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I Miss My Dryer De-Linting My Clothes

 
Rachel Lindsay
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We have no dryer, we use drying racks. (I rarely used the dryer after becoming Permaculture-minded in 2020, but had to totally get it out of the house when we got a cat a year ago. And that is because the dryer spot was the ONLY place in the house to put a cat box.) I am happy with this, doing the laundry before I go to bed and letting everything dry all night, but...there is lint all over my dark shirts. Blech.  

“If we are honest, we can still love what we are, we can find all the good there is to find, and we may find ways to enhance that good, and to find a new kind of living world which is appropriate for our time.” ― Christopher Alexander

 
Anne Miller
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The best solution is to hang the clothes outside and let the wind do its magic.

I only hang clothes in the house when the weather in bad.

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

 
Tereza Okava
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+1 with Anne. Air movement is key, as is washing darks separate from lights or things like towels and socks that will release a lot of lint. I say this as a person who wears about 80% black and dark clothing and always has shedding dogs.... I've not had a dryer for most of my adult life (only a few years when I used a laundromat when the kids were babies) and while the lint removal service is nice, it's even nicer to have my favorite clothes last longer.....
Before I built the covered space for my laundry outside, we occasionally had periods when we had to dry indoors. I set up fans and dehumidifiers but it still doesn't get rid of all the lint. The air movement makes a difference.
I'd also suggest checking your washing machine filter setup, and giving it a good clean if it needs it. I know mine usually needs some TLC. There are also some things you can buy to capture loose lint inside your machine (look like a black rough sponge kind of thing, i got one for $2 at an Aldi a few years ago)-- I worry about damaging the fabric so I don't use it much, but it may be worth experimenting with something similar.
 
Rebecca Norman
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Yes, I was going to suggest finding out about the lint filter in your washing machine and cleaning it out. When it's getting clogged there will be more lint in your clothes, and eventually the machine may stop draining at all.

I also avoid washing my towels (light colored) with any of the dark colored clothing, because of lint.

There's also those lint rollers with the wide tape that you peel off to expose a new layer. It is a thing that creates garbage but it's not too much, just a layer of tape each time. There's one in my house left by family years ago and to be honest I never use it.

Works at a residential alternative high school in the Himalayas SECMOL.org . "Back home" is Cape Cod, E Coast USA.

 
Nicole Alderman
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I don't get much wind on my property, and have never found the wind to blow off the lint from my shirts. The lint is just too stubborn. This doesn't really bother me usually, as my shirts are usually a lighter hue and/or plaid. But, my husband wears black, and during the summer when I hang clothes to dry, I often have to use tape to take off the lint. Even throwing the linty, wind-dried laundry into the drier for a few minutes doesn't work. They have to go into the dryer while still wet for the lint to come off.

What might help is to wash the light stuff separate from the dark stuff (especially towels and socks--those seem to generate the most lint). But, I'm not sure how much that really helps. I'm pretty sure the lint kind of sticks around in the washing machine and then "infects" my next load of laundry.

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Douglas Alpenstock
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We hang clothes to dry in our basement, especially during winter when the relative humidity is arount 35%. We often use our dryer to de-lint clothes (and de-fur them from two Great Danes). And also to "de-crunchify" them with a damp towel and a long "air-only" cycle that uses a tiny fraction of the electricity since the electric heating element does not engage. I would estimate we use at least 80% less electricity in our drying system compared to our neighbours.
 
Anne Miller
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Here is a thread I made years ago about a similar problem:

http://permies.com/t/83262/Maytag-Top-Loading-Washer-Leaves

My solution to that problem was to wash clothes in vinegar rather than soap and not run the clothes through the rinse/spin cycle.

I finally quite wearing black clothes and have gone back to the regular way to wash as I am just lazy. And sometimes wear clothes with those lint marks.

And I quit using the dryer and hang everything outside as above.

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

 
Josh Hoffman
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We have not used a dryer since May of '21. My wife has some black clothes and the kids have some. We wash things all together. Sometimes we use a bucket and plunger, sometimes a washing machine.

