At the beginning of the summer, I started air-drying ALL of our laundry. I've had great results with it. My power bills have been lower than in previous summers (some of this is due to better management of the thermostat, but definitely not all because the heat has been brutal). Although not quite as convenient as just popping almost everything in the dryer, I've gotten into a rhythm with it, and its not as inconvenient as I thought it would be. It helps that there are only two people in this household. I'm not sure I'd be extolling the virtues quite so much if I had laundry for five to do!
Yesterday, I started with the first load. I have somewhat limited area to dry the clothes in so I tend to do it in shifts. Then I did the second --- as the second load was just starting to dry, it clouded up outside. Luckily, I noticed the clouds and pulled the trying rack on to the screened porch. It rained for a bit (yea! rain!), but then proceeded to stay cloudy the remainder of the day. It took for-ever for the second load to dry (as a matter of fact, not all of the items were completely dry this morning). However, I had already put the third load in to wash. And they sat in the washer overnight. And smelled just a wee bit sour. Dang it!
However, I had read that the dried outside clothes get a really fresh smell to them. So I hung them up to dry on the bright sunshiney deck. Lo and behold, they dried out nicely --- and smelled like sunshine! Woo hoo!
Score another one for the benefits of air drying! I think I'm actually going to miss this when winter rolls around!
I love hanging my clothes outside... The girls play outside while I hang the laundry. In the winter, as long as it's bright & sunny, you can still use the line...just dress a bit warmer while you hang your clothes is all! ;) I also have a couple clothes bars down in my basement so I can hang our clothes year round. Definitely helps with the bills!! :)
ReplyDeleteI think I am going to continue portions of it --- problem is our community doesn't allow for clotheslines so I've had to get creative with drying sheets, comforters and such (spreading them out over chairs, stuff like that). Due to space constraints, I don't think there will be enough time in a single day to get them all dried during the winter in that same fashion. However, I am going to continue air drying as much as I can. Its an experiment that was really worked well for us.
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