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Drying Laundry

February 16th, 2007 at 05:19 am

We don't have a clothes dryer. The vast majority of people living in Japan don't. Electricity is expensive and there just isn't room in most apartments and houses for the dryer, so everyone hangs their clothes out to dry.

Before I came to Japan I would have assumed that hanging clothes to dry would be a real pain compared to simply throwing them into a dryer. I've found that hanging clothes is therapeutic in a relaxing kind of way and actually enjoy it.

Posted in Japan Living | 7 Comments »

7 Responses to “Drying Laundry”

1. fern Says:
   February 16th, 2007 at 03:50 pm
   I generally only line dry my clothes in the summer, but this winter i've refused to use the dryer since our rates have gone up 3x now in CT. So i dry them on racks and hangers thruout the house, where the air is very dry this time of year anyhow. Everything dries stiff as a wood board, but i don't care!

2. living_in_oz Says:
   February 16th, 2007 at 05:32 pm
   Cool picture! Too bad the whole world doesn't go back to "air drying"...think of the natural resources it would save!

3. fern Says:
   February 16th, 2007 at 08:24 pm
   what kills me is how some neighborhood associations ban the hanging of laundry as it is 'unsightly.' I would never live in a place like that!

4. kashi Says:
   February 16th, 2007 at 08:50 pm
   Very few dryers in Chile, either! I really missed having one. Things took several days to dry, and I couldn't wait to throw my too-big jeans in a dryer to shrink them a little!

5. Andrew_W Says:
   October 18th, 2008 at 09:59 pm
   Eh. My dryer broke and I miss drying clothes (or at least not having to travel to dry them). I don't really care for air drying because they do dry too stiff. I just generally like the nice soft warmth from a recently dried shirt or pair of underwear. But that's just me.

6. Mr Steamy Says:
   September 8th, 2010 at 09:42 pm
   Thanks for posting about how people dry their clothes in Japan. Its intriguing how one may prefer drying their clothes on a line over using a dryer. Good read.

7. duc Says:
   January 4th, 2011 at 04:12 am
   The washer I have is a 2 in 1. That is I can set it to dry after the wash. However, I do not like the dryer being electric. I don't know for sure if Japan has gas dryer, but it would definitely cut down on utility bill.

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