How to Dry Clothes in Winter (Outdoors or Indoors)
Learn how to dry clothes in winter using outdoor and indoor methods. Get tips, timing advice, and solutions for common cold-weather drying problems.
If you’ve ever wondered whether clothes can dry outside in the winter, you’re not alone. The first time I tried it in Maine, I wasn’t convinced anything would happen besides my laundry freezing into stiff boards. But it turns out winter line-drying is completely doable, even on those days when the temperature barely bothers to climb above freezing. It just works a little differently than summer drying. Once you understand how sublimation works and learn a few tricks for timing, airflow, and just knowing which things dry easier than others, it’s honestly just another part of winter living.
I’ve been line drying my clothes year-round for years now, and winter has its own rhythm. Some days everything dries beautifully. Other days you’ll want to bring things inside halfway through. In this post, I’ll walk you through what works, what doesn’t, and how to make winter drying less of a guessing game.
How People Dried Clothes in Winter Before Dryers
Before electricity, winter laundry happened one of two ways:
Outside whenever possible.
Winter sun and good old sublimation (more on that below) did the job, long before we had fancy clotheslines or synthetic fabrics.
Inside on racks and beams.
People used everything: open rafters, wooden racks, backs of chairs, ropes near the stove, and fold-down ceiling racks. Homes were a lot draftier in those days, which actually made indoor drying easier than it is in our sealed-up modern houses.
The funny part is that winter laundry “problems” are mostly modern problems. Past generations treated winter drying as completely ordinary.
How Winter Drying Works (Yep, Even Below Freezing)
Clothes don’t dry in winter the same way they do in summer. When it’s cold, the moisture inside the fabric turns to ice, and then that ice turns straight into vapor. That jump, solid straight to vapor, is what we call sublimation. There’s no soggy in-between stage.
You’d think winter sun wouldn’t do much, but it’s stronger than it looks. Snow reflects UV light back up onto the fabric, which gives you a little natural whitening boost for whites and linens. I count on this snow-bleaching boost every winter, especially for bedding.
How I Dry Clothes Outdoors in Winter
Drying outside in winter takes a little more planning than it does in summer, but it really does become second nature after a bit.
Choose the Right Day: Winter drying goes a lot smoother on sunny, breezy, low-humidity days. Even weak winter sun still gets the job done because sublimation doesn’t need heat.
Start Early: You only get so many hours of workable daylight. If you start after lunch, you’ll almost definitely be finishing inside.
Shake Items Before Hanging: This removes loose water and helps prevent garment edges from freezing into stiff shapes.
Hang Things with Plenty of Space: If items touch, ice builds up between them. Leave gaps so air can move freely.
Avoid Heavy Folds: Keep towels, jeans, and sweatshirts spread out as much as you can. The more surface area showing, the faster sublimation does its thing.
Bring Items Inside at Dusk: Once the temperature drops again, drying slows dramatically. I bring laundry in when the sun disappears and let it finish on a rack overnight.
If you’re new to outdoor drying or want to tighten up your routine a bit, I have a full guide on how to dry your clothes outside like a pro. It covers spacing, airflow, and line setup. All those little tricks that make the job easier.
How Long It Really Takes for Clothes to Dry in Winter
Timing depends on the day’s weather. Here’s a general idea based on my experience in Maine:
- Sunny, breezy day around freezing: 4–6 hours
- Cloudy but cold day (teens–20s): 6–10 hours
- Below 10°F or on really damp days: You can still dry clothes, but it’ll be slow, so expect to finish things inside.
If something still feels stiff after a full day, that’s just ice. Bring it inside and the stiffness disappears as the ice melts and the fabric finishes drying.
Troubleshooting Common Winter Drying Problems
- Your clothes dry too slowly: Humidity is usually the culprit. Snowstorms, fog, or still air can slow everything way down. Switch to indoor drying on those days.
- Everything is stiff as a board: Totally normal. The stiffness is frozen moisture. It disappears once the fabric warms up indoors.
- Items freeze to the line: It’s usually because the hems were still dripping. Shake things twice before hanging. Two clothespins per corner helps with the heavier stuff.
- Laundry smells “cold” or musty: Cold air just doesn’t freshen things as fast as warm air does. Finish-drying indoors cures this, especially for thick fabrics.
