When the dryer died and the washer kept running, you got the more awkward half of the problem. Washing is easy to keep doing. Getting a household of wet fabric dry, in volume, day after day, is the part that quietly takes over the house. The plan depends almost entirely on how much air and space you actually have.
The first decision after the dryer died
Once the dryer died you have two working options, and a third that only looks like one.
The first is to keep washing at home and dry the loads somewhere with proper heat. That means carrying damp laundry out, which is heavy, but it splits the job sensibly.
The second is to wash and dry in the same trip. That is less carrying overall and one session instead of two stages, and it is usually the better choice for towels and bedding.
The third, draping everything over furniture indefinitely, is the one that seems free and is not. It fills the house, slows to a crawl in still air, and ends with things that need washing again.
Pick per load rather than picking once. Light clothes dry fine on a rack. A week of towels does not.
Deciding this before the wash goes in stops you standing over a drum of wet sheets with no plan at all.
Wet laundry is a different thing to carry
Since the dryer died, wet laundry is something you move around rather than something that stays in one room, and that changes the job. A load that weighs eight pounds dry can weigh twenty five coming out of a wash, and people consistently underestimate it.
Run the fastest spin the fabric tolerates before it leaves the house. That single step removes more water than anything you can do afterwards, and it is free.
Carry damp laundry in a basket with a lid or a bag that will not leak, rather than an open basket on a seat.
Split it into two containers. One bag of soaking towels is genuinely hard to lift and awkward to get through a door.
Do not leave a wet load sitting in a closed bag while you get on with something else. That is how a clean load ends up needing a rewash for the smell alone.
If the load has to sit for any length of time, tip it into an open basket and spread it out rather than leaving it compressed.
What line dries well and what does not
Thin things dry beautifully in moving air. Shirts, t shirts, thin cotton, sheets and pillowcases all do well on a line or a rack.
Hang them with space between items and with air able to reach both faces. Two shirts touching each other dry at roughly half the rate of two shirts apart.
Heavy cotton is the problem. Towels, robes, thick socks and denim hold a lot of water and dry slowly, and towels in particular come out stiff and board like without tumbling.
Knitwear should be dried flat, not hung, because wet knit stretches under its own weight and does not go back.
Bedding on a rack takes up the whole rack for a day. If you have one rack and a household of beds, the arithmetic does not work.
That split is the honest answer about what stays at home and what goes out now the dryer died.
Sun is a drying tool with a cost
Dry air and strong sun will dry a line load fast, and that is a genuine advantage here.
It is also hard on fabric. Ultraviolet light fades dyes quickly, and dark colours and printed shirts show it within a season of regular sun drying.
Turn dark items inside out before they go on the line. The fading still happens, on the inside, where nobody sees it.
Use shade where you can. In dry air a shaded line is barely slower than a sunny one, and it costs your clothes nothing.
Do not leave things out long after they are dry. The extra hours are all cost and no benefit.
Elastic in waistbands and sports clothing is the most sensitive thing on the line, and it is the thing most people leave out longest.
Or wash and dry in one trip
For the heavy half of the laundry, doing the whole job in one place is simply less work.
Towels, bedding, heavy cotton, anything that was going to defeat a rack, all belong in this group.
Take them out dry and dirty rather than washing at home first. Dry laundry is far lighter to carry, and you skip the wet transport entirely.
Keep the loads separated by weight. Towels with towels and bedding with bedding dry at the same rate, and a mixed load leaves you with dry shirts and damp towels in the same drum.
Shake each item out before it goes in to dry. Compressed balls of fabric dry from the outside in and take far longer.
Take things out while they still have a trace of warmth in them and fold straight away, because that is most of what keeps creases out.
Stopping the wet pile from stacking up
The failure mode after the dryer died is not dirty laundry. It is clean wet laundry standing in a queue.
Never start a wash you do not have somewhere to dry. That sounds obvious and it is the single most common mistake in this situation.
Count your drying capacity first, in racks and line space, and wash to that number rather than to the size of the hamper.
Deal with the heavy items in their own trip rather than letting them sit damp waiting for rack space.
Keep one rack clear for the things with a deadline, so a work shirt is never stuck behind a load of sheets.
If a load has been sitting damp longer than a day, wash it again rather than drying it. The smell does not come out in a dryer.
Common questions about dryer died
Can I just line dry everything now that the dryer died?
Thin cotton, shirts and sheets line dry well. Towels, heavy cotton and a whole household of bedding do not, because of drying time and because towels come out stiff without tumbling.
Is it better to carry wet laundry out or to carry it dry?
Dry is far lighter and easier. For heavy loads it is usually simpler to take them out dirty and do the whole job in one place than to wash at home and haul soaking towels.
How long can a wet load sit before it is a problem?
Hours rather than days, and much less than that in warm still air. If it has been sitting compressed and closed up overnight, plan on washing it again rather than drying it.
How do I stop clothes fading if I dry on a line in full sun?
Turn everything dark or printed inside out, use shade where you have it, and bring things in as soon as they are dry rather than leaving them out all afternoon.
The Phoenix part
The desert makes half of this easy and leaves the other half exactly as hard as it was, and it helps to know which half a given load is in once the dryer died.
Dry air is the advantage. Low humidity for most of the year means a rack of shirts indoors is dry in a few hours rather than a day, and a line load outside is quicker still. In a humid market a dead dryer is close to a crisis. Here, the light half of the laundry genuinely can be handled on a rack without the house turning damp.
Sun intensity is the cost attached to it. Ultraviolet light here is strong enough to fade dark cotton noticeably over a summer of line drying, and it degrades elastic in waistbands and sportswear faster than most people expect. Shade dries almost as quickly in dry air, so there is very little reason to hang anything in direct sun.
Heavy items are where the desert stops helping. Towels, bedding and denim hold water regardless of the humidity, and a rack of wet towels in summer heat still takes most of a day and still comes out stiff. Those are the loads worth handling somewhere with a real drum, whatever the air outside is doing.
Where the heavy half gets dried
Racks and a line can carry the shirts and the sheets, and the towels and bedding are better off somewhere with a proper drum.
The machines at our self-service laundry on East Greenway Road move far more water per cycle than a home unit, and the drum size means a week of towels tumbles loose instead of packed, which is the whole reason they come out soft.
Our machines and the store are cleaned daily.
Our wash-dry-fold service covers the everyday laundry.
For general guidance, The American Cleaning Institute publishes a laundry basics guide that is a useful cross-check.
The short version
When the dryer died and the washer carried on, the problem is volume of wet fabric rather than dirty clothes. Split the laundry by weight. Thin cotton, shirts and sheets dry well on a rack or a line, especially in dry air, so keep those at home. Towels, bedding and denim hold too much water and come out stiff without tumbling, so take those out dry and dirty and do the whole job in one place rather than hauling them soaking. Run the fastest spin the fabric allows before anything travels. Never start a wash you have nowhere to dry, and never let a damp load sit closed up overnight.
WaveMAX Phoenix is at 3202 E Greenway Road, Suite 1307, easy to reach from Phoenix and the surrounding area. If you have a load that will not fit at home, call us at 480-788-8246.