Fire Your Dryer

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/fire-your-dryer.html

posted by Melissa Breyer Jul 30, 2009 7:04 am

filed under: Conservation, Healthy Home, Household Hints, Reduce, Recycle & Reuse, air-drying, clotheline

48 comments

By Melissa Breyer, Senior Editor, Healthy & Green Living

Okay, so maybe I gravitate toward “Granny-sense” a bit more than your average gal in New York City–I get my milk in glass bottles (although from the farmer’s market, not from a white-capped milkman, but if I could…), I’ve been known to make my own butter, and little makes me happier than putting up some summer fruit. I know I’m not the only person in the city to lean towards simplicity–I think part of it is a tinge of rebellion about living in this huge metropolis. Even though I choose to live here, I can’t deny the part of me who desperately wants laying hens and a long walk to the mailbox. And that’s the part of me who thinks that line-dried laundry might be just about the loveliest thing ever.

I’m not sure which comes first. Does our desire for simplicity lead us to green living, or does green living lead us to simplicity? Either way, what could epitomize both concepts better than a clothesline with fresh, fluttering, air-dried linens? Now, yes, in this vision I am picturing there is ample grass underfoot, the smell of wildflowers in the air, and rolling hills in the vista. But still, there is something undeniably urban-romantic about the Brooklyn old-timers who always have a load of laundry drying on a clothesline stretched from their window to a pulley on a neighboring phone pole. I have come to love the creak-creak-creak squeaks that each tug of the line elicits as some granny is pulling her clothes home.

Now add to the romance a few important considerations. In many homes, the clothes dryer is the third most energy-consuming appliance–and I think we all know that by cutting back on our energy use we are helping to reduce our dependence on dirty coal-fired power plants.

And there are some great side affects to air-drying, Green America points out the benefits and offers some great tips:

• The dryer shortens the life of your clothing by over-drying items and thinning them out. So firing your dryer is also a great strategy for conserving your favorite clothes longer and saving the cost of replacing them before their time.

• Anyone who’s had to wait around the laundromat or delay an errand to fold clothes right when the dryer finished will appreciate the flexibility of air-drying clothes. While it may take longer for clothing to get dry–from a few hours to about a day–you don’t have to be present to fold them to prevent wrinkles or leave a shared dryer for someone else. You can hang your laundry on the rack or line and go about your day, then come back to fold whenever you get around to it.

• Another perk to “firing” your dryer is that it eliminates the risk that your dryer could ever start a dangerous fire. According to a report by FEMA, clothes dryer vents can become clogged with lint, causing more than 15,000 house fires every year.

• A clothesline enables you to spend some of your laundry time enjoying the outdoors, your clothes smell “sunny” when they come back in, and drying in the sunshine helps to naturally disinfect clothes, and to gently bleach whites.

• You can purchase a variety of racks and lines for outdoor air-drying of clothes. Some fold out into a rotary umbrella shape; others stretch multiple lines between two “T” posts. Gaiam’s Real Goods offers a $20 retractable clothesline that can mount to a post or the side of a house. The innovative Cord-O Clip is a time-saving clothesline with built-in clips that close automatically when people place clothes on the line and push, and open automatically as the line is pulled around once the clothes are dry.

• If you have pollen allergies, don’t have an outdoor space for hanging up clothes to dry, or expect the weather in your area will be too rainy or cold for a successful outdoor clothesline, forego the outdoor approach and use an indoor drying rack instead, of which there a wide variety of available.

• Large items like sheets and towels can dry draped over a door, banister, or a shower rod; and tablecloths generally dry happily right on the tables they cover (use your best judgement as to whether a damp tablecloth will affect the finish on your table or not). Socks and other smaller items can air-dry using hangers lined with clips.

• Nancy Hoffmann in New York City has been drying her clothes indoors in her apartment for years. To speed up the process, she turns a floor fan on a low setting facing her drying racks. She reports that “most of my clothes dry in a couple hours, max” with much less electricity use than a dryer would require.

• Drying clothing indoors can also have an added perk when it helps to keep indoor winter air moist, a kind of low-tech humidifier.

I would love to hear from you whether or not you have ditched your dryer. What benefits have you found? And will you share your tips in the comments below?

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48 comments add your comment

gerlinde p. says
Jan 17, 2010 4:12 AM

i`ve never owned a dryer.

