Be Smarter About Drying Your Laundry

Answer: Almost nine hours. That’s a lot of time saved!

To take back your time from the laundry cycle, try these eight easy ways to get your clothes drier, faster:

1. Run the Spin Cycle Again

Fact: The wetter clothes are when they come out of the washer, the longer they’ll take in the dryer. By giving your clothes an extra fifteen minutes in the washer on “spin and drain” mode, you’ll reduce the time they need to dry by about 30 minutes.

2. Throw a Fluffy Towel In With Wet Clothes

When you toss wet clothes into the dryer, add a clean, dry towel to the mix to absorb some of the moisture from your clothes. Set a timer for 20 minutes, and pull the towel when it goes off (after 20 minutes, the towel will be too wet to help). Tip: Wash a load of towels next and add the now-wet towel to the pile.

3. Use a Tennis Ball

If you’re drying a load of anything you’d ever call “fluffy,” like duvets or towels, toss in a tennis ball or two. Not only will this trick save you about ten minutes of dryer time, the tennis balls will fluff the sheets and things as they dry. Note: Tennis balls in the dryer can be very noisy! We suggest trying this trick during the day.

4. Ball Up Aluminum Foil

To remove static from your clothes and save about ten minutes of dryer time, add a few foil balls to the laundry load. When you pull the clothes from the dryer, keep in mind that the foil will be hot! Tip: You can reuse the same foil balls for about five loads before replacing them.

5. Sort Big and Small Laundry

Have you ever pulled sheets from the dryer and found a couple of still-damp shirts balled up inside? Avoid this problem by separating your linens from smaller clothing items. Giving small items like shirts and socks their own load ensures that they’ll dry evenly and quickly.

6. Shorten Your Dryer Vent Hose

This one-time fix will cut 20 percent off of your drying time! Remove the vent hose from the back of your dryer and shorten it using some tin snips, tape and a couple other household items. By decreasing the length of the hose, you reduce the amount of work it takes for your dryer to expel steam and clothes will dry quicker.

7. Clean Your Lint Trap

Give your lint trap a serious clean, every third or fourth dryer cycle. Take the filter out of the dryer and scrub away any residual lint with hot water and a toothbrush. This will make your dryer more efficient, which will cut down your drying time.

8. Use a Salad Spinner

If you’re hand-washing clothes, you can still speed up the drying cycle! Enter: a salad spinner. A salad spinner is essentially just a mini-spin-cycle. Once you’ve hand-washed an item, throw it into a large capacity salad spinner and give it a whirl. By removing excess moisture, your clothes will air dry significantly faster.

More great cleaning tips: http://bit.ly/1A0X1Xm