You know I hate doing laundry, right? You know I think that the whole sordid process should be made easier by larger-sized laundries with plenty of room to hide the mess? Well, my views extend to the methods we use to dry our clothes.
A quick survey among friends in my suburb reveal that many do not own washing lines or just don't use them much. They use the dryer. Granted, some of these friends live in apartments - but most have at least some sort of backyard. Lesley commented recently that, even in sunny San Diego, people use their dryers rather than free solar energy. And an article in today's paper backs this up* and even suggests why this is the case.
Now, I'm no saint. I have a dryer and I use it. But I've decided to make a concerted effort not to, rain hail or shine, for the next few weeks. I think I'm going to have to dig deep to figure out a way to do this without resorting to the Chinese laundry decorating theme. Oh and it's the first day of Winter here.
The truth is, I'd love a traditional hills-hoist to fit all my laundry at once. Husband says no. Party pooper. We have a fab spot right on the top of our garage overlooking the street.
My mother-in-law has the best placed hills hoist I've ever seen. It's in a super-windy exposed position outside their main yard on their farm. By the time you've pegged out the last item the first item is dry. If you think I'm kidding, ask Nana. My mum has the second-best placed line. She's in the city but has placed her fold-out line to catch both the West breeze and the North sun.
So, I'm interested in how you dry your clothes. Check out my poll in the sidebar. Don't be shy, even if you're a lurker (Mum, Nana) vote in the poll today!
*Edited: Tracey and Mary highlight an interesting point in the comments below. If you are committed to drying your clothes using solar energy - how do you do it in places with extremes of temperature? Perhaps you live in a place bound by snow much of the year or a place that has frequent dust storms? Share your experiences.
Edited, again: Great, first day of not using the dryer and it rains on and off all day. I nearly capitulated to the dryer but went out the back shed found a second, slightly rusty, clotheshorse and, voila, four loads of washing hanging indoors.
Picture of rotary clothes line from here. Go to the site to read more about this Aussie invention.
18 comments:
The problem in N.Qld is the opposite. By the time you hang the last thing on the line the sun has faded the first one. We hang out clothes on the side of the house under a pergola covered with heavy duty shade-cloth that was built by my Pete. I do tend to throw all the jocks and socks in the dryer though - that is just pure laziness!
I must say I'm surprised that most of your friends don't have clotheslines - I thought everyone did in Australia (except flat dwellers).
In many parts of the US it's illegal to hang your washing outside on a line. This is a real bugbear of mine - they call the US the land of the 'free' yet the poor sods aren't free to do the earth and their wallets a favour by drying clothes on lines.
Anyway, off my soapbox. (I've blogged about this before and have a gazillion photos of laundry on my blog/flickr). I dry on the clothesline mostly, except when it's rainy and then I drape the clothes all over several clotheshorses. In fact there are two, laden with wet washing, in front of me right this minute, by the fire.
You should ask Janet at Muppinstuff too. She has a whole blog about laundry (Mrs Washalot).
Tracey: Hadn't thought of the too much sun problem! Just from a rain perspective here in Sydney I would love to have at least one under-cover clothesline.
Suse: Oh, I'd heard about the situation in the US. Craziness! I've also heard some councils here put quite a few restrictions on lines but perhaps someone else knows more about that.
Definitely the Hills Hoist for me. Fixit's parents gave us their old dryer when the first grandchild was born and I reckon I use it once a year in an emergency. Line dried clothes smell fresher. Although clothes that go through the dryer don't get any birdpoo on them...
hi. I hate drying washing in winter. Yuck, yuck, yuck. And would proably use the dryer properly if we had one that worked poperly, ours is know as the dryer of despair, companion to the lint machine. But don't get this clothes line ban in the US either.
I have to be very honest here and admit that our dryer gets a hammering. We spend a good deal of our time living in mist and clothes just do not dry outside. I am very conscious of the impact this is having and plan to redress the balance when we move back to Sydney.
I try really hard not to use the dryer, although this time of year I do sometimes pop things in after they have been on the line as they can still be a bit damp on our cold Melbourne days.
I also have one of those clothes horses on castors that I put over one of the floor vents. Looks ugly, does a great job.
I have a friend in the US and she said only people in poor neighbourhoods hang their washing outside!!
Husband says no to a Hills Hoist here too. There was no line at all when we bought the house, so we've installed one in the only place it would fit, which is on the shaded west facing side of the house. Great in summer, but takes about a week for anything to dry in winter. The dryer gets used (ahem) frequently. But I do have the most fabulous heavy duty (but lightweight) folding metal clothes rack that I got from Bunnings. I can put an entire load of washing on it and then move it from place to place to catch the sun, or put it over a heating duct. Does tend a little towards the Chinese laundry look though...