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Maria W. says
Nov 26, 2009 1:19 PM

Most people in houses line dry here. Those who live in apartments have a big laundry room shared and there you can hang your clothes or have them in a dryer.

I think dryers are good when it comes to getting rid of different kind of animal hair but otherwise I prefer line dry. :-)

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Beth G. says
Oct 4, 2009 10:13 AM

What about those of us who live in small apartments in a big city where line drying does not exist, where we have to use a laundromat to wash our clothes? I have used a drying rack since I've left home as an adult but with a husband and baby, it is a ridiculous thought to fit so many loads of laundry onto this one rack, and there aren't other options. I wash all of our dirty clothing every 3 weeks or so to conserve on trips to the laundromat, I wash in cold in a triple loader or quadruple...three loads of a triple loader usually.

I think that line drying when possible is a FANTASTIC idea, but there are many of us who can not do that in our current living situations. There is no basement, there is too much clothing to leave bunched up in a heap while one drying rack load dries...

Czaban's comment really upset me as he/she doesn't understand our differences. From not understanding city life and limitations (no clotheslines) to asking how wet America can be; do you have any idea how huge this country is and how variable our weather from region to region, state to state? Do you know what it's like to live in a studio apartment, or not have a basement, or trees in your neighborhood and live in a high-rise? Are you unaware that some neighborhoods prohibit laundry-line drying (ridiculous) and that MANY Americans can not afford to be home owners with land (and trees) where this is an option? As a renter I can't imagine having indulgences like this!!

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Angie Glover says
Sep 4, 2009 4:21 PM

I always air dry my clothes whenever possible. There is no sense in using tons of energy! I love to hear that I'm not the only one that strives for simplicity

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VS G. says
Aug 10, 2009 11:36 PM

I live for air-dried clothes. I do live on the West Coast of BC, but outside of certain times of the year, one can almost always find a day or two in the week in which to dry one's laundry, and during the summer, it is possible on most days, if not all day. There are days in which my clothes can be dried within minutes of being hung up, but I often leave them there for a while for the full aromatic effect. There is nothing better than going to sleep on freshly air-dried sheets -- the smell is divine. And yes, I dry my clothes upside down so they are wrinkle free and bug free ;-). What I find inexcusable is in Whistler, just north of where I live in Squamish, it is against town ordinance (I believe) to line dry one's clothes because it is viewed an eyesore. I think there is nothing lovelier than seeing laundry drying with beautiful green trees and stunning mountains all around.

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joanne e. says
Aug 7, 2009 9:00 AM

Now, I hear it rains every day in Britain but not all day. I don't know how it compares to the Coast of British Columbia in Canada, but here it can rain for days on end, especially in winter, so I wouldn't recommend leaving clothes outside then; but it's amazing how fast some things will dry, even in winter as there is already supplemental heat to keep warm. Clothes on hangers suspended over the bathtub will dry overnight usually (an extendable shower curtain rod doesn't even need to be permanently fixed to the wall) and it doesn't take much space to set up a small foldable clothes dryer to dry even sheets and towels, which also can dry overnight. Assuming you don't let laundry pile up till you have loads!! It's amazing though, how much you can dry even in an apartment.

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Helen F. says
Aug 7, 2009 7:05 AM

I live in the UK and my mum has always dried our clothes outside. In the past, she occasionally used the dryer, but it now hasn't been used for years! So, I don't agree with the 'weather being to bad'. Sure, it rains a lot here, but my mum has managed it for at least 18 years!

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joanne e. says
Aug 5, 2009 7:26 AM

Not only do I not use a dryer, but I wash my clothes in the bathtub with a plunger (to get the action of the 'soap' & water going through the clothes and it's easier than one would think), and that's DESPITE having 2 washers and dryers in my apartment building. I can let them soak while doing other things; between rinses, I simply hang them to drip over the faucet, the handle and hose for the shower head, and for final drying, hang clothes on hangers on an extra shower pole, or sheets and towels get hung on a fold-up clothes rack after dripping sufficiently. Great as a humidifier during winter. But what would be even better for some folks would be the WonderWash ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUVR2vjRJRo It can even be taken camping) or what I would love to see is bike-powered machines! You could bring your laundry to the gym, or do it at home. There are many videos (http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/08/22/cyclean-bike-powered-washing-machine/

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joanne e. says
Aug 5, 2009 7:26 AM

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joanne e. says
Aug 5, 2009 7:26 AM

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