Not in the EU, but I hang dry about 1/3 of my laundry because it's stuff I don't want in the drier. Wife's bras, cycling kit, wool, dress shirts (less wrinkly when hung vs machine dried). That said, it's just the two of us, when the kid was at home, I damn near needed a commercial drier to keep up with all the stinky sports stuff and whatnot.
You plan by doing laundry ahead of time. When you have a washer and dryer you get spoiled with ~2hr wash and dry times allowing you to wash needed clothes on the day you need them. If you didn't have that luxury then you would plan ahead. I lived without a dryer for a few years and did exactly that, wash the day before and hang dry.
Sure, I still plan abead of time, but it still takes more time. I don’t dry all of my washing in the dryer, the delicates are hung. But I do have better things to do than spend hours on laundry weekly.
> But I do have better things to do than spend hours on laundry weekly.
You dont have to sit and watch the laundry dry, it does that on its own ;-) Cheekiness aside, it adds maybe 10-15 minutes for hanging up but not hours unless you have to hike to some mountain top or whatever. You still have to fold so it adds little to that when taking them down from the line.
15 minutes per wash is an hour, minute of transfering between one cylinder to the other one is 15x less. Multiply this by 4 washes, and we’ve spent an hour instead of 4 minutes.
I've learned to stop and appreciate the little mind numbing things in life: Walk to local stores, shops, markets, restaurants, Washing dishes by hand, cleaning up house routine, doing laundry. I've got patience. Lets me stop and think about stuff. Or hell, put tunes on the bluetooth speaker.
Anyway, best thing I ever had was a Mabler horizontal washer/dryer allinone unit in an old basement studio. It was small as hell and could handle everything but my winter quilt. Used cold water to condense the moisture and was closed loop. Would periodically discharge warm water into sink via long hose. I think it was designed for RVs and plugged into a 120v socket.
I hang dry my shirts right inside my closet, but humidity isn’t a concern as it’s low in the winter and controlled by A/C in the summer. It takes less time to hang dry since I don’t need to put the shirts in the dryer and then take them out and hang them up.
All other clothing is washed cold and tumble dried on low, towels and bedding is washed and dried on hot.
Its not labor time. You put them out in the afternoon they are ready the next day, most seasons. If sun can see them might be a couple of hours, hang inside out so colours don't fade. Also quicker to iron.
to be fair, this occurs during a short period. an 8 year old won’t be pissing their bed every week for example, or blowing out their diaper. Dryer is a godsend during those early years though!