Why It's A Bad Thing To Dry A Load Of Laundry For Too Long
Have you ever opened the dryer to find that your clothes were still wet? This certainly can be frustrating, but you should also avoid overcorrecting by leaving your clothes in the machine for too long. Overdrying your clothes may not only cause them to shrink, but it can lead to wrinkling, fading, and overall wear and tear. To try to prevent all of the above, turn the dryer off before too much heat is applied to your clothing. A shorter drying cycle at a lower heat setting can help keep your load of laundry in good shape.
It's important to familiarize yourself with all of your dryer's settings. While many modern dryers have auto-sensing features that can determine when clothes are dry and automatically shut themselves off, others don't. The latter style of dryer will stick to whatever time you set and continue to dry your clothes even after they're no longer damp, making it easy to overdo the drying.
Other reasons you should avoid overdrying laundry
As if the possibility of shrinking and wrinkling your clothes wasn't enough of a deterrent, there are a few other drawbacks to running the dryer for too long. For one thing, overdrying your clothes can waste energy and hike up your utility costs. As far as household appliances go, dryers use a fairly significant amount of energy as is, and the longer you keep it going, the higher that monthly bill's going to be.
What's more, letting the dryer run much longer than necessary isn't the most eco-friendly choice; machine dryers can contribute to a decent chunk of a household's carbon dioxide emissions. So, if you want to try to reduce your carbon footprint, take out your clothes as soon as soon as they are dry — or at least close to dry. If there's still some moisture, try air-drying your laundry. There are a number of ways to dry clothes without a dryer, whether it be clipping your garments to a line outside or draping them on a drying rack indoors. If you are in a pinch and need to dry something quickly, use a towel to absorb as much moisture as you can before firing up a hair dryer.