I have been trying to hang dry all my clothes but I have had a few instances where they get sour. That smell is not worth it. I use the white Ikea rack shown in the pictures above and hang them in my bedroom.
Does anyone have any tips on how to prevent that god awful smell...
I think I will move the rack onto a radiator because the heat is now on. I live in the PNW so the air is generally damp and that may be contributing to a slow dry.
I use that IKEA rack in the PNW too. The biggest thing that helps is I set it up in the same room that we have our dehumidifier in. Yes it uses more energy, but it makes the house warmer too, so we don't have to use the heat as much. Makes much more sense to me than using the dryer and blowing all the hot air out the exhaust vent.
It's also important to make sure the clothes come out of the washer as soon as it is done and onto the rack. Sometimes if I forget to take the clothes out right away, and it's a load of towels or something that I know will take a long time to dry and may end up smelling, I'll dry them for 15 minutes and then hang them up to dry, so you might try that. You won't be able to get rid of your dryer, but you'll save some energy.
+1 on getting clothes out of the washer ASAP.
I started line / rack drying this summer. The fall is challenging because the back of my house faces north and the house shades my porch by 10am. I've been known to have clothes in washer ready to start at night. Then at crack of dawn when I need to get up to go to the restroom I add the detergent and flip the switch. I go back to sleep until the washer finishes and proceed to hang clothes outside to get their glimpse of sunlight.
I prefer sun because of the disinfecting properties, but I believe the main thing is to minimize the amount of time clothes are wet and at a high temperature. I.e. the Mildew smell occurs from little living things (That have little effect on us in this situation other than the smell.) For the most part, living things have an ideal temperature range.
This winter, I'm going to give drying outside a chance to see the results. Will mostly dry inside. Front bedroom will get a glimpse of sunlight. (But not really heated.). Bedroom and Bathroom are ideal places since they are heated to some degree. Bathroom also has an exhaust fan if I wish to get rid of excess moisture, however I do not yet have any issues with moisture. (If I get my house / attic air sealed well enough, I may want to run my bathroom fan on afternoons anyways to help exchange fresh air.)