We hang the clothes outside to dry and inside if it is going to rain. We use a "spin dryer" which just spins the clothes at a high rate of speed and does not have a heating element. 3 mins in there and they are hung and dry quickly depending on sun/wind/relative humidity.

We do not have issues with lint. I don't think the spin dryer has anything to do with that. We also do not have pets.

If you have an older washer, it will have a lint trap and that could be the issue. Monthly cleaning is the recommendation from most user manuals. The newer "high efficiency" ones do not have a lint trap. But, the impeller that moves the water out could get junked up with hair and other stuff and need cleared out. The faster the water is sucked out of the drum, the fewer opportunities the lint has to hang around on you clothes.

Does the cat hair hang around on your clothes after washing or just lint?

Redeem the time

 
Rachel Lindsay
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Josh Hoffman wrote: Does the cat hair hang around on your clothes after washing or just lint?

I only notice the lint after washing the clothes.  (The cat hair is just everywhere all the time!)

I guess I should definitely start sorting my laundry by color. I haven't been because there are only three of us in the house and only I wear dark clothes, but it's annoying enough to me now to make that change.

I am so grateful for these many insights and perspectives, as always!

“If we are honest, we can still love what we are, we can find all the good there is to find, and we may find ways to enhance that good, and to find a new kind of living world which is appropriate for our time.” ― Christopher Alexander

 
Jay Angler
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I have a clothes brush which has a rough surface which catches lint in one direction and releases it in the other. It is made of plastic, but I've owned it for about 30 years. It may not do quite as good a job as the roller tape gizmos, but it does well enough for me... so long as I don't change hands and accidentally run it backwards!

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Joylynn Hardesty
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The drier broke a few years back. Never bothered to try and fix it. Now that I have to wear black pants for work, I miss it. I have some cat hair and bunches of lint on my pants. It's ridiculous. First, a vacuum is taken to the pants. Then the lint brush. Then I use a damp cloth on what may be lint, may be leftover detergent. Then I use the sticky side of packing tape to finish off the last of it. Yuck.

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Phil Stevens
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I tend to be pretty rigorous about keeping dark and light items separate for washing. Although we're in a windy place, the outdoor line is sheltered so we do have lots of lint and even though it's not so much a visible problem on the clean clothes, it's the number one source of dust in the bedroom. We got rid of the tumble dryer many years ago, so I'm not really sure now to solve this apart from giving everything a good snap and shake when I take it off the line.
 
John C Daley
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I have a very simple system of clothes washing.
I dont wear black.
Everything in to washer at once, air dry outside,
I dont look for blemishes or lint, I am grateful I do not need to hand wash.
It works for me.

John Daley Bendigo, Australia The Enemy of progress is the hope of a perfect plan
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Sabine Palumbo
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I wear mostly black, and have an orange cat and a bunny. This product is for the washer http://www.walmart.com/ip/5381195586?sid=bcc6a3a5-c9d0-4962-99af-2aad056285d6  they are silicone discs that remove a lot of the hair during the wasing cycle. Not 100% but works pretty well. And there are other brands of available. But I also own a dryer and have purchased dryer balls for it.
 
Rebecca Norman
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Sabine Palumbo wrote:...This product is for the washer http://www.walmart.com/ip/5381195586?sid=bcc6a3a5-c9d0-4962-99af-2aad056285d6  they are silicone discs that remove a lot of the hair during the wasing cycle. Not 100% but works pretty well. And there are other brands of available. But I also own a dryer and have purchased dryer balls for it.


If you use those, where does the removed cat hair go?

Works at a residential alternative high school in the Himalayas SECMOL.org . "Back home" is Cape Cod, E Coast USA.

 
Phil Stevens
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I've started with the vigorous snap approach and will report back on my findings....
 
She said size doesn't matter, so I showed her this tiny ad:
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http://permies.com/wiki/206770/Harvesting-Rainwater-Homestead-Days-Renee
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