Clothes lines are varied, we have one in the building backyard,then a metal foldable one in the terrace and there is always the emergency resort of hanging them on the radiators, so they will dry in a few hours.

The best part is the drying rack extends from the wall only 3.5″ when not in use so it takes up very little space in the home. The sturdy 1″ diameter drying rods won’t bend and are made of strong Douglas fir.

If you are interested please visit http://www.hoganwood.com

Hopefully more people will be turning off the most energy intensive appliance in the home.

Thanks for your post!

Best regards,

Miles Hogan, Owner
The Hogan Wood Company

I live now in the Boston area and I have to say that Ms Clear is wrong. Outdoor air-drying in Boston is not an April-September activity. Last week I hung my sheets outside in the morning and got them extra-dry in just a couple of hours. The cold air in the winter is very dry and with a combination of wind and sun, it works really well.

Of course, before hanging your laundry outside, be smart and check the weather forecast.

For those worried about rough clothes–put vinegar in your wash water; it deodorizes and acts as a fabric softener, and no, your clothes will not smell in the least like vinegar.

Turn your clothing inside out, and it won’t fade, if you dry in the sun. If you dry them indoors, no worries.

Air-dried clothing pills and shrinks less.

I will check out air-dry.com to find a good indoor solution for my sheets … those, alas, never go outside or I would have constant sinus headaches

Environment, Pocket-book, Slight Inconvenience, and large/thick clothes……This was our reason to buy those wooden racks, create more moisture in the home in winter in the house (drying clothes in house in winter = more moisture naturally). We do it in the summer also, but we do it out on the deck with a clothes line.

It has saved approx $25 per month of gas bills x 20 years x Interest = $6000 This along with other things have allowed us to pay off our house at age 41, and with an even bigger home purchase, just did that in cash also.

Its ALL ABOUT CHOICES of where to SPEND MONEY, and choosing not to live on someone elses (Bank or CC) money. Being a student of math and finance, I understand leverage, but that stuff is good for business, not for personal life.

These are good choices for all young people to learn. Please do the best you wish, but ‘think and choose wisely’.

Kenny

http://www.financialwellnessproject.org/2008/09/08/sun-drying-my-clothes-to-save-a-bit-of-energy/

it is actually somewhat fun — we get to be out in the sun for sure for at least a few minutes, a tiny bit of exercise, and saving energy. it is quite satisfying.

http://www.varalkit.com.br/varal_teto.gif

I got the drying rack at a garage sale and I bought some wooden clothes pins.

I tend to be careful about how much laundry I do, anyway, but this helps reduce it further.

(When I was in an apartment, I hung them in the shower.)

Anything made of nylon (bathing suits, undergarments, pantyhose) will last much longer and won’t pill. Bras will not loose their shape, or underwire.

I try to limit use of the dryer to when I have no choice.

We bought two Ikea drying racks and they’re wonderful. I can only imagine how much money we’ve saved in the last year.

We only had a washer and used the dryer in the building. Now that we have both, we still hardly use the dryer.

When I studied abroad in the Netherlands, we didn’t even own a dryer, so I got in the habit of hang drying stuff there. Same deal with my brother when he studied abroad in New Zealand. Seems like the US has quite different habits from the rest of the world, as even my fairly eco-friendly friends can’t believe I don’t use a dryer more regularly.

When it’s very humid, as it is right now in the midst of Beijing’s rainy season, we simply open our windows and let the air circulate, which takes care of potential mildew. (Although, for us, we have problems with the city’s notorious pollution.)

In the past I’ve also had the drying racks, and they are great. My clothes smell nice and the racks fold up neatly.

I’m finding this thread to be very interesting for its cultural insights, because even though I’m American, I did not know that it was not the done thing in America to dry clothes outdoors. I grew up in Southern California, and we’ve never had a dryer. On the other hand, we never had to–it was sunny 90% of the time and we just hung our clothes up in the clothesline in the backyard.

In Oregon, we find June-Sept, generally no problem to dry outside. Some of May, and some of Oct, mostly ok. The rest of the year, not so much…..

The only downside can be that the clothes get a little crunchy…my wife likes her towels (and the baby’s diapers) soft, so some things may get tossed in the dryer for a brief spell to soften them up.

At first I was worried that my city had some sort of ordinance against outdoor clothes lines. So I bought two retractable clothes lines from Walmart that we installed on our deck. No one can even see them.

We have a converted room in the attic of our apartment which has a bay window and excellent ventilation. Along with growing our vegetables up there, we have strung a cheap vinyl rope zig-zag across the room. We hang our clothes there and they dry within the day.

I don’t know about big cities here in the States, I have always lived in the country, but most people I know use a clothesline at the very least in the summer.

Towels, shirts and my husband’s cotton shirts and pants go in the dryer, though, because like someone says above I don’t have the time to iron. My in-laws live in Spain and line-dry everything, and watching her iron *sheets* was depressing.