, washed, dried and folded. She had her own supplies, so I didn't have to lug around soap etc.  I tipped her well because I was thrilled to have this service which in those days, was pretty cheap. In many ports this was your only choice, either do it on your boat by hand or trust it with a laundry lady. There weren't any self-serve facilities. Ah, those were the good old days...

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I had two laundry ladies but I divorced both of them....

Actually there is a lady across the street that does laundry, however it is just not a big deal for me. She would save me about two hours a month and that would cost me too much money. I am retired, I have lots of free time.

I think everybody has their own way of doing things.

In my case, the parks I love to go to are far flung and as I have discovered, many just don't have laundry facilities. Ditto for my workamping I do 6 months a year, it doesn't come with a laundry facility either.

I probably do a lot more laundry than you. Since I have a washer, I only use about 1 roll of paper towels per year. I prefer washable cleaning rags and cloth napkins, yeah I know, laugh. I have loads of pillows with pillow cases or covers, I have throw rugs, dog bed, sheets, blankets, towels. When I have a traveling friend aboard, then its more sheets, towels and clothes etc.

I don't own that many clothes, I couldn't last a month on my existing wardrobe unless I want to be pretty stinky. Maybe I sweat too much trying to hold this old motorhome and this ravaged body together. LOL!

I use vinyl table cloths outside for more than just the  picnic table and card table, I use them to cover my bicycle and other stuff. When they look awful, I can toss them in the wash with a bit of bleach and they come back out looking new again.

For transport, I looked into the scooter thing, but decided that wasn't for me. I just don't have a burning desire to fight traffic except when I am relocating the motorhome.

I thought hanging wet clothes inside to dry because humidity is bad for the inside of an RV.  Is this information wrong.?

I thought hanging wet clothes inside to dry because humidity is bad for the inside of an RV.

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I think it depends on where you are located.  In the desert southwest there's no way enough moisture could stay to be a problem.  In fact, when humidity is down around 10 percent or less, having some extra humidity in the rig is good both for the people to prevent dry skin and the woods to prevent drying.  Even in humid Florida, I tend to hang certain things.  I usually put them in the dryer for maybe ten minutes and then hang them to dry.  The only dripping wet things would be bathing suits and wet weather gear which get hung in the shower.

ArdraF

When wintering in the SW, where we are now, we do as ArdraF and hang some of ours up. We have some hanging now, rather than add to our monthly elec bill by running our dryer.

I haven't gotten to use my new Splendide but about 4 weeks, got it in last year.  The old one was awful, didn't wash much and took forever to dry, hung things up to finish.

this one is bigger and it dries a lot better, hope I get to go more this year and I do intend to take a lot less clothes.  Before with DD I had packed a ton of stuff.  I may take some extras for warm and cold weather but I will pack them in a couple of plastic totes and put them in the basement.  I got tired of fighting all the "stuff" I took before and am lightening my load.  I cleaned the bays and took out all kinds of stuff.

I'm wondering if you fill up your tanks quickly.  I'm assuming out workkamping you can let the grey water run out on the ground?  I can fill a grey water tank pretty quickly after a couple of baths and a load or two of clothes. Or do they have someone come out and dump your tanks often?

Gray water and workamping... they've been providing me sewer hookups, so I don't have to go to a dump station, so I am able to wash to my heart's content. When I am camping at places where I have to go dump, I tend to wash my clothes just before going to the dump station. On my last 2 month travel trip, it was mixed up with staying at parks with no sewer and those that had sewer. So when I had sewer, I washed everything right then and there, so I left with 100% clean laundry.

In some parks during the weekdays, they aren't very busy, one can often run the generator and washing machine right at their dump station. Of course if someone comes along, it's time to unhook and leave. I've never done this, but have a friend who does this. The washing machine can be paused or stopped at any time.

Drying indoors and humidity. I have been in the southern states since I bought his washer and dried indoor extensively. Sometimes I run the overhead fan option on the AC unit, other times I use a 12 volt powerful clip on fan. For some strange reason, I can't find a 110 powerful tiny clip on fan that truly works with good speed. I have an adapter that plugs into 110 for 12 volt items too, but luckily my 12volt socket is in reach of where I dry my laundry in either the shower or bedroom. Both have overhead compression poles installed with flanges to keep them from falling. These RoadPro fans are awesome. I also use the fan to air out the dog and RV while I am grocery shopping during nice weather without using a generator.

Most of the time I don't even use the fan for drying, but if I am in a hurry to get more laundry done, then I do. Remember when you line dry or air dry clothes inside or out, they will feel COLD even when dry unless you are in direct sun. I think a lot of people forget this, they want that warm hot feeling from the dryer.

As a consolation prize... clothes, towels, sheets, all last a lot longer when they are not dried in a dryer. The dryer beats stuff up and heats up the fabrics.  Sometimes the dryer can make clothing shrink up in an odd way. I use a lot of cotton and rayon clothes, they do last much longer when line dried over using dryers.

The best fan I ever owned! I call it the hurricane because it moves a lot of air in a hurry.
RoadPro RP-1137 Quick Clip 12V Multi-Mount Oscillating Auto Fan
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002PE4YQ/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0002PE4YQ&linkCode=as2&tag=recreationalvehicles-20