Best Ways to Dry Clothes Indoors in Winter
I love drying outside, but there are days when the wind cuts right through you, and I’m not interested in wrestling frozen jeans. When that happens, these are my go-tos for drying inside:
Use a folding rack near a heat source: Not directly on the heater, just near enough to benefit from warm airflow. This is the exact folding rack I use, and what I love about it is how lightweight it is. I can pop it open with one hand and move it around the house wherever the warm air is. It also folds flat when I’m done with it.
Try a wall-mounted pulley rack up near the ceiling: It keeps clothes high where warm air gathers and frees up floor space. I have this retractable clothesline in the room my woodstove is in. I can pull the line out when I need it, hang a full load, and then retract it when I’m done. And it was under ten bucks when I bought it.
Run a fan on low: Air movement does more for drying than heat alone. Even a little tabletop fan on low can make a surprising difference.
Use a dehumidifier in especially damp homes: This helps a ton if you’re in a tight, energy-efficient home that tends to trap moisture. If you heat with a wood stove, the extra moisture from your laundry is usually a blessing.
If you’re trying to keep bulky items from taking over your kitchen (I see you, queen-sized duvet), finishing outdoors first and then drying indoors is still my favorite winter strategy.
Common Winter Drying Questions
If you’re still unsure about winter drying, these are the questions I hear the most.
Pin this guide so you’ve got it on hand the next time the weather turns cold and laundry day sneaks up on you.
Drying clothes in the winter doesn’t need to be complicated or uncomfortable. Once you understand how sublimation works and get into the habit of starting early, spacing items out, and finishing indoors when needed, it becomes part of the winter routine and fits right into everyday homestead life. Whether you’re taking advantage of that bright winter sun or relying on a sturdy indoor rack, winter drying is frugal, low-waste, and totally doable.
If you’ve found a winter drying trick that really works for you, I’d love to hear it. Tell me how you handle laundry this time of year.
It will be faster on a windy day.
I put my boots on and carried the wash out to the line today because the weather is so beautiful in Midcoast area. Now that I know I can put the wash outside in the winter I am going to be out there! The neighbors probably already think I’m looney standing in the snow today hanging sheets. 🙂 Without a washer or dryer going and with the heat kicking on very rarely (and being kept at 58F) our CMP bill was nearly $200 this month. I’m looking for any and all ways to reduce that. Thanks!
Have you checked out Think Energy? They work in conjunction with CMP, but for much less money. CMP is currently charging $6.69 and Think Energy is charging $6.30. That 39 cents really adds up. Our bill went from $200+ to about $119.
I haven’t read all the comments but I think the biggest bonus is that the clothes smell fresher longer
We enjoy sword fighting with the frozen socks around here!
Oh that’s a funny mental picture! Totally something we would do.
OH, boy did you make me laugh! My mother used to hang our clothes always on the lines out in the back yard all through the winter, even though we had a clothes dryer! LOL I used to go get my dungarees, which they were called back then, not jeans yet! lol and they could stand up themselves! lol OMG both my parents are gone now, and I think back to all of those things that were done to save money because of having four kids, and they were sending us to private schools. The best one was…..using powered milk, mixed with regular glass milk bottled from the farm down the road in MA,in 1970. My mother would always cut the milk half and half! I loved milk with a passion, and I hated it when she did this! So today,at 61, I still drink my perfect Hood Homogenized Milk pure and love it! No powder milk for me anymore! lol But I cam going to go back to hanging clothes outside. We live in a state, Massachusetts that lets these energy companies rape us. My bill is over 550.00 per month, and we live frugally! I am not lying! That is how insane it is down here. My parents lived for 32 years up in No.Turner and loved Maine! I love Maine and own land in Bethel. I still live down in MA though, but go to Maine a lot! I am sick and tired of these insane bills, and have been looking for ways to cut this damn bill down. So it will be outdoor drying for the sheets in winter. And I will pull out my old drying racks from the 1980’s I had when I was on my own single, and did not have a dryer. LOL I will dry the rest of the clothes and towels on the racks near the wood burning stove, or even in our large unused dining room. Also, I have just recently switched to doing much of my laundry with cold water! I remember my mother always did with her laundry detergent ALL! LOL Boy, 1st world country and we are all being forced to go back to the way our ancestors lived to save money! Who would have ever thought it would be this bad in 2017??? Your still young and able to do all that you do, but as you get older, life gets a little harder…I wish you all good luck in all that you do….I think it is great, that you are able to do all of these wonderful skills! Your ancestors would be so proud!
