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Generally because they want to preserve the quality of their clothes. Walk in closets are not popular either. They have less clothes, but they take care of them. Hand washing of delicates, and ironing is still pretty much a must. You will very seldom see someone wearing out of dryer clothes, or garments that have holes, missing buttons, oversized, rumpled, faded, and in distress.
I'd rather wear them out though personally =D
$30-40 non-iron dress shirt thrown in the dryer comes out passably presentable and I don't have to iron the damn thing. Probably get about 40-50 wears out of them before they have to be retired which isn't great but on the other hand it means I didn't have to iron a shirt 40-50 times. I'd rather spend $1 to not have to iron them.
The $150-200 dress shirts seem to last forever but then they're not worn that often. Maybe a half dozen times a year, washed gentle cycle or just by hand if I didn't sweat in them, air dry and ironed. Honestly I'd probably dry them in the dryer too if it meant I didn't have to iron them.
I don't know what y'all are going on about with the dryer vs air drying and ironing. I hang most of my clothes outside to dry and I hang all shirts and pants and dresses on hangers in the sun. I hardly ever have to iron anything - I certainly don't have to iron air dried clothes more often than dryer dried clothes. If something is 100 percent cotton or linen and needs ironing after hanging outside, it would need ironing after bouncing around in the dryer too. At least that's been my experience.
Now I will tell you something that I DO use my dryer for though - and it's convenient. I have the steam options on my dryer and I use those options to freshen things up sometimes, for instance in between washes I throw my dog beds in the steam/sanitize cycle. I occasionally throw a pair of jeans in there, or a shirt that for some reason is wrinkled (OK, maybe I didn't hang it up right away, get off me!).
I have a dryer and I also hang stuff outside. I'd say I hang things out about 75 percent of the time, including in the winter. But we live in Texas and have abundant sunshine. Even on very humid days, things dry outside in the sun.
If you have allergies, you may want to get the new dryer. Allergens attach themselves on clothes and it may make your allergies worse.
I was once told by my allergist not to hang my clothes outside just for this reason. Come springtime here, anything I would hang outside would be coated in yellow pollen. Right now if I were to sneak a clothesline in the backyard without the HOA finding out, I would have dirt, dust, and pollen on the clothes.
We went without a dryer for a few months when I lived out in the country and I happily used a clothesline. The problem was the clothes never really dried well. They would get a musty/mildewy smell before they dried (if they dried) - very similar to what happens if you leave them in the washer too long. I think it was the humidity or something. I would have to re-wash many loads because of that. I finally gave up drying them outside and used to hang them up all over the house before we could finally get a new dryer.
I will sometimes hang some clothes up inside the house. I need to get a new drying rack since my other one broke a while back. I actually prefer line-dried laundry but it's not a good idea where I currently live. So for now I use a dryer and keep the exhaust hose and lint trap cleaned.
I have probably used mine 10 times in the last 10 years. Usually I dry a load once a year to make sure it works. But I live in Las Vegas where it's dry and sunny practically year round. I have a rolling clothes rack on my patio where I hang my clothes to dry on hangers. Then it's directly to the closet. If I want or need to use that space on the patio I can always roll the rack into the garage. Works well for me!
There's an overwhelming amount of scientific evidence that tumble-drying does irreparable damage to clothes. They tend to be a fire hazard too.
The article says:
Quote:
Every time you put your clothes through the laundry, the system imparts microscopic damage to the fabric.
This microscopic damage happens in the washer TOO, heck, just WEARING clothes all day is damaging them. I never had clothes fall apart, they get stains on them, I get into something that rips a hole in my jeans, or the knees wear through.
I have the same washer and dryer for the last 18 years, never had a fire yet and I wash an average of 5 loads of laundry a week, including lots of dog hair impregnated shirts, jeans and blankets, the trick is CLEAN the machine and the vent out!
I buy 5 pairs of jeans on Amazon, wear one a day, that means each is only washed and worn once a week, at about $18 each with free shipping they are hardly worth getting upset over worrying about microscopic dryer damage over months, geez!
I can't fathom putting wet laundry up on a line or clothes rack to dry in humid times, and with the bugs and insects all over outside looking for moisture and water, birds and bird crap, and so on. It takes 20-30 minutes to dry an entire load in a gas dryer and hardly uses any gas anyway.
^^ Between snow, rain, humidity, and allergies, I rarely hang things outside. I have a mesh sweater rack which fits over the tub, a folding rack for small items, and I hang some things on hangers. I still use my dryer regularly.
I got spoiled living in SoCal...I hung a lot of our stuff on hangars, off the wooden slats of our patio. Part of the reason was to cut down on the heat in the house that the dryer generated.
In the PNW, it's possible to put laundry outside in the summer & early fall, but when the rain hits, it's over. Then, I actually like the extra heat that the dryer puts out.
Also, I have dogs, & a run through the dryer is the only way to get the dog hair out of fabric. I clean the dryer filter after each use...amazing how much dog hair is in it!
I got spoiled living in SoCal...I hung a lot of our stuff on hangars, off the wooden slats of our patio. Part of the reason was to cut down on the heat in the house that the dryer generated.
In the PNW, it's possible to put laundry outside in the summer & early fall, but when the rain hits, it's over. Then, I actually like the extra heat that the dryer puts out.
Also, I have dogs, & a run through the dryer is the only way to get the dog hair out of fabric. I clean the dryer filter after each use...amazing how much dog hair is in it!
same here!! 7 animals!
Good idea about the slats. When we lived in an apartment, id line dry our clothes across the windows.
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