Stick to normal clothes made from normal fabric, not some artificially engineered fibres.
I'd say 80% of my clothes is cotton. The rest is wool and "other." Actually if it was artificial fabric like polyester it would dry a whole lot easier and wouldn't stretch out.

Winter coats worth their name should be dry cleaned, not washed.
Not if the instructions say machine wash and tumble dry low. It really depends...


Use a good water repellent cream (but make sure it's environment friendly). Your shoes will always be dry. (Easier solution - watch your step, avoid stepping into puddles.)
I meant drying your shoes after you wash them. Like tennis shoes.


That sort of dry cleaning has nothing to do with the real dry cleaning they do at any respectable dry cleaner's in St Pete. It's like comparing a latex doll to a real woman.
I could go to a real dry cleaner's for a wool coat or a dress, but not every other week for a wool sweater that's "dry clean only." That would be a waste of time and $$.

People are very environment-concious in Russia - as soon as they realized that dryers were bad for the environment they started saying no to them. From what I've heard some even wanted to persuade the Duma to pass a law banning the import of dryers into Russia (for environmental protection reasons). Besides, many washing machines nowadays have a drying program which is 100% environment friendly and very efficient. No one in their right mind would pay double for a dryer if their washing machine already does it for them.
Oh come on, people in Russia aren't any more environment and health concious than in the US. I'd say they are less so. Especailly health.... And dryers were never popular before in Russia (unless you mean some prehistoric form of a dryer) some people have never even heard of them. And how do washing machines dry your clothes? They wring it but it's still damp when it comes out.

Besides, microwaves are bad for your health.
So are lot of things in theory...so what? TVs, cell phones, the sun, cars, all sorts of food, I mean...what's point in trying to avoid one thing when there's a dozen other things that harm you? We're all gonna die anyways. "Умирать здоровым жалко"