Help the wind to help dry your clothes

Wind is the great ally of the Sun in drying clothes – and can do a pretty good job on its own. As it moves around your clothes it speeds evaporation of the moisture within.

There are some easy steps that increase wind circulation and help it along:

Garments like trousers with pockets inside make a big lump of concentrated dampness that slows the drying process.

Turning them inside out lets the pockets flap in the breeze and dramatically quickens drying. The hardest part of most trousers to dry is the change pocket – it’s the thickest part of the construction. Quickly easing apart the sides of this space lets air in and you’ll find it dries almost as quickly as the rest.

Every layer you can reduce when hanging up saves you drying time.

For instance, just folding a sock over the line and pegging makes 4 layers of material – a lot for the Sun and wind to contend with.

This sounds a bit fussy but it’s worth it; try opening the top of each sock and pegging just one side over the line.

For an even quicker result, just give the sides lower down a quick tug apart to really open up to circulation. Once it becomes habit it’s not even 5 seconds a sock to do (a dozen socks takes less than a minute!) and you’ll be bringing them in AGES sooner.

If you hang heavy items like towels doubled over the line you can expect to roughly double their drying time. Hang by one edge only to expose as much surface area as possible and let the wind really do its work.

Lastly, make sure every item has optimum circulation. Don’t hang up your smalls between two rows of sheets, hang them ‘upwind’ and the air’s drying force will benefit the whole load.

Coming up next: The third important influence on your drying effectiveness – Gravity!