Monday, June 22, 2009

First Attempt at the Clothesline

I experimented for the first time today line drying my clothes outside. I hung 3 loads of laundry. Had my dryer not have been broken for the last 4 days, I probably wouldn't have chosen today for my first day to line dry since it was 100 degrees outside...literally. However, it was actually a pretty positive experience.

I have decided to leave the clothes lines up. At least 2 out of the 3 that I put up. I think I will try and line dry at least a couple loads of laundry per week. Since my family is so large and we go through an enormous amount of clothing I really don't want to line dry all of our clothing so I am just going to feel good about the couple loads a week that I will try and get hung outside.

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9 comments:

  1. Way to go!! I line dry almost everything. I do put jeans and nice clothes in the dryer for a short time period to get wrinkles out and soften them up some. Then I just hang them with everything else. It sure helps with the electric bill (since we are using more to cool the house in this 100 degree heat).

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  2. That was my goal, just see how much I can eliminate. Sometimes I pull things out of the wash that I will line dry and put things in the dryer to wait until the next load is done washing to add to the dryer before turning the dryer on. I can do that here without worry about it spoiling before the next load is done.

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  3. Good for you on using that clothes line!

    I used to love drying clothes on the line but found that unless it was a somewhat cool day or the line was shaded by a tree, the clothes wound up being incredibly stiff, almost to the point of being unwearable. It took me awhile but I finally discovered that hanging them early in the morning and leaving them out only til they were dry made a huge difference. I looove the smell of line dried clothing and miss hanging our clothes out.

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  4. I have found some of the clothes to be a little stiff too. My line is under a tree, so it is almost completely shaded for part of the day. Now, today it was really windy and I didn't leave them out there very long and they were just perfect.

    Towels though, another story. They were so crunchy I couldn't stand it. I will definitely be tossing those in the dryer unless I get another suggestion!

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  5. I don't have an outdoor clothesline (because I don't have a yard to put it in *L*) but I do have an indoor drying rack that I use for things. I have been adding vinegar to the rinse cycle the past few weeks to see if I would notice a difference, and I do think that my laundry has been a softer since I started doing that. I still dry my towels in the dryer though, they never actually get dry if I hang them up here!

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  6. I used to line dry and when they were almost dry pop them in the dryer to finish. Best of both worlds! Hubby does the laundry now, and he hates to hang them on the line!

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  7. We too have a large family and i line dry everything...its funny when I drive up to the house - there is always someone at the clothesline...saves us a lot on our electric bill and I can get way more laundry done at once! Congrats!

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  8. I line dry most of our laundry. I have 3 boys and do about 15 loads per wk. I do put the towels in the dryer because my husband doesn't like them scratchy. I also throw the clothes in to fluff after taking them off the line.
    Thanks for sharing!
    ~Liz

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  9. I line dry all our clothes and then fluff for 10-20 minutes (except under clothes). Most of my business clothes are line-dry anyways and my husband thinks that his jeans feel better than drying them in the dryer. I do use a little fabric softener every other week (not a full "dose" of what the bottle calls for though) and that seems to help. My towels are usually fine if I don't let them hang to long. The older towels do seem to get "stiffer" and "crunchier" more often though.
    During the winter I hang everything inside in a spare room. Like I said, my work clothes are line-dry anyways so a few more doesn't really add to much and we always line-dry the sweaters and sweatshirts.

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