What happens when your clothes dryer won’t heat anymore? That’s what happened to us this week. After tumbling a load of laundry (jeans of course) for 3 full cycles on high heat we realized that the machine was just not working. It was night already so line drying wasn’t exactly an option for the night so we opened up the ironing board, pulled out the hangers, and laid out the laundry around the house. The laundry was dry by the next morning so we didn’t worry about it for a few days.
Then we went away for the weekend and came home with dirty laundry. I was surprised when my husband woke up Monday morning and decided to start the laundry. We had a brief conversation about shopping for new washers and driers then he went to the laundry room to begin a load of laundry. I went back to work and watched as he carefully laid out all our wet clothes on the back porch. He laid them out on all of our patio furniture first. Then he pulled out a trick I learned while sunning cloth diapers – the hammock!
Here’s what it looked like yesterday as our clothes laid in the sun.
Using the patio furniture
Hammock as a Clothes Line
Red & Black baking in the sun
To our surprise the laundry was completely dry in less than 2 hours – all 3 loads were dry and ready to put away. When using the dryer it takes me ALL day to get laundry done because I’m waiting on the clothes to dry. He told me later than night that he’d love to get an old fashioned clothes line and hang up our clothes regularly because he liked the way they felt.
Things we noticed after line drying our clothes:
- All of the clothes were crisp and stiff – no starch needed!
- All of the clothes had a nice clean scent.
- No wrinkles from leaving laundry in the dryer for too long.
- We didn’t procrastinate and put the laundry away before bedtime.
- We may actually keep doing this for a few weeks while we shop around for a new drier.
One complaint I hear with the cloth diapering community is that many home owners associations and neighborhoods don’t allow outdoor line drying. Here are some options that might work for you.
Umbrella Style
Retractable Clothes Line
Indoor Clothes Line
PRESSA from IKEA
Do you ever line dry your regular clothes? What do you use?
Photo credits: The Clothesline Shop and IKEA
Disclosure: No disclosure is needed because these are just my ideas of some really cool clothes lines that I found on Google. I hope that you enjoy them and find something that works for you.
I have a regular old clothes line but when the weather doesn’t permit it’s use… I use clip hangers! I have a place to hang clothes over my washer and drier and I simple line it up with clip hangers and hang my fluff from those! 🙂
April @ ecoMomical Me recently posted..50% OFF at Whole Foods Market
Thanks April. I’ve line dried my diapers for 2 years (off and on) but very rarely do I diaper my clothes. I think we’re hooked!
Calley recently posted..Resorting to the Clothes Line
Eco Chic, very cool post! I am inspired on a host of levels. I remember the wonderful growing up years in AZ, when you could put the clothes out to dry and they were dry almost instantly, if not, then w/i an hour. Not so sure it would work here in the midwest, :(. Keep it up, it’ll certainly be easier on your wallet. You should write about that. Keep track and see how much you save on your elec. bill while sans drier!
Thanks Tracy! I’ll be sure to follow up with what we decide to do. I’m secretly dying for a new HE set so I’m sure I’ll cave the next time they are on sale.
Calley recently posted..Resorting to the Clothes Line
One of the first improvements we did this spring to our very first house was put two big umbrella clothes lines out in the back yard. I use them as long as the weather will cooperate here in Chicago.
I’ve recently started using an umbrella style rack for drying our diapers and clothes just to give the dryer a break. You can’t beat the fresh smell of sheets dried in the breeze. I had forgotten! Just goes to show a lot of ‘old fashioned’ ways of doing things have merit to them.
I use my clothesline in the summer. It saves electricity and you get the outside summer smell on them. If you leave them over night, though will have to wait for them to dry again because of the dew. I’ve brought bees in the house because they got mixed up in the clothes. To make them soft, you can use the liquid softener in the washer if you don’t like the “crisp” feeling.