Hanging Myself Out To Dry

I did it this year – with the help of a brother and nephew, I put up a simple, retractable clothesline. It is a single line strung up between two trees and it is easy to unhook the line and automatically real up. It was inexpensive with the line costing about $18 and my mom gave me some of her old wooden clothespins circa 1955, for free.

It is a bit of a weird feeling the first few times I hung clothes out to dry. I live in a residential neighborhood with a big yard and plenty of screening trees, however if a neighbor wants to look, they can see what I’m hanging out there.

Needless to say, I don’t hang everything out to dry, and there is NO dirty laundry hung out to see! It does mean anyone who cares, now knows the color of my bath towels and that I have little flowery things on my sheets. I’m OK with that because there are three really good reasons to use a clothesline.

#1 My laundry smells so GOOD! This originally took 2nd place to the environmental reasons I was putting out a line. Now it is by far the number one reason, although my #2 reason is still very important.

#2 I’m reducing my energy consumption. An average dryer load takes about 3.3 kWh, which translates to about 38 cents/load. Let’s just say your household dries 10 loads a week – that’s 33 kWh and costs $3.80. Over a year’s time, that is 1716 kWh. I’m not really sure what all that kWh stuff means, but it does convert into $197.60 in energy costs in one year. Hmmm, that could be a nice afternoon at the spa for me!

#3 I have less dryer wear & tear. I didn’t even think about this one until yesterday, but if I’m using my drying a lot less, it should last longer, saving money and reducing my manufacturing carbon footprint. That’s a nice perk too!

For more on everything it take to make a new dryer, go to: http://www.industryplayer.com/licenceinfo.php?licid=012542

Yes, I have let myself hang out to dry, and I think it is worth a few extra minutes in my day to reduce my dependency on energy and get a little extra fresh air, by using a clothesline.

Here is a link to a variety of clothes air-drying techniques – what can you do? http://www.tiptheplanet.com/index.php?title=Air_dry_washing