So here's the thing... I do the laundry here. There are 4 of us producing laundry. 2 adults and 2 kids produce a lot of laundry. Using a drier is a huge energy suck. Not only do I have to pay for that energy, it seems so wasteful to use it up on something so basic as drying clothes! I've long been a proponent of using a laundry line because - HEY! FREE DRY CLOTHES! We've had a laundry line at our last 4 homes (2 rented, 2 owned) and I really love free dry clothes from the line. They smell nice, you can fold as you pull them off the line and did I mention... FREE! Plus, the sun gets out most of the stains my kids produce after a few washes so less nasty stain remover in my laundry!
But here's my confession... at some point in the summer I wear out! I find it hard to get the timing right and I end up doing all my laundry at night and it ends up getting dried in the drier anyway!
So once again at the beginning of the summer I set out to dry all of my laundry on the line.
How's that greening going? Well, it's been a bigger success this year than last. Last year I think I managed about 1/4 of our summer laundry on the line. This year I'm at 1/2- 3/4 I'd say. Not bad but still room for improvement!
First up I had to actually get the line working. We had one wheel but not a 2nd. I strung the line using the existing wheel only to have the connection at the post break and then my not so great line connection skills fail. OOPS! So after the line broke 3 times (with at least a partial load of laundry on it each time, sigh) I finally got it up for good and working well.
Then I learned that I needed a system. At the beginning of the season I would throw the clothes in at night and they'd be ready to hang first thing in the morning. Worked great until the heat hit and the clothes couldn't sit wet overnight without smelling seriously funky the next morning. So then I was washing AND hanging first thing in the morning. But it takes time to hang a load of laundry. About 20 mins for a really full load. If you add a wash cycle to that it eats up an hour of your day! Still, I have managed to get 1/2 to 3/4 of our laundry line dried this summer. They system breaks down when we get several rainy days in a row, I have too much planned for a day and can't get the laundry out fast enough and when we come back from vacation and have bucket loads of laundry to do in a short amount of time.
But we're getting better with it and that's the point!
