When we lived overseas, everyone who had a washing machine had a ‘centrifuge’ as well. What it did was to spin the clothes at a tremendous speed so that they were almost dry when they came out, ready to hang on the clothes line. (Very few people had dryers.)
Now, however, we live in Canada with a nice, large washing machine and a good dryer. On the other hand, we also have humid weather and high electricity costs.
One way I’ve discovered to beat both the weather and the hydro company is to spin my laundry an extra cycle or two, just like in those European ‘centrifuges’. When a load of laundry is completely finished, I just restart the spin cycle to squeeze out a few more tablespoons of water. If it’s a load of thick, thirsty towels, I’ll even do it a third time.
The laundry that comes out of the washing machine after an extra spin cycle is not nearly as wet. Thus the extra spinning saves either a lot of time air drying or both time and money in the electric dryer. This makeshift ‘centrifuge’ works very well for us.
Do you have any other tips for drying laundry?
For more great ideas, see Works For Me Wednesday , Raising Homemakers, No Ordinary Blog Hop, Encourage One Another Wednesday, Women Living Well Wednesdays, Simple Lives Thursday, Thrifty Thursday, and Frugal Friday.
I don’t know why I never thought of this before! What a great idea. I am always looking for ways to save money and time when it comes to laundry 🙂
Blessings,
Mrs. T.
I run every load on “second spin” which I am fortunate to have on our machine. GREAT reminder!
(visiting from RH)
I do this too. It is amazing how much water a second/third spin will remove.
OK, I will give it a try on my next load. No hanging clothes here for awhile, too cool.
Oh wow, this tip sounds great. My dryer is used, and I usually have to run it on a ‘touch up’ to make sure everything is completely dry after the drying cycle. I am going to try this second or third spin from now on, and see if it helps end the extra drying time. Thank you so much for sharing this. 🙂
What an awesome idea! Thanks for the suggestion!
Many blessings,
Lisa
Wow, thanks for all the positive feedback! I’ve never had such a flurry of comments before.
You ladies are awesome.
Here’s to drying laundry more quickly and more frugally!
Annie Kate
Call me crazy but doesn’t that just transfer the cost of using the dryer to the washer? I could definitely see how this would work well if you hang dry your clothes though.
An excellent question. The answer is ‘no’ because the energy required for mechanical motion, like spinning, is much less than that required to create heat as in a dryer.
This is just a left-over tidbit from my geek days. 🙂
Annie Kate
I had thought of that, and yes, it is more costly to make a heating element ‘glow red’ than to spin a tub of clothes. I can’t get my machine (with a computer, mind you) to re-spin!! I will go try again 🙂 Thanks for linking up this very practical post!! Blessings, Annie Kate! I never knew you were once a geek… thought once a geek, always a geek :0 LOL
Love this tip! Now that it’s getting cooler, I’ve been hanging my clothes in the basement. I run them through the dryer for 20 minutes to speed up the process. However, doing the extra spin would do the same thing, plus cost less money.
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