Laundry taking forever to dry? This Japanese trick could save you 30 minutes

When the rain sets in and laundry has to dry indoors, it can take hours for clothes to feel completely dry. If you don't have a tumble dryer, or want to use yours less often, there's a simple trick from Japan worth trying. It costs nothing and only requires a small change to your usual routine.

The method has been shared by Japanese rental experts and picked up by international lifestyle publications. And in one test, it helped a load of laundry dry around 30 minutes sooner.

The Japanese method is all about how you hang clothes

The trick is known as the “rainbow” or arch method. Instead of hanging clothes wherever there's space, arrange them so the longest items sit at the ends of the rack and the shortest ones hang in the middle.

Put trousers, dresses and long-sleeved shirts at the outer ends. Then work towards the centre with shorter shirts, small towels, socks and underwear. Viewed from the side, the clothes should form a shallow arch.

According to Apts, a Tokyo rental portal, this arrangement helps leave more open space beneath the shorter items, allowing air to move through the laundry.

Can it really make clothes dry faster?

The idea is simple: when clothes hang too close together, air has less room to circulate, and moisture takes longer to escape. Spacing them out can help the fabric dry more efficiently.

A test described by Xataka compared the arch method with a V-shaped arrangement. The arch took about four hours, while the V shape took around four and a half hours.

That's a saving of roughly 30 minutes. It isn't a guarantee, though. Room temperature, humidity, fabric thickness and ventilation all affect drying time, so don't expect every load to dry faster by exactly the same amount.

Three more ways to speed things up

You can make a few other small changes to help your laundry dry indoors:

• Leave space between items. Resist the temptation to cram one more shirt onto a full rack. Air needs room to move.
• Open up shirts and trousers. Undo shirt buttons, lift the collar and spread trouser legs apart so less fabric is bunched together.
• Hang towels unevenly. Let one side hang lower than the other to expose more fabric to the air.

It's also worth taking clothes out of the washing machine as soon as the cycle finishes. Leaving damp laundry sitting in the drum can encourage musty smells. These tips are also covered in Grazia's guide to the Japanese drying method.

Don't forget to ventilate the room

Drying clothes indoors releases moisture into your home. Place the rack somewhere with good air circulation and ventilate the room appropriately. A fan can help keep air moving, while suitable window ventilation or an extractor can help remove moisture.

The arch method won't replace a tumble dryer in every situation, especially on cold, damp days. But next time rain forces your laundry indoors, try rearranging the rack before switching on a machine. A small change could save you some waiting time.