I agree
I’m a die-hard clothesline kind of gal so in the winter, I do watch the weather forecast for the optimum clothesline days. In the case of several days of not so friendly weather, I must confess I put my clothes in the dryer for about 10 minutes and then immediately hang them up overnight to finish the process. Works great and I’m still saving money!
I do that as well 🙂
I wear gloves when I hang them outside. 🙂 I also button things around the line, when available, to save the step of reaching for clothespins. 🙂
Just a slight pedantic problem with this post:
The UV rays wouldn’t get stronger by bouncing off the snow, its more that the snow reflects more UV rays, so rays that might not hit the clothes directly could bounce off the ground and hit the clothes. It’s the quantity of UV rays not the intensity of the rays that increase.
Stronger radiation means more particles (“rays”) in a given space per unit of time. The particles have the energy they have, they don’t get stronger or weaker. We say we receive stronger solar radiation in Summer for the same reason — not just because the days are longer, but also because the Sun’s radiation we receive in Summer is more intense (i.e. more concentrated in the space where we’re living). Basic Earth Science. So the snow reflecting more radiation onto your clothes is indeed more concentrated, intense, “stronger”. She is only loosely saying “stronger UV rays” when she obviously means “stronger UV radiation”.
So she could have said “stronger UV radiation” instead of “stronger UV rays”…yes, it’s an exceedingly small point.
Thanks for the info, I thought drying outdoors in winter would take forever.
FYI The first link doesn’t work and the last says you have be to be invited to read the blog.
Thank you so much for the heads up. I’ll look into getting those fixed.
I was ecstatic to get our clothes line up! We had two “T” pipes welded, and then got the line and eye hooks to put through the holes with secured washers. These T posts were cemented in post-holes, and the pipes spray painted forest green. Only thing, the wasps were building nests in the pipes! Even so, We tend to use the wood rack in the house by the stove, but it takes up a lot of room. I’m laughing; after so much winter we just loved the bright sun and breeze, so out I put our laundry! (March) The next day-Woke up to two fresh inches of snow and everything white- all over again. After two days though, my clothes were reasonably dry, I could bring them in- they smell great! It was good to hear about frozen clothes, the possible wind damage, and that people have been doing this for some time~ Thanks!
When I was first married I moved to an area where it was very cold and could snow 10 feet a night. The first time I hung laundry out to dry I was not prepared for the frozen boards I brought in 6 hours later. So here are a few things I learned -1) sheets or heavy things are hung out first 2) bring a few things in at a time to be able to fit everything on the inside dryer rack (this means you add less moisture at a time inside the house and 3)to prevent breakage of fibers don’t try to fold the clothes in the frozen state. The major difference back then was that the clothes lines had pulleys and you hung your clothes line from a porch area designed to hang clothes from. I will never forget those smells or the satisfaction from a job well done.
I tried line frying in the winter and they never got dry! It was about 10° out. How long do they have to hang?
It really depends on how dry the air is, more than the temperature. It may have been to moist/humid.
I hang our clothes out to dry all year round! It’s pretty easy here since the winters are usually dry with not much snow, and the freezing temperatures don’t deter drying at all. I had never thought about UV rays whitening clothes, but now that you mention it fabric left in the sun does fade! Hmm I think I need to hang my old, dingy down comforter out for about a week!
I had never even thought about going out in the snow and line drying, but I may have to give it a try. I’m just now getting started on line drying in my home though, so maybe baby steps for me. Thanks for this post! I added it to my resources on a laundry post I just did.
Thanks Jenna 🙂
I live in Downeast Maine. I am always studying what conditions make for the best line drying. So far, i have learned that the best drying, has to do with dewpoint and wind primarily, although a sunny day helps too. Basically, I check the dewpoint before doing laundry. If it is close to the temperature, I put off clothes washing for the day, as that means that the air is already too saturated with water, and cant hold much more before it starts to rain (or snow). I will be washing a long, heavy wool coat…I think tomorrow as it will be mostly sunny, west winds at 17 mph, a high of 23 degrees with a dewpoint of 10. Not bad!
