The sum nobody does
A seven-kilo washing machine leaves between one and a half and two litres of water in the clothes after the spin. Hang them indoors and those two litres go into the air of the house as they dry.
Two washes a week through the winter is around sixty litres released inside the property. That is more than a whole family produces by breathing.
Why it surprises people here
On the coast nobody thinks about damp because the climate is dry and sunny. But in January, with windows shut and a property that often has no constant heating, the indoor air saturates quickly.
Cold walls do the rest: the vapour condenses wherever the wall is coldest, almost always behind a wardrobe or in the corner of a north-facing room.
Where to hang it and where not to
The worst place is a bedroom with the door closed: eight hours sleeping in the most loaded air in the house. The second worst is a living room with no ventilation at all.
If you have a glazed terrace or utility gallery, hang it there and leave a window ajar: the air moves and the rest of the property stays out of it. If all you have is an internal room, hang it in the bathroom with the extractor running and the door shut.
The condenser dryer, and its catch
A condenser dryer collects the water in a tank, which solves the problem at source. But it needs a suitable electrical supply and a ventilated spot: shut inside a cupboard it overheats and performs badly.
In a rental or a small apartment, the electrical installation is sometimes the real limit. Worth checking the circuit before buying the machine, not after.
When the problem is no longer the laundry
If the corner mark is still there once the washing has come down, the laundry has only revealed a cold bridge or a leak that was already present.
The sign: the mark always returns at the same point and does not clear with ventilation. At that stage you look at the wall, not the airer.
