Line drying is not a thing of the past! I started hang drying clothes shortly after I started cloth diapering (cloth diapers are suppose to air dry so the elastic doesn't go bad and because of the fibers they are made out of). When I was hanging up cloth diapers to dry I thought, I bet I could shave off a couple of dollars from our energy bill every month by not running my dryer as often. Garrett was kind enough to install clothes lines in our basement near the washer and dryer so I could have easy access to the line and even hang dry clothes during the winter and rain. I started doing just clothes but then it spread to everything. I haven't completely sworn off using my dryer because I don't like how stiff your clothes get when they hang dry. To solve this problem I throw the clothes in the dryer for about 5 to 15 minutes with a damp sock and vola! You have soft and wrinkle free clothes!!!
Not only does this save money on your energy bill but it helps extend the life of your clothes and who doesn't want their favorite pair of jeans to last???
I will have to be honest that when laundry gets backed up or we have sickness in our house the dryer gets fired up:-)
Do you know how much money you save? I may start doing this!
ReplyDeleteI dry every thing on laundry racks. Here are a couple tips to help with the stiffness issue. Use white vinegar instead of softeners. It will help to remove the detergent that was not rinsed out and it will also save you more money and not add more unnatural chemicals to the atmosphere. Also be sure to shake your laundry before hanging to open up the fibers to allow them to dry as fast as possible and if you pass by them while they are in the process of drying simply wiggle them. Then shake again when taking down the dry clothes I find that this is enough to take the worse of the stiffness out of almost all my clothes.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing when you go to replace your towels and jeans get ones that are designed to dry faster. Levi's has a whole air dry campaign for their jeans.