I’ve used my outdoor clothesline all year long for probably 20 years. I pay attention to weather forecasts and on days it’s not raining or snowing, I’ll have a line full of clothes. The best days are when there’s a little breeze- that helps with wrinkles.
I haven’t seen anyone mention the major caveat of winter line drying: breakage.
We took a photo of our laundry the first winter on our homestead, me holding a frozen shirt upright by the hem. My father saw it, and warned us about a problem he learned when living in Barrow, Alaska.
When we dry clothes in the winter, we watch the wind. If frozen clothing gets blown around too much, it can break the cloth fibers. If our clothes are inflexibly frozen, we take them down when the wind picks up. If they’re partly dried at the time, and flexible, then we leave them, especially since, as many of you know, wind blown laundry is softer and fresher than calm-dried.
It’s an extra thing to think about and guard against, but since we need our clothes to last as long as possible, we guard against wind breakage!
This isn’t meant to discourage anyone from line drying in the winter. It can be done without damage to the clothes, and the savings are well worth the effort.
I’ve never heard of that happening. Thank you for the warning!
When I lived in the Philippines I hand washed my clothes and dried them out in the sun. Thanks to the blazing heat of the sun my clorhes dry in a matter of minutes. This process made my clothes last for years and years looking brand new. I moved to a cold climate now and forced to use the washer and drier which only after one wash destroys my clothes eveb when placed on delicates. I’m trying to hand wash now but drying it has really been a problem
Hand washing and line drying certainly keep your clothes in mint condition.
I do line dry clothes in the winter. We live in a small apartment, are on a tight budget, don’t always want to spend a full dollar for each dryer session.
Thus we have a line on the balcony. That works fine on mild days, but we use the shower bar when it’s colder than 32 outside. Denver has a naturally dry climate and furnance use in winter dries the air out even more.
My t-shirts and slacks can be hung on the shower bar (I use hangers and clip-hangers for this) just before bed and they’ll be dry by morning. Thicker fabrics take a bit longer, but it’s doable.
I love this Jess! I can’t wait until we get our clothesline put up 🙂
I have heard of “freeze drying” before but thought it was a joke! Thanks for the info!!! Now I am going to see if my husband can move the lines from the basement back outside, but closer to the house (sometimes it’s nice being 5ft tall haha!).
I’m 1″ taller than my husband, so I do all the tall work 😉
Thanks for linking up and sharing on Mostly Homemade Mondays! We’re so glad you joined us, and look forward to seeing what you link up next week 🙂
Kelli @ The Sustainable Couple
http://www.thesustainablecouple.com
This is great – reminds me of Ma freeze drying the clothes on the prairie in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s book, The Long Winter. Found this through Natural Living Monday.
I do feel very “Little House on the Prairie” when I’m out there 🙂
I love to line dry my clothes but with the hard winter we had in Michigan with close to 80 inches of snow and cold I’ll use my dryer. Can’t wait for Spring! Looks like we will get a little this week!
This has been a rough winter. I did throw in the towel when snowshoes were required to trudge to the line.
I’m counting on it. We still have 2′ of snow that NEEDS to go.
Growing up we line dried everything, and always outside. I do remember taking in solid frozen clothes at the and of a laundry day. My mom would hang them all over the house to get the last bit of moisture out. They would warm up quickly and be mostly dry.
Today I still line dry, but since I do not have a laundry day, where everything needs to be washed in one day, I do not have so much at the time to dry. There is plenty of room in my laundry room to dry one loud and it adds much needed moisture to the house.
I use my clothes line all the time but when the weather is bad we always use our clothes horse, it feels like it’s a permanent fixture in our house lol
Describe a clothes horse please
It’s just another name for a clothes rack.
I love line drying my clothes. My clothes smell fresh. Plus there is the added bonus of your clothes lasting longer. This winter was hard to hang outside because of the weather but I try every chance I get.
We line dry year round. This was the first year we really didn’t though because it was soooo cold and had a lot of snow. By the time we finish with the animals we just needed to be in. Plus that warm moist air helped with the wood buring stove. 🙂
~Honey
You have figured well. Impressive.