How long to dry

Hi ladies

I have been thinking of using cloth nappies on and off for the last couple of months. I do want to try but am worried about the whole washing process and amount you need etc.

We don't have a washing line here and it takes about 3days for clothes to dry on our clothes horse I try not to use our dryer as much as possible, 1. because it is the lounge which is where baby will be staying as we only have a 1brm place. 2. for the cost of running it I would rather run the heater for our warmth then the dryer.

What do you ladies do for washing etc in winter and what do you find the easiest nappies in terms of washing etc?

TIA

have you seen those cool new heated clothes horses? they look really good. Is there no way you can put the dryer somewhere else for emergency drying? maybe hang it in the laundry if it is a small laundry. do you have no sun outside. i hang lots of our clothes on the clothes horse on the porch and they ususally only take a day, a day and a half at most. and if still a bit damp overnight in the hot water cupboard usually fixes it.   

Unfortunately no, we don't have a laundry, our washing machine is in a purpose built cupboard with the hot water cylinder ontop of it although its not all that hot in my opinion.

No yard hence no clothesline we live in a block of units that used to be a motel in its previous life, some units have a yard some don't ours doesn't as our landlord lives infront and has built a photography studio in behind us.

I was thinking of stringing some line up between the 3m hooks which is what we did in our old house. We do have a shared clothesline at the bottom end of the drive we're the first house up the drive so it can get annoying having to walk down to the end of the drive and find that 1. someones stuff is already hanging on the line 2. with auckland weather hanging it out and then having to run down to the end of the drive because its raining. I put the clothes horse out as much as possible but it doesn't seem to be very often at the moment I had it out on a sunny day in the last month and with in seconds it was pouring with rain.

I will look into getting another clothes horse and look into the electric one, dp doesn't believe that it costs less then a dryer to run.

Oh its a great place in reality, the lounge is huge which is something that is important to us, its big enough for a spare bed, dryer, the cot computer desk a large space for where the tv is etc.

We had a bigger place but it was an old villa and the draft would have been terrible for a newborn it was horrible for us. We moved from there as we broke up and the place we now live in is where I moved as it was what I needed and in my price range. We did look at moving when we first found out we were pregnant but as I got made redundant from full time work we couldn't really afford it. We can't even save for the bond for a new place. I can't ask even ask for help from either of our families as we are a lot more stable then his sisters and my parents are going through abit of drama as dads been sick (this is starting to sound a bit woe is me and completely off subject lol)

We will move when I go back to work (hopefully with the recession I will find some work) and I am hoping that we will earn enough for us to go into a bigger place with a spare bedroom which up until now we have always had. I want a 3brm with a yard and stuff!

I agree with buying pocket nappies - they are half dry when they come out of the washing machine. And just stock up on the inserts, so that you have plenty, they are the part that take longest to dry. The weather has been so crappy here the last couple of weeks that I've had to dry my MCN's on an A-frame in the lounge, with the heat pump or fire going. The pockets take about half a day to dry this way, the inserts and all-in-one's probably about a day.

Aliasmum that is brilliant! And I want one

Totally agree, that pockets would be the way to go... They don't take long at all the dry and as Whitewave suggested, just stock up on inserts.

Good luck!