Useful extras
November 29, 2007
Try “slow laundry”
Challenge Yourself for: 30 days
Ever heard of the “slow food” movement, which emphasizes the enjoyment and preparation of foods? Well, here’s a slight variation on that theme. Slow laundry aims to get more people line drying their clothing to conserve energy. And then there’s the benefit of slowing down in general. Life is more joyful when its slower moments are appreciated.
The next time you do laundry, make an effort to line-dry some of your items.
(We’ve given you 30 days for this Challenge. When you log your progress, you only need to log as many – or as few – days as are applicable.)
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Living in Cleveland, Ohio, this is only possible part of the year.
I also have plan laundry with the weather.
As far as “what will the neighbors think”, I know they also own clothes and launder those clothes. I live in the city so I’m not exposed to any of those anti-living condo/development rules.
I LOVE to dry clothes out of doors whenever possible. We are planning on putting a clothes line in this summer! Awesome!
My husband and I started line drying this past spring and have estimated a savings of over $100 dollars in electric bills. It’s amazing the amount of energy a dryer uses. Since line drying takes a little more work, I have also started re-wearing outerwear more than once before washing. Bad habit of mine to wash something even after wearing it for a few hours. With one load a week in cold water, we are cutting down on our monthy bills and helping to contribute to the environment as well.
My mom always line dried our clothes during the warmer months and the clothes and sheets would smell wonderful and feel fresh and clean. My neighborhood has a ridiculous ordinance that discourages hanging laundry outside, but my neighbor continues to use her clothesline and was kind enough to offer it for me to use. It’s a shame that the town feels that seeing laundry in someone’s yard is unsightly, I think it’s one of the quintessential signs of summer. It’s so wasteful to use a dryer when the power of the sun and wind will dry my clothes and sheets in a matter of just a couple of hours. It does help make laundry seem less of a chore.
In the winter months, I still use a drying rack and then use the air fluff setting on the dryer just to soften the clothes and take some of the wrinkles out.
I’m a student at Pomona College in Claremont, California and recently spent a good amount of time looking into the various clothesline and drying rack options since Pomona is going to purchase some for student use and I wanted to make sure we purchased the best available option.
In my research, I was shocked to find that there is NO good website explaining all the different clotheslines and drying rack options, so I made my own! It’s a wiki page on the Tip the Planet sustainable living wiki that ANYONE CAN EDIT. You can check it out here: http://www.tiptheplanet.com/index.php?title=Air_dry_washing
I’m trying to spread the word so that the site becomes a clearing house for drying rack information, and people have to spend less time scouring the web for the best products. Have a look, share it with your friends, and by all means add your wisdom!
Take care,
Chelsea
Air dry all clothes on hangers that will be ironed, use a fold up metal hanger rack that tucks away when not in use – found it at a thrift store. QVC has a similar type rack that is much more stable, but check you local thrift store for a rack first!
I live in a windy area near a big river. I hang my clothes outside on a long line in the direction of the wind so my clothes dry with no wrinkles.
We always line dry in the spring, summer, fall—and hang on racks in the winter. We own an old 20 year old Maytag dryer for emergencies—but we rarely turn it on. We use it to store our recycled TP that we buy in bulk from our coop—we don’t have much storage….
Another slow laundry thing is soaking. Rather than watching in hot or warm waters with whitener/brightener chemicals, saok in cold with organic laundry soap. I just throw the clothes in at night to soak, then turn the machine on the next day.
I love air-drying, but my husband is strangely opposed to clotheslines … something about them being low-class and “what would the neighbors think” anxiety.
I have all of my tops & pants on hangers now hanging on the doors upstairs drying… also seems to reduce my need to iron.
I wash in cold water all the time. I hang all my hanging clothes. The only clothes I am drying are sheets, towels, underware and socks. The best things is my office clothes are not getting wrinkled.
we all need to use less.