line dry

Drying my clothes outside on a line has been on my to-do list for some time. I've never done it before. I never had a place to do it, nor the incentive. Now that I understand what a good thing it might be, I'm willing to give it a try. I hope it will save energy, reduce my carbon footprint and save money. I do already have an energy efficient dryer, but have heard that the clothes dryer is the 2nd highest energy user in a typical home (refrigerator is 1st). And aside from all the wonderful things drying outside might do for the earth, I've heard it does nice things for your clothes, too.

I must confess that one reason I haven't just hung up a line yet is that we get some pretty big, scary spiders in our backyard. I really don't want them on my clothes! So I will be sure to hang the line somewhere they cannot get to easily. I also have thought of an indoor drying rack, but space is pretty limited for laundry and I'm not sure where I could place a contraption that might hold a load or two.

I know people around the world hand their clothes to dry all the time. Many would consider it crazy to use a machine to do something which will inevitably happen naturally.

My blogging buddy at Gift of Green has inspired me to give line drying a go. Her recent post listed it as "something I could do this week" for the environment (see #5 on her list). I also like my friend Laura's idea of setting the delay timer on the washing machine so a load is washed while you sleep. When you wake up in the morning you can hang it to dry.

I did some searching online to find clothesline gear. There are all kinds of options depending on your situation (indoors, outdoors, freestanding, attached cable, etc.) Some good choices can be found at the Clothesline Shop or at Stacks and Stacks.

While searching I came across an article in the New York Times by Kathleen Hughes, in which she chronicles her efforts to hang her family's laundry. I hope to learn from her experiences and avoid some of her early pitfalls. It hadn't occurred to me how many people live in communities where clothes lines are not permitted! In fact, there is a non-profit called the laundry list dedicated to fighting for the right to dry clothes outside. The site also has lots of information on the why's and how's of drying clothes on the line.

My first step will be to get a line set up. Then I will be able to figure out how much and how often and just plain HOW to make it work. Stay tuned!