I decided to start when we moved to Las Vegas since the air was so dry there. I consulted my dear friend Dwija at House Unseen because I knew she had been doing it for a while. She was a wealth of information and so, I did it, I ordered the Minky Tower Drying Rack from Amazon.
Now, I don't want you to get the wrong impression about me........I'm not granola, I'm not even rolled oats, I'm more like Frosted Flakes! I mean, I don't wish bad things on the environment or anything but I am definitely not an environmentalist. I did not start air drying my clothes to "Save the Earth". Can you guess why I did it? Wait for it, wait for it, I know one of you can guess...........that's right!
TO SAVE MONEY!
I immediately noticed a savings of about $24 a month in my utility bills and that was before we turned the A/C on for the season. I can only imagine how much money I saved by not heating my house with the dryer then cooling it with the A/C over the summer. Air drying my laundry has now become a part of my normal routine and to be honest, if my dryer blew up tomorrow, I wouldn't miss it. I could live without it! I have to admit, I still dry my towels and sometimes my sheets but only because I have a stockpile of dryer sheets!
Thanks Dwija for giving me the knowledge and the encouragement to make this little change that has saved me a bundle! If you want to learn more about air drying your laundry, check out my article on HubPages.com!
6 comments:
Yippee! I also kind of enjoy the whole line drying thing...and did you know we actually sold the dryer on craigslist a few weeks ago? It had literally never been hooked up in this house. Over a year! I knew it was time to let it go :)
We sold our dryer before we left Vegas because this house doesn't have gas. There is a really old dryer here and I'm pretty sure it is a matter of days before it blows up. We brought our nice new HE washer with us, so all is good!
Ok Super Duper Drying Ladies! I have to say that I like the concept of air drying laundry...I have fond memories of clotheslines and clothespins and stuff hanging and blowing in the breeze. But I have to say, 2 years ago, our dryer broke down. Because we have to watch what we spend, I googled it and found out the problem and ordered the part.
By the time all was said and done, we were without our dryer for more than a week. It might have been bearable had we been able to have a clothesline, but where we live, our association doesn't allow them. So we put a couple of clotheslines in our garage. We also had clothing draped over every surface in our house.
I found that it took a long time to hang all the underwear and small stuff. I found that it took literally days to dry (probably the florida humidity.) I found that things dried "crispy" and that kind of drove me crazy. How do you deal with that?
I so admire you for being able to do something small like this that has big long-term payoffs...$288 a year is huge! You ladies are my heroes. Wish I could be that awesome :(
In the end, I gotta have my dryer. I would rather lose my dishwasher or hot water heater than my dryer.
The humidity in Florida may effect it?? If you look at the picture I posted, I can get an entire load of laundry on that thing. I keep it in my garage but you could easily stash it in a room when you are using it. It folds up when not use. I find that liquid fabric softener is they key to making the clothes soft. The only thing that comes out crispy is jeans but they soon loosen up with wear! I only use clothespins to hang pants and shorts. At the end I just fling the underwear wherever they will fit!
My house is so small, I don't have room for a dryer, and even if I did, the electricity bills are really high. So I have always dried my washing 'au naturel'. Not easy to achieve in the wet English climate, but we are all so used to having washing draped on the radiators and airers that I don't notice it when I visit friends!
Vicky, you are so right. Most people in many countries don't have the luxury of a dryer!
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