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There’s a pro and con to clothes line drying.
The pro is that we are using a renewable energy source (wind and sun),and it’s cost effective due to a significant drop in our electricity bill, however the only cons I’ve discovered have been:
- No last minute drying-if you need it and it hasn’t been washed and dried….well….need to find an alternative though there are a few times, we’ve had to run to the laundromat instead, but that is rare.
- If you let the laundry accumulate it leads to a very busy day.
However, because of a conscious effort not to let laundry accumulate, it’s really made a significant change in how often we do laundry as well.
Over time, I’ve notice that not only do we have an established schedule (woohoo, always a good thing) in when we do laundry, but our load has dropped considerably due to the turn around rate.
See.
Clothes dry faster on a line and there is a fast turn around rate, but with it, there is a significant drop in loads to be cleaned and dried (unless you have a big family then that will not apply).
I wonder if it’s because we are more conscious of when and how we do the laundry ,that we are being more conservative.
I mean that ,in the sense, clothes just aren’t left to pile in the laundry basket anymore to be cleaned but are often done, in small loads, quicker and reducing the amount of laundry that needs to be done.
Now if it’s large scale, say bedsheets, yes…that’s a day out of that, but for the most part….smaller loads are done on shorter spans and then quickly brought outside to dried.
The argument could be, we are still using the washer and consuming energy, but here’s the thing.
The washer isn’t running as often.
We found we could do more with less (i.e. cut our water consumption so another side effect is we noticed our water use has dropped) and also by being more conservative how and when we wash.
In the beginning,we were talking big loads…but we made it a day (or two) of just doing the laundry, getting them hung, hanging the clothes, repeat, then I noticed a trend.
Clothes in the laundry basket dwindled.
Laundry day(s) reduced to a laundry day and even then, we are talking one day out of the week versus maybe one, two or three.
For the size of our family, that worked.
But, it’s funny the reactions.
“It’s the 21st century…..”
Well..yes…yes it is, but there are communities who out of necessity still use clothesline.
I’ve had shared, that when people go out hiking, they “gasp” use a clothesline to dry their clothes. It’s using a renewable power source,plus I thought being green was cool.
Did I miss out on the what’s cool thing again?
“You can buy a dryer that is environmentally friendly and conserve energy….”
Thank you.
Are you offering to buy one for us?
How is using a consumable, finite, power source we have to pay for better really than a renewable, free, non-costly (except for time and energy I spend hanging and taking down and folding) better?
Confused.
Thought not having to pay an arm and leg for electricity was a good thing. Not to mention. Cool thing. Did we miss out on something again?
Confused.
Not to mention….why pay for the “fresh linen” or “outdoor breeze” fabric softeners when we are getting the real thing….for free…
Would love to hear from anyone else who uses clothesline in the 21st century.
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A clothesline is on my list of home improvements for next spring. We had one prior to moving here, and I miss it. I miss the hilarity of bringing in the wash after it freeze-dried in January.
While I appreciate my energy conserving dryer, I do agree that the little effort required to hang clothes is well worth it.
Bethany(Quote) (Reply)
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Something else that was shared was that, the sun was a “….natural way to “bleach” out stains, and is less harsh than using actual bleach and simply less harsh than using the dryer in general.”
Oh no!! What happen after being freeze dried? Let me guess? Board stiff?? How does one deal with that? Let it thaw? LOL
Twinkle Mom(Quote) (Reply)
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