Drying Clothes

DECEMBER 24, 2015

Wow, it’s Christmas Eve! Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays!

This post is not really about my travels, but something that I have experienced about Taiwan.

1. Taiwan is extremely humid. Taiwan is a small island completely surrounded by the ocean and ocean breezes. As such, it’s a wet atmosphere, especially in the winter when it tends to rain more and is slightly colder.

2. Taiwan is hot all year. I mean, Taiwan enjoys warm weather all year round.  The temperature tends to fluctuate a little more in the winter.  The annual average temperature is around 71 degrees Fahrenheit.  The lowest temperature in Taiwan is between 54 and 63 Fahrenheit.

Why am I discussing the climate of Taiwan? Taiwan experiences more hot days than cold days year round.  As such, it can be efficient to dry your clothes outside on a clothes line and let the sun do the work.

I don’t know the statistics, but I estimate that maybe one out of every 10 people might have a dryer.  I know none of my relatives in Taipei have dryers.  They all have a veranda-like space where people do their laundry and hang their clothes to dry.

If you think about it, it does save quite a lot of money.  Dryers can be expensive to install and will most likely increase your electric bill.

Sidenote: My family had a dryer in the U.S., but my mom would still hang clothes sometimes because she wanted to save money and keep the electric bill down.  (She’s so Taiwanese, right?)

Anyways, it’s winter time now and I’ve encountered problems with this system.

It’s humid outside and wet.  How are the clothes drying in the winter time? I placed my clothes outside but with the cold and humidity, my clothes were extra wet because of the dew.  Even with the sun, wet towels take a long time to dry.

Miaoli has also been getting high air pollution index.  If I dry my clothes outside, aren’t the air pollution particulates going to stick to my clothes?

The next option would be to just hang dry my clothes inside my room. However, it’s apparently bad to dry wet clothes indoors.  Drying clothes indoors can increase humidity in the room by 30%. This creates an ideal breeding ground for mold spores to grow.  As a result, this can be extremely detrimental to a person’s health.

I’m lucky that my apartment building has a washer and dryer for the tenants to use.  The rooms don’t have verandas.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m lucky to have a dryer and it’s great to take my clothes out from the dryer in less than an hour and have them be warm and dry.

My problems is that half of my clothes cannot be put in the dryer due to the material they are made out of.  The clothes I buy in Taiwan cannot be placed in the dryer and this isn’t a problem for 90% of the population who don’t have dryers.  Other items of clothing are just made from delicate material like silk.

So far, I’ve been drying my clothes in my room, but I’ve been super paranoid, knowing the effects of drying clothes indoor.

I do have options.  I could buy a dehumidifier or send my clothes to the laundromat and have them wash and dry the clothes for me.   However, both options cost more money.

I’ve tried opening my window, but I kind of felt like that increased the humidity because it’s humid outside!

All in all, I’ve decided that I am going to buy a dehumidifier.  Yes, it will cost me money, but my health is more important, right?