How to Save Energy Costs - Line Dry Your Laundry

A lot of us are on the same page these days: looking for ways to cut energy bills and help the environment at the same time. We all have something in common too: weekly laundry! Clothes dryers in particular eat up tremendous amounts of energy, so why not take advantage of nature’s free energy—the sun and fresh air? While our grandmothers had this art down to a science, many of us currently have little idea how to use a clothesline efficiently.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Assuming you already have a clothesline available; if not, see link below for "How To Install A Simple Pulley-Clothesline", here are some hints to efficient line-drying:
   
   It starts with the wash cycle. Separate your laundry carefully: wash bath/hand towels and facecloths alone as your first load to prevent pilling and lint dispersing on other clothing. Never overload your washing machine. Use full loads, but never more than ¾ full of dry clothing (before you fill with water). Overloading prevents proper agitating and the clothes will not only stay soiled, but will be full of wrinkles when you’re done.
2. Dark jeans and other heavy dark clothing along with dark socks are next and can be washed together. Do these fore-mentioned loads first because they will take the longest to dry and need to go on the clothesline first.
   
   Next, wash cotton whites: underwear and white socks, sheets and pillowcases. Lastly, do delicate items—things that need special care and are lighter weight thus requiring less drying time.
3. Use fabric softener for line-drying, particularly towels. You don’t need nearly as much as the bottle suggests though—try halving the amount. An economical substitute is ½ cup of white vinegar with 2 drops of essential oil; your choice of scent; added to the final rinse. Not a trace of detergent residue will be left in your clothes, and the essential oil will negate the vinegar smell. I use this alternatively with store-bought fabric softener both to save cash and keep our laundry fresh and residue-free.
4. It’s time to hang them up! Hang towels vertically, folding the tops over the line about three inches. If the towel has a band, that’s a good place to fold over. Use clothespins at each side and one in the center of the towel. This will keep the towel’s shape so you don’t have pointed ends when they’re dry. When you bring the dried towels in, toss them in the dryer and turn setting to Air Dry for 5 minutes. You will have soft fluffy towels that will smell outdoor fresh but still feel like they were dryer-dried from the start!
5. Jeans and slacks should be hung by bottom hems—right at the hem. This prevents shrinkage and helps pull out wrinkles. If they are children’s play-clothes or hubby’s work-about pants just hang flat-legged on the line, two clothespins on each ankle edge. For dressier items dried with a just-ironed look, match inside-leg seams and outside-leg seams, pinching the two legs together and finger-creasing down center to smooth; think ironing slacks; that’s how they’re hung, too. Hang upside down, but do not fold ankle-edge over the line, rather, pin right at edge of line at each side. Shaping and smoothing wrinkles at hanging time will result in a just-ironed look when they dry.
   
   Shirts should be hung upside down at side seams. Again, folding about 3 inches of material over the clothesline and firmly pinning at sides and center will prevent misshapen garments. Close zippers or bottom buttons so the shirt hangs flat, without wings flapping in the breeze; again hand smooth wrinkles or creases so the sun will iron them ready-to-wear.
6. Your neighbors don’t want to see your underwear! If you are using staggered lines, hang briefs or bras in center lines where larger items on outside lines will spare your neighbor’s view. If you have a pulley line, there’s not a lot you can do about discretion, but you can hang things neatly: all T-shirts together, briefs, socks and such together. Socks hung by toe-tips will keep their shape better than those hung by ankle edge. All this may sound obsessive, but when it comes time to take the dry clothes in, you’ll be glad you did this for another reason.
7. Hanging sheets folded in half side-to-side makes a nice center crease that marks the center of the bed when you make it up again. Pillowcases hung from closed end, hems down keep their shape better and will also allow air to circulate inside them.
8. Hang delicates on hangers wherever convenient. You might not want to hang them in the sun because of fade issues. I’m blessed to have a screened-in porch where I hang such things. They dry quickly and still take on that wonderful outdoors aroma, but out of the bright sun.
9. Time to bring in the dry clothes! Folding or hanging things as they’re taken off the lines will prevent crush-wrinkles and also expedite moving them directly to their storage places—closets or drawers. This is another great reason for hanging like things together. As you take them off the line, they are already sorted, can be folded and put away immediately. No more heaping laundry baskets of clothes to fold and put away! It’s already done!
   
   Now think of the time and money you’ve saved! Happy sun-drying!

Tips & Warnings

• Keep clothespins in a small plastic bucket, or in a clothespin bag, available at most department stores. And, don’t leave them outside; they weather and turn black and will stain your clothes!