They do hang them up to dry. Many of the washers that you see are actually washer/dryers, but the cost of electricity is so high that many people forgo the dryer cycle and use drying racks instead.

When my daughter lived in Florence she and her roomies line dried most things. They also had a drying rack inside their apartment. It's quite common to see clotheslines in European cities.

It's usually not so humid, so laundry will dry inside, e.g. in the basement with windows opened, or outside on racks or clotheslines.

The Paris apt we rented had a combo washer and dryer -- same machine.

I had send some kids clothes to my friends in Spain who had the same ages boys as we do. They loved them and said that their kids wore them all the time. When we went to visit, those clothes were hanging on their line and looked almost brand new even though they washed them once or twice a week. My friend said that she had really noticed a difference in the longevity of the clothing that did not go into a dryer.

I'm sure there are a variety of washer/dryer combos, but the one I used many years ago BAKED the laundry. It was just murderous on clothing and baked wrinkles into the sheets; destroyed the towels. I always took the laundry out (after the obligatory three hours "tumble, tumble and tumble" ; stop, reverse; "tumble tumble tumble." ) and just hung it on a drying rack in the bath tub.

I get crabby when I have to dry my bedding in the dryer. It feels so much better dried on the line.
The only items I prefer the dryer for are towels and panties. I know DH prefers to have is underwear soft ;)

Do you imagine they don't really have the room outside for a line? That's what I wonder for city folk.

Washer dryer combos are what they have. One machine.

I think also that with the higher efficiency washers that they have over there using way less water, it is extracted more and when the wash is done, the "Stuff" is much drier than what we end up with here.

Speaking of w/d combos ... does anyone here use one?

We're building a house and planned a w/d in our master closet, and I looked into the compact European w/d combo units to save on space. Aside from them being two units in one, the depth is also more compact at 21-24". However, I read many reviews about extremely long drying times. Any reviews from people here? I still have time to change. I ordered a stacked front load washer and gas dryer that is 30" deep, which interferes with the rolling library ladder that will run along all sides of our master closet. I just don't want towels to take forever to dry in a combo unit.

I hang dry all of my tops and most of my pants inside my home. I've never line dried anything outside but would like to try this with sheets.

When we lived in an apartment in Germany I had a washer and the landlady gave me a room in the unfinished attic with lines I hung our clothes on. It's a cool, damp climate there and sometimes took 3 days in the winter to dry! I had 3 young children, including one in diapers, and laundry was not very convenient under those conditions. Fortunately we moved after one year to an apartment with washers and dryers which were to Canadian standards.

That was 35 years ago tho so things may have changed but I think people there are used to hanging clothes out. All over Europe one can still see washing hanging from balconies as well as feather duvets which are aired weekly.

Your posts are all so interesting. I have a friend who bought one of the non-vented washer/dryer all-in-one units and she said that it took forever to dry anything.

After a little research, it does appear that most western Europeans cities have laundrettes, so I suppose that's an option for drying sheets if you don't mind lugging them back and forth.

There's also a thing called a "spin dryer" which I had and loved when I lived in an apartment with no washer or dryer, and which I think are more common in the rest of the world (not sure about Europe, however). The spin dryers just spin to extract all the water from items, making them merely damp and much, much faster to dry since you don't have to hang them up sopping wet.

My kids have had the combo units in some of their apartments and without exception - they hated them, primarily because of the size but they also took longer to dry.

My DIL couldn't fit her king size sheets in one load. So she washed one sheet with a few pillow cases and then did it for the other sheet.

I do put heavy things like jeans, towels in the dryer for just a very short while to get the wrinkles out & soften the towels a bit. But I prefer to line dry & in this SW climate things dry so quickly & the 'solar dryer' is free & things dry & smell so wonderful. Very therapeutic to me to hang things on the clothesline in our beautiful weather!
BTW: my old Maytag washer quit & I got one of the LG/ HE agitator-less washing machines! I don't like it at all as it is computerized so after selecting all the various options & press 'start', the lid is locked & the whole process takes place automatically. I miss the old washers (some are still available in the different brands) where I could open, change, etc. manually. Guess I will have to get used to this new style of washers now. I must say (was told by the installers NOT to watch the washing process... it does strange things!), despite all my miss-givings, the laundry DOES come out clean & I guess I have saved electricity & water with this new washer.

I lived in Germany and when the weather was nice, hung things out to dry outside. During bad weather, we had clotheslines in the attic. One place had them in the basement too, but it was too damp, etc to dry anything there very well. In one apartment, there were large radiators that we laid things on to dry. Occasionally, we would dry things on a rack over the bathtub too. I think they probably have better machines than back then.

Vieja, there's NOTHING like sleeping on line-dried bedding. Mine is so smooth and smells like fresh air. I sleep the best that first night, I think!

We're pretty humid here, but the sun gets it dry eventually.

I never had a clothesline until my dryer started eating my things. I also love not having the thing running in our hot weather.

alex9179:
Yes, I think the dryer does wear out clothes faster too... ever notice all the 'lint' (part of our clothes coming off!) that is in the lint screen?! Oh yes!... that wonderful fresh air smell on the pillowcase after drying on the clothesline!

I lived with a French family for awhile... the washer did a decent job of the spin cycle, and things were either hung in the garden, on a drying rack, or on the giant radiators if it was cool outside.

As far as the combo washer/dryers go, there isn't really any comparison between what's currently available in the US and over there. A 240v machine does this much better, but all the ones here are 120. (Think the difference between a 240 advantium and the 120 version.)

There used to be one 240 model available in the US, but I think it's no longer on the market.

EDIT We just have primitive appliances here, no getting around it, compared to what's available over there, but that's what the market will accept.

This post was edited by writersblock on Mon, Jun 2, 14 at 10:38

Right now I have a duvet cover and a sheet hanging over doors in our apartment. We are not allowed to hang them outdoors because it is against the policy of the house. We don't have enough room in the apartment to dry them on a drying rack inside.

It takes about two days to dry indoors here (Germany). When we lived in Ireland, it took 4 days or more sometimes.

it is a bother, certainly.

Wow, Ninkasi, a bother would be putting it mildly. I've been complaining because my dryer takes two hours to dry my sheets. I guess I'd better stop whining and be thankful instead. :-)

Ninkasi -- do you have a source to buy a spin dryer? That could cut your drying time down considerably