Drying clothes outdoors isn’t just eco-friendly; it offers lots of other benefits too from cost savings to making your clothes last longer and more.
In looking for ways to both save money AND be eco-friendly, I decided I should try hanging my clothes outside again, something I haven’t done for years. One thing I wanted to avoid was cluttering up my small backyard with a clothesline, so I opted for this retractable line. When not being used it coils up into the holder and eliminates the eyesore!
Benefits of Drying Clothes Outdoors:
- Less damage to the goods. Repeated drying at high-temps can reduce fabric strength by 25% or more, and the tumbling action of the dryer (not the heat, believe it or not) causes shrinkage.
- Enlarging your bank account. You can save up to $135 per year on electricity bills by forgoing the machine. (And if you don’t have your own dryer, you’ll spend a lot less time searching under couch cushions for quarters.)
- It’s softer on the earth. Except for fridges and washing machines, dryers use more energy annually than other major household appliances. (And summer sun-drying gets it done in a jif.)
- Less shocking. Line-drying clothes means less static cling.
I gathered these facts from Ideal Bite, which I love. They describe themselves as: “The ultimate online source of free, fun eco-living tips – served each day via email. Green gurus dish out clever tips ranging from pets to wine. The approach is real, and really fun. Ideal Bite is a sassier shade of green.” They send short and fun e-mails with lots of good information and it is FREE to sign up. Try it out – I’m sure you’ll like it!
QUESTION: Do you dry your clothes outdoors? What tips do you recommend?
Rachel says
Hi, Those are all cool tips. Haven’t done a lot of line drying- but I use a lot of hangers! Most of my clothes don’t need to be in the dryer anyway. Note to self: buy the retractable clothes line.
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Audra Marie says
I would love to dry my clothes outside, but at the moment, the weeds are taller than I am. We’re hoping to get a backyard put in this fall.
Kerri says
I put up a post a few weeks ago on line drying clothes. Here it is: Clothesline TipsOne of the things I talk about is using the dryer a little bit along with the line drying. Since then, my friend told me about some dryer balls that she likes to use. She says they really fluff up your towels, so those might be great for a quick tumble after line drying.Hope these things help!
Musicalchers says
As soon as the weather is warm enough, I line dry all of my clothes. The only thing I don’t care for is how they’re stiff when they dry, even with the use of liquid fabric softener. I simply toss the dried clothes into the dryer for 5 minutes to fluff them up.
Mom2fur says
I recently started line-drying clothes (I blogged about it a while back, too!) and I love it. There’s just something really relaxing about hanging clothes on a line, and you can’t beat that sunny smell!
I do find that some things get stiff if you leave them on too long, such as towels or jeans. The trick here is to either take them off the line before they are completely dry, and throw them in the dryer for about 10 minutes…or dry them for 10 minutes before hanging them. Either way, it really cuts down!
It’s also nice when you have an awesome friend who makes you an adorable clothespin bag–I blogged about that, too!
I’m going to be sorry when winter comes and I can no longer do this until next year.
Milehimama says
I don’t currently have a line, so I hang them on hangers and hang them on the fence. I asked my neighbor and she doesn’t mind – she might even start doing it herself!
I highly recommend using hangers when possible and not clothespins. You can hang a lot more clothes, and putting them away is really easy!
D'Anna says
We don’t have a dryer at all! We live in an apt and don’t have a yard. We dry all our clothes on a folding clothes hanger that we put up in one of our rooms.
I have found that our clothes last longer/look better longer without a dryer!
fiona says
Here in Australia we line-dry most of our clothes, except when the weather gets really bad. Most of my clothes are marked “do not tumble dry” anyway. My tips are: If you can, set the machine to wash overnight so you can hang out the clothes as early as possible in the morning. Dry T shirts and dresses on plastic hangers, they don’t stretch so much and you avoid the stretched corners on the bottom of a t-shirt (not a good look)and it saves or reduces ironing too. When bringing in the clothes I put the smalls at the bottom of the basket, then lay the shirts etc on top and lastly anything on hangers, to save on creasing. Hope this helps.
Extraordinary Ordinary Life says
I use the same retractable clothes line. Actually I have two because one load won’t fit on one line. We run our’s from the deck to our fence. I usually put the clothes in the dryer for 5 or 10 minutes after drying on the line just so they aren’t so stiff!