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Line Drying Clothes

Can't escape rising utility costs?

08.04.2009

Submitted by alara on Mon, 08/03/2009 - 11:00pm.
The Bite:
Grab hold of the line - the laundry line, that is. While it's still warm out, try air-drying your clothes. Mamas wash more loads than other gals (think how many tees your kids go through...by breakfast), so giving the dryer a break could mean a flood of savings on energy use and cash.
The Benefits: 
  • Not drowning in emissions. In 2007, clothes dryers in U.S. homes emitted 54.72 million metric tons of greenhouse gas-producing CO2. Translation: the equivalent to driving a car from LA to NYC 141 times. Line drying output: 0.
  • Stemming the cash deluge. Running a load of clothes in a natural gas-powered dryer costs about $0.17 per load and electric dryers, about $0.35 per load. Air drying can save you around $94 per year or more.
  • Not stranded with chem smells. Clothes that dry in the sun or a breeze get a real fresh scent instead of a synthetic one from dryer sheets. Ahhh...
Personally Speaking: 
 
Wanna Try: 
  • Mt. Everest Wooden Clothes Drying Rack - rack made of unfinished pine and birch dowels from sustainably harvested forests; provides 56 feet of dryer space - enough for a full load; flat area for sweaters and the like ($100).
  • Extandaline Quatro 4 - 4-line, retractable clothesline that you can mount on the wall indoors or out; provides 85 feet of line space ($70).
  • Whitney Design Aluminum Dryer - lightweight unit has 246 feet of drying space and folds for storage ($70).
  • Project Laundry List - tips such as how to fluff stiff-dried towels from a nonprofit org on a mission to popularize air-drying laundry.
  • DIY Bite - grab a roll of biodegradable jute twine (jute is a glossy plant fiber) and make your own clothesline.

Timeout

Crawford, GA, mom Sharon Waldrop remembers helping her mom hang clothes out to dry in the 1960s. She loves the energy savings, but wishes there was a faster way to hang all those loads.

Bang For The Bite

If 10,000 Mama Biters air dry their laundry instead of using an electric clothes dryer for 1 month, we'll save enough electricity to light 20,000 homes for the same period.

5 comments
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Jaclyn  on August 04, 2009 at 03:16 AM 1
IKEA has a great compact drying rack that can really hold a lot of laundry and its quite inexpensive! http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50095091
C White  on August 04, 2009 at 05:51 AM 2
I love hanging clothes out on the three lines I have strung. Wish I knew a good place to get clothespins, though...can only find little wooden pinch ones or plastic. I want big sturdy pinch-style pins, and they are hard to find. Any advice on that subject would be welcome...
Amy Daryani  on August 04, 2009 at 07:04 AM 3
For about a year and a half now, I have used a line dryer much like the Whitney design one here, and I just love it! Not only is it relaxing to hang fresh laundry (okay, maybe I'm strange), but my laundry day goes SO much faster when I line dry. The Whitney design holds three very full loads of wash, so I'm not stuck waiting for the dryer to finish a cycle. Also, for those with allergies who worry about pollen and such... my kids and husband are allergy sufferers, so I pull dry laundry off the line and toss it in the dryer for a quick ten-minute fluff... even the sheets they sleep on have been just fine!
kfilkins@gmail.com  on August 05, 2009 at 05:14 AM 4
I've found something that works very well for me--I hang my laundry on plastic hangers, then hang it on the line. I can hang a whole basket of clothes up in just a few minutes. This summer has been pretty rainy in Western NY, so it's convenient for me to be able to run out and grab everything off the line in one or two armloads and bring it into the house when it starts raining!
Samantha Fox  on November 12, 2009 at 05:26 AM 5
Not drowning in emissions. In 2007, clothes dryers in U.S. homes emitted 54.72 million metric tons of greenhouse gas-producing CO2. Translation: the equivalent to driving a car from LA to NYC 141 times. Line drying output: 0. online games

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