Drying Clothing Post SHTF

[Scythe13]

Okay, so we're bugging in, the poop has hit the air circulating device.

But sure enough, bedsheets need to be cleaned, washed, dried. As do your socks, undies, and everything else you wear.

Firstly, you're not going to be hanging it outside on the clothes lines, right? That'll be a give away that you're kicking arse and suriving well. Plus you're broadcasting your whereabouts. Not good.

Secondly, you still need to try your clothing, or it's going to be rotting away.

So, what, where, when, and how.

The first considerations, as I've already mentioned, are people going to be able to see your activities? No point showing off what you're up to.

The next thing to think about, how much air circulation will you get? You want to be able to maximise the circulation, but minimalise visibility.

Thirdly, can you use heat to your advantage to speed the drying process? A little extra heat goes a long way.

So, let's start with number 1. Visibility.

Are you going to put your fresh new white towels outside? No. Obviously not, because it'll be a clue for anyone with eyes, that something's going on.

So you're going to have to bring things inside, right? Can anyone look through your windows? If so, then you might want to set your drying horse/rack back a little from the window. Preferably upstairs. It might well be good to do that and have a little walk outside to see how easy it is to see your stuff. One lovely trick, if you have everything back from the window a little but it's still pretty visible, consider using a dark towel on the front of the horse/rack to hide everything behind it. I would say 'just close your curtains' but that could well be a major issue. You'll want to be able to see out of the windows, right? If everyone has their curtains open and yours area closed....that would sound alarm bells for me.

2. Air circulation.

If you circulate air, it'll speed the drying process. IDEAL! But opening a window is going to be a give away to your position. Same as leaving a door open. It's still important to use circulation to help dry your clothes, but wafting a door is time consuming and not the best use of your time. There is the option of a solar powered fan just below your window, so you will have the benefits of warmth from the sun, but also the cirulation from the fan. It's a good solution, but not ideal.

3. Heat.

Now this can provide both circulation and magical drying powers. But be careful! If it's post SHTF, and there is some stinking smoke coming out of your chimney, even at night (providing there's a semi decent moon out and little cloud cover) your smoke will be seen coming from your house.

What's the solution?

Well, it may not be a total solution, but it's well worth thinking about, and it provides an outlet for the last, unmentioned consideration.....water drips.

This might sound a little crazy, but think about it.

Your loft/attic needs air to circulate. It's out of the view from prying eyes. It should be readily accessible. It would be simple enough to modify it a little, to fit in a simple drying rack....sounds pretty good right? Your loft will be toasty in the summer too.

This is the real kicker with the last consideration, the drips from your clothing could be caught in a bowl/tank, that is connected to a pipe leading to your gravity fed water tank. This means that after a few big washes, you'll get a lovely toilet flush too! Silver lining.

[Lightspeed]

Scan read this one Scythe, so pls forgive if I'm covering what you've already written.....

Our solution, and it works really well is a number of long bars suspended horizontally on wires from rafters in the loft. The bars are fairly close to the underside of the roof tiles so clothes get dried by the heat from sunshine, and also from heat permeating from the rooms below.

This works excellently at the moment as our old tiled roof allows for plenty of air circulation.

Loft gets warm and can dry clothes even when weather is intermittently sunny and rainy outside. We get a lot of weather like that here.

[bigpaul]

dry clothes from lines in our sun room, opaque roofing so no one can see in, high fences so they cant see over.

[TOF]

Don't mean to be obvious, but I use a clothes Horse in whichever room is warmest at the time to dry clothing year round when the weather is inclement. (I don't have a tumble dryer)
I've actually got a load of washing drying on it as we speak

[Lightspeed]

(2 May 2014, 16:40)TOF Wrote: Don't mean to be obvious, but I use a clothes Horse in whichever room is warmest at the time to dry clothing year round when the weather is inclement. (I don't have a tumble dryer)
I've actually got a load of washing drying on it as we speak

A voice of sanity. Thanks TOF.

We use the loft space so that the living rooms don't get damp ( damp is a big challenge here :-(

[bigpaul]

at the moment we use a drying rack in the second bedroom which has the emersion heater in it(leave the door to the airing cupboard open).

[Skvez]

I dry clothes on a clothes horse in the kitchen and even in the summer when the heat isn’t on they still dry fine without making the kitchen too damp. It may take a couple of days but I don’t imagine we’ll want to do too much washing. Given the effort to wash clothes without a washing machine I expect we’ll all tolerate a higher level of dirt before washing.

[Stewart]

We have an airer that pulls up to the ceiling using pullys and rope