Lessons to learn in drying underwear...

Different ways to dry underwear... Everyone knows the standard ways of drying clothes, hang dry and dryer, but sometimes you need to be inventive when you need something in a snap. For some reason, I always end up needing new and exciting ways to dry underwear & bras. I know, only me -- only I would need this info. But of course!

Point to Remember - be VERY careful when drying underwear in a microwave. They WILL catch on fire. Once when I was living with my brother, our dryer went out while I was trying to do my laundry. Now, this is single life remember, so every article of clothing I owned had just been washed & was soaking wet. I had to be at work in 2 hours and there was no way my panties would air dry in time. My highly intelligent older brother suggested using the microwave. He said he'd done it before with socks, so it should work for me. Great! Thanks Bubba! So into the microwave they go! Then came the problem... exactly how long do you cook underwear to dry them? Well, they were just a small pair of bikinis, so I figured 30 seconds on high should do it. About halfway through, they started smoking. I pulled them out, and there were several nice round singed spots on them! LEE!! You told me I could microwave my panties!! You LOSER! He yells back, "I didn't say COOK them, what did you do?" So, I told him about programming it for 30 seconds -- at which point he replies, "Noooo... you pop them in for 3 - 5 seconds at a time, take them out for a second or two, and then do it again. Over and over until they're dry." "Well you didn't tell me THAT!" That would have been good info to know. Great - lesson learned if this ever happens again!

Fast forward 2 or 3 years... Christmas Eve 1995, I only own one bra (single & broke that I am) and I had to wash it at the last minute. There's no way it'll dry in time, and I can't put it in the microwave, it has a metal underwire... so what do I do? I had no choice but to run it down to my apartment complex's laundry room. Now, commercial washers & dryers are fine for general clothing, but not delicates. But I had no choice - I was stuck! So in the bra went. About an hour later, I pull it out and find that it's been SHREDDED. It looked like I'd run it though a wood chipper! OH MY GOD, what am I going to do?! I have to be at my grandparents in an hour! There was no way I could buy another in time, besides I didn't have any money! So I grabbed a handful of safety pins and pinned that sucker back together. It was beyond uncomfortable and looked horrible, but it did it's job!

Fast forward again to today... I'm sure I've had mishaps in between then & now, but nothing that really stands out. So... Last night as I was getting ready for bed, I remembered the panties I wanted to wear with my jeans today were dirty. So, I pulled them out of the hamper, hand washed them, and hung them in the shower to dry. Who would have thought that all night wouldn't be long enough to dry panties?! So this morning they went into the dryer. Now, that should have worked, but I wasn't thinking and put them in by themselves. And everyone knows the secret to drying something - NEVER put it in the dryer alone. For some reason, you always have to add a towel or something in with it -- and of course, I forgot that too. So, 45 minutes later they're still wet. Great, I HAVE to leave for work - what do I do?? HAIR DRYER! So... I stood there for God knows how long blow drying my underwear. But, this time I thought of everything. I used the warm setting, because the hot would be too hot and the cool might not dry as well, and I kept flipping them so they'd be uniformly dried. It worked! Not as good as the dryer would have done, but they were clean and dry! So I slipped them on, then my jeans, and flew out the door!