Imagine these scenarios:

• Bathroom floor flooded with water, the point drainage clogged with something the kids played with. You can certainly deal with that. It’s a piece of cake to you.

• The freezer acted up on you a day after you have stock up on meat and fish. The solution? Some kind of an epic cooking that will help preserve the supply even if it means several sessions of re-heated dinners.

• You are a mother of a big family and there’s loads of soaking wet laundry but the rain won’t let up. It’s not like you have a stock of disposable clothes at home, do you? Are there even such things?

Laundry is a non-ending task, more so if you belong to a large family. There are chores at home that you can do with your bare hands but drying loads of laundry is not one of them. Maybe you can do without a washing machine, there’s hand-washing anyway. But can you imagine life without a dryer? In a small family or in a house with ample space, it probably wouldn’t be much of an issue.

For many of us, the dryer is a way of life especially for those whose laundry is a huge task. Without a dryer at home and maybe if its partner, the washer is an absentee too, people are likely to become loyalty awardees of the nearest laundromat. While there are some issues with regard to what dryers do to the environment, it cannot be denied that these machines have become a standard item in many homes.

Why?

• Most of these machines are designed to dry your clothes in so short a time; a very practical convenience in a hurried kind of life we have today.

• You have something to rely on when you need that school or office uniform dry and ready for the next school or business day even if the weather becomes uncooperative.

• There are days when the rain seems relentless and you have an infant at home requiring a soft and warm, dry diaper day or night.

• You can dry large loads of the family’s laundry for the day which saves you time and effort.

• Even if you have limited space or if you live in an apartment unit and have no area for dying clothes, it will never be a concern. Let’s face it, drying clothes strewn here, there and everywhere in a space so tiny is unsightly.

What if there is no dryer?

Oh you’ll find a way for sure. You will make use of whatever space is available at home such as the small veranda of your apartment unit or the cramped area at the back. That will work, maybe, for smaller items but then there are the bed sheets, the towels and the denim pants. You could maybe make use of the fan and they will dry, alright, but no guarantees there as to how they would smell after.

Here are more ideas that may run in your head in case there is no dryer in the house:

• Buy and use wooden accordion clothes rack that you can put up and dismantle as needed.

• Place a rod atop the back of chairs, the chairs at either end of the rod and use hangers to hang the clothes. Ensure there is enough space in between hangers for proper air circulation.

• Heat up the room where the clothes are hanging but that could be uncomfortable if the weather is already warm. Not unless you are in for a free sauna bath.

Yes, it seems there are ways but let’s admit it, you would only resort to them in worst case scenarios. There may be some concerns about the use of dryers in terms of what it does to the environment but there, too, are ways to doing it right. Maximizing the use of the dryers or the washing machine for that matter so that you only use energy sparingly is one way. Following manufacturer’s instructions to a T is another.