I have started hanging my clothes outside.

I usually have tons of laundry so this is hard to do. I have had to do it though when our dryer was broke. But if you have a choice yes you might want to still dry the towels. They do get stiff. And it feels ewww drying off with a stiff towel. So far I don't know any tricks, maybe you extra fabric softener.

From your statement it clearly indicate to me that you are from one of those industrialized countries where you have the priviledge of using washing machine and dryer. If you happen to come from my own country, Nigeria, we do not have such an opportunity, we use our hands to wash our cloth and we dry our clothing outside using the sun. We do not have all the money to afford to buy a washing machine and a dryer. It is interesting to learn that you are adopting the african method which is using the sun to dry your cloth. I would also suggest that you learn to use your hands to wash your cloths so that you can also save money for yourself. Washing machines and drying machine seem to consume a lot of electricity bills.

Ha,my boyfriend hanged his clothes outside in the evening,when he got up at the second day ,he found angrily that his clothes was disappeared,but the clothes rack was still suspended to the rope,it was obviously that the clothes was stolen.Poor man~ For myself,i usually hang my clothes in the balcony,it will to be dry quicky and easily.

Actually it is good for us to dry your clothes outside,it is better for the wind to dry up.I always use such kind of way to hang my clothes.But honestly,i do not have any good ideas about how to make it soft.I think it would be better if using clean water to make it soft.Hope this will help.

I only tried dryer 5 times or less than that my whole life(i have tried it at my aunt's house) because I am poor. I usually hang it up every time i wash my clothes.

During the winter you could try hanging your clothes in the shower and to make your towels less stiff you could try using softener when washing then. Hope this helps, have a good day.

I have been hang drying most of my clothes but i put my towels in the dryer for a bit once they're mostly dry so that they don't get all stiff. That's the only way I've found so far.

If you have a garage, you can string a line to hang clothes in the winter. For your towels, you may find that using vinegar instead of fabric softener will do what you need. Soap residue remains in all of our clothes after washing,and fabric softener does not remove it, it only covers it. White vinegar brightens your clothes, whitens the whites, and it washes out all the residue, leaving fluffier towels that are softer and absorb more. You could just run a load of your towels for about ten minutes after handing them to almost dry. Kind of doing it as a finishing cycle. I put some of my clothes on hangars and hang them out to dry but I should do a lot more of it.

No and I have never done this. I know my mom used to and she hated doing it. We wash all our clothes in cold water though and make sure that the load of clothes is full instead of washing a small load. I hate it when I have a full load of clothes to fold but it is worth it though.

My wife hangs her clothes outside too. I don't know what she does to keep the towels soft, I don't think a whole lot though because since she has been drying them outside they are not as soft as they used to be. Usually though once you hang them in the bathroom the steam from the shower helps to make them soft again, so it is not so bad.

It isn't possible to do so where we live at. Even if we owned a house with a little yard, I still wouldn't hang out laundry to dry here in Florida for several reasons--including the fact that I am allergic to just about everything in this state. Once we go back home to the North where we belong, I may consider hanging out laundry to dry. However, it really depends on what our living situation is when we return to the North. If we're living in a rental, it is unlikely that hanging laundry out will be possible; however, if we manage to buy a little place somewhere, I will probably put out at least some of the laundry.

Hi Lady, Here where I live it is not possible to hang them outside. I live in a building where we do not have the yard and or garden to be able to. I agree with GG about the vinegar as I know my boyfriends mom does hang her outside and she does not use fabric softener and uses vinegar. Her towels do not come out stiff, because she says that the residue from either the laundry soap and or fabric softener is still there so it causes them to really get dried out, which causes the stiffening. As for the winter not sure if you have an enclosed basement and or in the washroom where you an run a line. Will be a bit inconvenient but if you can dedicate a room for it, it just may work for you during the winter.

Washing can be a tedious task but using a washing machine it makes life easy and convenient. To keep your clothes (in general) soft after drying, you can use a fabric conditioner for the final rinse. In that way, you clothes, towel, etc will still be soft even if they will left sun dried or air dried. Before keeping them in your closet, you can spray a fabric conditioner too to keep it sweet-smelling and soft.:-)

Hello ladym33, I don't own a dryer and never will in summer and winter I hang my clothes out on my fire escape or inside my house and squeeze all the water out my clothes until I don't see any water dripping and I lay them on my large heater in my apartment but I don't open the heater they usually dry up in 24hrs. You can try using a blow dryer when your washed clothes are almost dry or a put your towel on your fan after washing it that will probably help with the stiffness.

I love hanging clothes outside and I have been doing this for years. As for the towels, I heard putting them in the dryer for a few minutes either before or after hanging them up keeps them from getting stiff, but I never tried it. I mostly hang out clothes, towels and jeans go into the dryer. What you can do over the winter months is invest in a 10.00-20.00 drying rack. I bought a 10.00 one because I could never get the one I had finished, though I will still work on it when I can. I use this for delicate and some clothes I don't want dried in the dryer..It is also portable enough that I used it over the summer to hang up wet towels and swimsuits after swimming..

I see that some of what I would advise has already been mentioned, although no one has mentioned how much vinegar or what kind to use. Use 1/4 cup of white vinegar in your final rinse cycle in the wash instead of fabric softener. A good "fluffing" of your towels will help soften them once they're dry. Either shake them several times after they're dry or, if your dryer still tumbles, even if it doesn't heat up, you can put them in the dryer for 5 minutes to "fluff" them. My dryer does work and I do use it for about 5 minutes for all my laundry after everything is line-dried. It's extra work for me but it saves a LOT of money using the dryer for 5 minutes instead of 80 or 90 minutes per washer-load of laundry. Another way I save money is to wash everything I possibly can by hand. I save the water from my showers (plugging the tub before I start the shower) and use that to wash my undies, tee shirts, socks, all small stuff. That saves not only water but the electricity it takes to heat the water since it's only heated once for both purposes. I've even used my shower water to wash the floors and other things around the house.

I don't hang my clothes outside. I have a dryer that I use all the time. I think it would drive me crazy having to hang clothes outside here because it is too darn hot outside! Although they would probably dry really fast! I'm not sure how to keep your towels soft. Maybe you could buy a detergent that has Downey in it already? I think Tide has something like that.

Good idea! You could try using Fabric Softener (which you put with the clothes in the washer) - you can buy a bottle for like $4. It also makes them smell good. No one likes crunchy towels! It's been really too rainy for hanging clothes outside here - and plus - I don't exactly trust my neighborhood not to steal my nice clothes!

I hang my clothes in the bathroom during the night. They are dry or almost by morning, although I do not have heating. I use one hanger for each garment and try to leave some space between each one. I don´t mind the stiff towels. In fact I feel that that´s the "clean" feeling

I think the opposite! We always dry our clothes outside, and when my washing machine broke we did our washing at my boyfriends mothers house for a while, her machine was a washer/dryer and she dried all our clothes... I found them to be stiff and much preferred drying them outside. But she was great to help us out so much so I did not say a word haha :)