(And as for people in the US requiring lobbyists to try to get them a legal "right to dry" - you know my views about that!)
Well, I've done four loads of washing (with work and other commitments I'm trying to limit my washday to Monday plus perhaps an overload day). I was tempted to shove the 'smalls' into the dryer but relented at the last minute and hung them on a clotheshorse over a heating vent. Everything else is on the outside line and another clotheshorse. Let's just wait and see whether it dries...
Oops...just rethought my directions. Our fold-up line is actually on the shaded eastfacing side of the house. Which makes all the difference...as it means the sun is way past it by around 11am, so unless I get up at the crack of dawn to get washing on the line, forget any sun-drying.
Okay, for me it's a time issue. When we first moved to the mountains with small baby in tow, I had a piece of rope tied between two trees (& no dryer) for our clothes to dry on. In winter, if the sun wasn't out, they'd go by the fire inside (although never happy about that look!).
This continued until the second baby came along, and we got a hills hoist. It wasn't until much later, I think when the kids had started school that we got a dryer and guess what - now I use it almost all the time.
On Mondays, I can do the washing, dry it and have it folded and back in cupboards by the end of the day. Sometimes the clothes off the line would still need more time overnight to be completely dry.
We do plan on putting in a hills hoist here in the new house as we certainly have the space. And I do think nothing beats sleeping in freshly line dried sheets!
This is SUCH a pertinent topic for me. Thanks M!
I live in an apartment, on the 14th floor, with 2 children. I detest using the clothes dryer AT ALL, but am forced to use it for sheets and towels as I have absolutely nowhere big enough to hang them.
My body-corporate (and this is common here in Sydney) FORBIDS the hanging of clothes anywhere that is "visible from the street" (it would lower-the-value of the property, don't you know) and therefore I am restricted to internal clothes racks that seem to live permanently in my living / dining room. I try to remember to fold them up when "company" is coming, but they're such a part of my "chinese laundry" decorative style that I often forget.
When I was living at ground level, I loved hanging all of my washing on one of two clothes lines. One in the sun and the other under shelter for those rainy days.
It's the thing I miss most about having a backyard.
Out here, and at home in Perth, I hang all my washing inside-out so it doesn't fade.
And as for the other extreme: I remember when I was just a kid, living in England, that for years my mum had no tumble-dryer at all. I can recall her pulling bed sheets off the clothesline outside that were frozen stiff!
They'd then go on to a big wooden clothes horse, placed near the boiler in the kitchen, or by a radiator.
What all houses need, in their roomy laundries, even in their modern minimalist roomy laundries, are those overhead racks that can be raised and lowered on ropes/cords.
In England we also used to have an 'airing cupboard', which was really just a system of open rack-style shelves built around the electric hot water heater, which never used to be outside. All the big stuff, like bedlinen and towels, was kept in this cupboard, where it was just warm enough to keep everything bone-dry and sweet-smelling. Just the words 'airing cupboard' conjure up that smell for me ...
The rare times we use the dryer I also use a drying rack which hangs over the vents. YOu can dry small with the hot air being pumped out of the vent further justifying the carbon footprint of using the dryer.
One of the things I loved about moving to this house is that it had a clothes line. After having lived in townhouse that didn't have one and sick of replacing those white coated metal clothes horses (they all end up rusty when you leave them outside permanently) I was understandably excited. Although I must admit to still drying my towels in the dryer as I prefer them to be soft and cuddly not hard and stiff.
Armywife - Firegazer and I were having a discussion about towels tonight. He prefers his all soft and fluffy too. I must be the only person in the universe who actually likes a scratchy sun-dried towel. Really, I do, they seem more absorbent or something.
Oh M! I'm glad I read through the comments before posting. My mother-in-law loves a rough, line-dried towel, too! I have to confess I do as well. Like a cheap body loofah.
We use the dryer WAAAYYYY too much. BUT, we do live in the country and installing a line isn't a problem. I have a rack I use very frequently for rugs, bed linens, etc. I need to use the sun more though.
I am a massive fan of the outdoor clothesline - it's free, eco-friendly and kinder to your clothes. These days we all own enough clothes to not have to worry greatly when you get a run of rainy days (and urgent stuff goes over the heater in winter). It is annoying when you can't hang out your washing, sure ... but I'd rather wait for the sun to come out again than pump carbon into the atmosphere unnecessarily. It's for this reason I don't own a dryer and have no desire to get one...
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