Dehumidifier

The dehumidifier in my laundry room.

2017 so far has been a very wet year for us. It's been raining so very frequently. When it doesn't rain, the weather is hazy with a pungent acrid burning smell in the air.

How can you dry laundry then?

Imagine the smell that it will absorb.

Imagine the DAMP smell the laundry will end up with in this damp weather.

So what to do?

Invest in a dryer!

Many will say: "The electricity bill will cost a bomb!"

Many instead choose to hang their laundry all over in their house. I read that hanging wet laundry in the house can cause problems for the lungs. A damp house can worsen an asthma attack. A damp environment can cause mold to thrive. Dust mites love a damp environment too. To read more about this, click on WHY YOU SHOULD NEVER HANG YOUR WET LAUNDRY INDOORS.

Unfortunately, this is a very normal habit for us Malaysians.

WHAT TO DO THEN?

Invest in a dehumidifier. Not those tiny boxes which you place in your wardrobe. Not dried charcoal in small bags either. It won't work with drying your clothes!

I'm talking about those huge electrical dehumidifiers which can absorb nearly 20 litres of water (or more).

This is what I have in my laundry room and in my bedroom.

You can adjust the percentage of the humidity that you want the room to reach to. I usually wash my laundry at night and then switch the humidifier on for the whole night. The next morning, the clothes are all crispy, dried, HOT and fresh smelling. The whole laundry room is HOT and DRY! The container at the bottom of the dehumidifier would be filled with water.

Some people will place this in their room/basement which are damp and place the outlet hose for the water to be drained into the bathroom. This will enable the dehumidifier to function on non-stop mode. The method which I'm using does not use the outlet hose. Once the container is filled up with water, the dehumidifier will shut off automatically.

When we first shifted in to our new place, the master bedroom was very damp. The humidity level was 80+. It was very humid and damp. I was very worried about fungus spores forming. I switched on the humidifier during the day and the air-con during the night. Over the months, the humidity dropped and it's now in the early 60s.

Drying the laundry in this manner doesn't burn a hole in the wallet compared to when using the dryer. Also the clothes last longer. I find the dryer speeds up the process of 'aging'! The clothes wear out faster.

So if you're in a dilemma on how to dry your laundry, you might want to research about dehumidifiers.