Outside I have a clothesline strung between three trees. Yesterday, I was silly enough to hang them out in a 45 mph wind and one of the strings snapped, so I would not advise doing that! :)
When it is yucky outside, or night time or there are 45 mph winds that take off pieces of your roofing which should make you think you ought not hang them out, I hang them inside.
I have 3 drying racks.
And a retractable clothesline. I have a fairly large open downstairs, so I can get quite a bit of distance. If I didn't, I think I would hang it on one wall in one corner, put a hook on the other side of the room in the middle and the end hook on the opposite corner of the first wall making 2 lines in a "v" shape for more surface area. The clothesline retracts and the mechanism fold up against the wall hopefully pretty inconspicuously. I have also heard of people putting two large hooks in their ceiling and hanging a storable dowel rod on the hooks and hanging their clothes on plastic hangars.
Since I have started doing this, I have noticed about a pretty persistent $30 less a month in electric bills as compared to last year. It may not all be the dryer, but my guess is most of it is. I have not accidentally shrunk anything or inadvertently set in a stain I missed. The sun does wonders for stains, just pin that garment in the place where the sun shines the most and most if not all will come out regardless of pretreating. I rarely have static cling, what I do have must just be from the dry air of the house.
My mother used to hang laundry and as a teen I couldn't stand "cardboard" feel jeans. I really didn't want to do this initially because I didn't want those cardboard jeans. Well, using less detergent and natural or homemade detergent keeps that from happening. And of course, if you put them out on a highly windy day they get dry very fast and are very soft from all the wind beating they take!
My mother used to hang laundry and as a teen I couldn't stand "cardboard" feel jeans. I really didn't want to do this initially because I didn't want those cardboard jeans. Well, using less detergent and natural or homemade detergent keeps that from happening. And of course, if you put them out on a highly windy day they get dry very fast and are very soft from all the wind beating they take!
11 comments:
I love hanging my clothes out. I have found that turning clothes inside out helps keep colors from fading and that you should hang your clothes by the hems (upsidedown) to prevent clothes pin marks on the shoulders. Also if you smooth the wrinkles out with your hands while you are hanging things up they are mostly wrinkle free when you take them down again. I made a clothes pin holder from a milk jug by cutting the front off but leaving the handle and enough depth to hold all my pins. It is so very handy!
I "shake" out the clothes to remove the wrinkles and I hang not by the hems but I do fold over the bottom half an inch or two if not totally in half over the line and then pin to keep it from having the effect where the sides are longer than the middle of the garment from the gravity pulling on the drying item.
I love line drying clothing. I also line dry cloth diapers that get bleached out by the sun. Saves a lot of money too.
We use three indoor racks as well. I have a rolling clothes caddy which I hang shirts on to dry. I've noticed out bills go down as well.
I use regular cheapo detergent, but use vinegar in the rinse cycle with the darks. It softens the clothes just like a fabric softener, and stops those white lint pills on the dark fabric.
I enjoy hanging out my clothes in the summer months. My mom used to use one of those wooden racks allot, and my daughter uses mine now. In her apartment she usually had clothes hanging around drying, in order to save money.
One time I had hung blankets on the line, went to town and came home finding them out in the field. The wind had come up while I was gone, and blew them away. To say the least they had to all be rewashed. I was more careful next time.
Now with my microfiber bath towels I don't have those scratchy bath towels anymore, hurrah; for they stay soft when line dried, but we still deal with the cardboard pants however.
If I do end up with cardboard pants I can't stand, throwing them in the dryer for a few minutes with a lightly damp cloth item takes care of it pretty quickly.
I would like to try line dryer once we move to our new home. How long does it usually take to dry clothes? Do you line dry everything? Including socks and underwear?
It seems for me, Hanging it outside on a sunny slightly breezy day takes a few hours, a hot sunny day little more than an hour if not less. On an overcast day you would have to put it out earlish in the morning and bring it in in the evening esp if on a winter day. Inside, I put it up in the morning/late morning and take it down the next morning when I wake up generally. Jeans sometimes need a little more time inside and thin things like underwear and thin shirts, etc. just need the day and can be taken down before the rest. I just tend to leave it there until all of them are done to deal with it all at the same time. Sticking them in a sunny warm room speeds up the process.
As someone was chatting with me the other day, she wouldn't want laundry hanging all over the house because it doesn't look nice. I don't care and if I do have someone coming over that I wasn't comfortable having them see my laundry that I didn't expect, I just throw them in the dryer on the wet sensor cycle before the person gets there. They dried on the line for a few hours so it cuts down on the time it is in there. But I rarely do this, the people who visit are generally announced and I can plan around it or they are the people I am comfortable enough I'm not bothered to have them see my laundry hanging around.
Oh, yes, I line dry it all.
Line-drying is king in our house. We have a dryer, however it is broken and I am not planning to get it fixed any time soon.
During summer we line dry outside and during winter I hang on clothing racks inside. Shirts I put onto hangers and hang from a very handy curtain rod that previous owners installed between our lounge and dining room.
The hardest time of year for us in Sydney is Autumn because it is too warm to use internal heating to help and too wet to dry outside many days so clothes take quite a few days to dry.
Great post. I have multiple clothes drying racks as well. I use them all the time.
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