Drying laundry outside Vs inside Vs in a dryer

How do you feel about laundry day? Is it a therapeutic exercise in mindfulness, or enough to make you consider becoming a nudist?

If you only need to wash and dry clothes once or twice a week you might be fine with it. If you have a big household though, every day can be wash day, with multiple uniforms, sports kits and damp towels filling up the laundry basket quicker than you can empty it.

As you pull the latest load of damp clothes out of the washing machine and feel yourself deflate at the prospect of having to get it dry, you might wonder whether your wash day is letting you live your best life. Here, we weigh up the pros and cons of hanging laundry outside versus hanging it inside or using a dryer.

Hang it on the Hills Hoist washing line

"I took a big risk hanging my clothes out to dry the other day when the Bureau Of Meteorology said there was a chance of rain. I put it all on the line… "

Invented by Adelaide local Lance Hill in 1945, the Hills Hoist rotary clothesline is, hands down, the most Aussie way to dry your washing. Whether you have this Australian icon or perhaps a retractable clothesline in your backyard, hanging your washing on a line is the cheapest and most environmentally friendly option, directly harnessing pure solar power. If you have the space, time and weather, hanging your laundry up to air dry in the sun is a great option.

Pros
  • Washing can dry quickly if it’s sunny and windy
  • It’s free!
  • It’s environmentally friendly
  • It leaves laundry with a fresh, neutral smell
  • You can hang shirts, t-shirts and tops on hangers so they dry mostly crease-free and reduce the need for ironing
  • The sun’s ultraviolet rays have a bleaching, brightening effect on white clothes
  • It gets you some lungfuls of fresh air and a dose of vitamin D from the sun
  • It burns calories! It might not use any electricity, but it does use your body’s energy. Hanging up laundry involves incidental exercise through repeatedly standing, bending and raising your arms. This domestic chore is estimated to burn around 68 calories an hour. It’s not much, but it’s something!

Hanging your washing outdoors has a lot going for it then - but it’s not all fun in the sun.

Cons
  • It’s time consuming hanging it up and taking it down again
  • Sunlight fades the colours of clothes, particularly red and black garments and delicate items made of cotton and silk, so ideally you need to hang these out of direct sunlight and not leave clothes drying longer than necessary
  • The weather changes! You don’t need to live in Melbourne to be familiar with four seasons in one day. You hang the laundry in the sun and head out for a couple of hours, confident of returning to a clothesline of dry clothes, only for an unexpected downpour to undo all your hard work. Very annoying.
  • Your wet clothes and linen can be at the mercy of birds, insects, dust and tree litter on very windy days. Our washing line is overlooked by a neighbour’s tree that gets populated by millions of tiny green flies for a few weeks each year, and without fail I forget about them until I go to take the laundry in and find it covered in the little blighters.
  • Moths! If you forget to bring your dry clothes in at a certain time of the year, you might find that the bogong moths have taken a shine to your wardrobe, and that’s definitely not something you want to find nestling in your Bonds.
  • On particularly windy days you might find your laundry blown off of the line, decorating your backyard, and maybe the neighbours’ too.

Most of these downsides are minor or occasional, and may not even be an issue if you’re not overlooked by trees, or if your washing line is on an apartment balcony. In the winter months though, or when the weather’s too wet to hang laundry outside, you’ll need another option. That’s when you can…

Hang it indoors on drying racks

If you have space indoors to place drying racks that don’t get in the way, this can be a good air drying option. Ideally, you want to have the clothes airer placed in a sunny spot by a window, and with fresh airflow.

LAUNDRY HACK: To give it a head start in terms of drying time, select the highest spin cycle when your load of laundry is in the washing machine. This will fling off as much excess water as possible, so you start off with damp clothes rather than soaking wet ones.

Pros
  • It’s free!
  • You can save yourself time at the ironing board by hanging shirts, t-shirts and tops on hangers so they dry free of creases
  • Laundry isn’t at the mercy of the elements, insects, pooping birds, dust or tree litter
  • Delicate cotton and silk garments won’t fade in the same way that they can when hung to dry in direct sunlight
  • If the only chance you get to do laundry is in the evening, this is still an option, unlike hanging it outside
  • You can watch Netflix through the rails of the clothes drying rack while you’re hanging the laundry up...

There are definitely some advantages to hanging your clothes to dry indoors, but on the flipside...

Cons
  • In wet, overcast or cold weather, indoor drying can take days to dry clothes - and even then they may not ever feel truly dry
  • Hanging laundry up and then taking it down again is time consuming
  • When the air is damp after periods of prolonged rainfall, clothes hanging inside without any fresh air circulation can smell musty and too unpleasant to wear. After waiting for ages for them to dry on the rack, it’s very frustrating to have to put them straight back into the washing machine to rid them of the stale odour.
  • Having wet clothes drying inside may increase your need to run a dehumidifier to remove the excess moisture from the air.

When the conditions allow, both outdoor and indoor line drying are good options for air drying your clothes - but at some times of the year it’s just not practical or effective.

Did you know, for example, that Sydney gets twice as much rain as London in an average year? In fact, in 2022 it had four times as much. It comes down fast and furious and less frequently than the UK’s slow and steady drizzle, which must be why it’s often assumed we get less of the wet stuff.

The fact is, although we are blessed with a lot of sunshine and warm temperatures, we also get plenty of days that are just too soggy, or humid, to dry your clothes by hanging them up outside or inside. Those are the times when you’ll probably want to…

Throw it in the dryer

If La Niña has finally gotten the better of you and you’re fed up with trying to get your clothes dry in the seemingly endless rain, damp or humidity, it could be time to think about getting a clothes dryer. If you have concerns about the environmental and running costs of tumble dryers, you may be pleasantly surprised by the performance of the new generation of energy-efficient laundry appliances.

Pros
  • The convenience of getting your laundry dry in any weather or season
  • Your laundry will always smell fresh
  • It dries far more quickly than hanging it indoors
  • It saves you the time of hanging up wet washing and taking it all down again
  • The low-heat setting options of modern heat pump dryers prevent the colours of delicate fabrics from fading
  • Clothes aren’t subjected to dust, tree litter, insects or birds’ bowel movements…

Alongside these benefits, of course, sit some considerations:

Cons

If you plan to use your dryer only when it’s not practical to air dry your washing, your energy use and running costs will be minimal - but your relief at having the option to throw it in the dryer on those occasions will be huge.

Increasingly feeling the need for a dryer?

For an overview of the four types of dryer available in Australia - heat pump, vented, condenser and gas dryers - as well as a handy comparison of their various pros and cons, read Everything you need to know before you buy a clothes dryer in Australia. From how they work, and the costs involved in buying and running them, to energy efficiency and managing laundry space, all your dryer questions are answered.

Get a dryer in your laundry sooner, with free next day delivery

When you’re ready to choose a dryer for your home, Appliances Online has a huge range of clothes dryers, and if you want a bit more advice on choosing the best type or size for you, read our Laundry Buying Guide.

We deliver clothes dryers, and the rest of our laundry and home appliances, to 95% of Australia’s population for free with Appliances Online's legendary FREE delivery - and we can usually get it to you by the next day (Mon-Fri).