“We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy,
even if it is only picking grapes or sorting the laundry.”
***
This past week we had a few days in the 50’s here at Chiot’s Run and I was so happy that I could hang out a few loads of laundry. There’s nothing quite as wonderful as a towel, sheets or a shirt that has been dried by the sun and the wind. What’s not to love about line drying your laundry? It saves on your electric bill, makes your clothes last longer, and you get to go outside to hang them up. I love the way the laundry looks hanging out in the garden, especially in spring when everything is still dormant. I doesn’t even bother me to hang my “unmentionables” out for the world to see (well, I suppose just the deer and the rabbits and my one neighbor see them), it is a good excuse to buy pretty underwear! Here are a few photos of the airing of my clean laundry.
Are you a line dryer? Does your climate permit doing it all year long? Do you ever dry laundry in the house during the winter?
For last 1.5 years while we’ve been in military housing, we haven’t been allowed to have lines out back….SO we’ve been line drying in the garage on lines the husband strung up. It makes for crunchy towels since there’s no breeze but it definitely works and saves on electricity use. Our rental home we’ll move into next month already has clothes lines strung across the back deck that will get some good use, on the non-rainy days!
I line dry outside in summer and dry on a collapsible wooden rack inside in winter. My washing machine is a front-loader with integrated condensing dryer and the condensing dryer doesn’t work well, so it’s good incentive not to use it and to just air-dry.
I think air drying inside helps to keep the air a bit less dry in winter.
Outside in spring, summer and fall weather permitting, inside in my attic in winter with the window at either end cracked open so I don’t end up with mildew on the walls. And I do use the dryer to take the “crunch” out of the towels…
I live in an apartment, so I can’t dry outside at all. I compromise by drying small items like socks, undies, rags, etc in the dryer, and hanging larger clothes around the apartment to dry. The small stuff doesn’t take much time to dry so it doesn’t use much energy, but it would be a real pain to find a place to dry it inside.
I have a bed frame piece in the hallway that I leave there to hold some of the large laundry, and the rest just goes on chair backs and such. If any of the large things are crunchy after drying (towels and jeans usually), I put them in the dryer for about 5 minutes to fluff them up.
Spring, summer and fall we line dry in the unfinished bonus room above our garage. Winter, when it’s especially dry, we use a foldable wooden dryer in our bedroom and/or living room. We do use the dryer in the winter, and no breeze means crunchy clothes but we don’t mind (they soften up quickly). I love hanging clothes (and indoors means I can do it in any weather!) – it’s very soothing for me.
Living in California I line dry all year long. We have a dryer but it’s not plugged in. I keep track of the weather so I know days ahead when a possible storm is coming and I do all the laundry right before the rain comes.
I line dry in spring/summer/fall but not in the hard part of winter, I do have racks in the house for small items use but during winter, I tend to use the dryer most of the time..
This week I had gotten sheets out on the line for the day for the first time in awhile and then finished them in the dryer to have them ready for bed that night.. o the smell was heavenly..
I line dry everything except towels. In the warmer month I line dry outside and when it’s cold or rainy I use a collapsible drying rack inside.
I wish I could say I was better at line drying, but some weeks we’re lucky not to have huge piles of laundry waiting to be done. For me it’s the LAST chore to get done even if it’s one that can be worked on while everything else is in motion.
All of my hand knits, however, get handwashed, and hung on a collapsible rack no matter the weather.
LOVE your line drying pics! I remember many years ago (at least 30) that Izod/Lacoste had a print ad with a woman on the beach hanging laundry in her bare feet. I fell in love with it right then and there. Ever since I’ve had a laundry room I’ve been in search of beautiful laundry hanging on a line but have never found any paintings of such. Your images are just gorgeous and have exactly the feel that I’ve been looking for. You’ve inspired me to take some pics of my own this year.
I hang my laundry three season out of four. Have to be careful here as our wind is wicked and often takes the laundry with it. It’s also under trees so occasionally I have to rewash some things but I still do it. Many days with a breeze it’s faster at drying than my electric dryer! Love this post!
I live in Crete, Greece…..so I can line dry approx 11 and a half months of the year….I love it!! Makes me so happy,,
In fact in the summer months we have to take the clothes in quickly as too much sun bleaches them…..great for stain removal but not for bright printed summer clothes…..
I do use my Solar Dryer from about March to October. Last Spring my electric dryer broke so I had to hang everything on the lines. We’re a family of 5 – Three adults and two teens so we do lots of laundry. once the weather gets colder and it takes longer to dry, I go back to machine drying. my husband replaced the broken belt and I’m using my dryer for each load. Can’t wait till the snow melts and the ground dries off enough for me to go back to solar drying.
I’ve lived in my home for 30 years and I line dry from March through November. If I can catch a warm, sunny day during the coldest months, I’ll hang a few things out but I mostly use a wooden rack and a line I have that runs the length of our guest room. The line in the guest room is tied on ceiling hooks and I use clothes pins.
I also have an antique wooden clothes hanger that is actually a part of my master bath decor but I use it for my undies and delicates. Our dryer is gas so I use it as little as possible but I do use it when I need to.
I’m just waiting for those nice warm Spring days.
LOL, I love that you put up a pic of your line-drying undies. 🙂 Our clothesline is actually underneath a shade structure, the sun gets pretty intense, so if you leave your clothes out, they can start to bleach pretty quickly (good for whites though!).
Beautiful pictures as always.
I always think my undies look quite lovely hanging in the garden they always make me smile when I see them out there all lined up in all their bright and cheery colors and prints.
We’re in the north of the UK – which is notoriously soggy – so we can only really line dry in the spring, summer and the odd bright day in autumn and winter. The rest of the year, I dry on collapsible airers inside – moving them around depending on which room/s we’re heating.
(I wrote up some tips for coping with winter line drying recently. My biggest tip for little things – which might help Jenny – is to get or make a peg airer thing — which allows you to hang a lot of lot of socks, underwear or dishtowels in a small space.)
I have an outdoor line, which I use between the equinoxes, and as much before spring starts and after autumn starts as possible. In winter, though I use a 6-line setup in my basement. I use a fan to keep air circulating. I address the fading problem by turning my wash inside-out when hanging outdoors – seems to help. When I lived in California and in Florida, that was essential. Here in Massachusetts, it’s really only a factor in high summer, but as many of the items have pockets, they dry better inside-out anyway. I can hardly wait until I can reach my outdoor lines again! They have so much snow under them that nothing that hangs down more than about 18″ could go out!
You make laundry look beautiful…thanks for the lovely pics!
In Australia it’s normal to line dry. Every back yard has a clothesline and people get cranky if it’s in a place that doesn’t catch the wind.
I have a 60 year old line…. a circular Hills Hoist. It’s huge and I love it like the dickens.
I have loved hanging clothing on the clothesline for the past 35 years. In the winter, I have a drying rack as well as I dry things for ten minutes in the dryer and then hang them on hangers all over my house. I hate old dryer smell. Our current house doesn’t have a line. so I improvise when ever possible. Hanging clothes over the deck rails in summer.
I have a line tied to a big tree in the back and the garage. Works well.
I air dry all year round. I no longer even own a dryer. Weather really is not great for it most of the time, to cold in winter and to many pop up thunderstorms in summer or just to plain humid.
I simply use a couple clothes drying racks. I do laundry in the evening and clothes dry over night. In the morning I put everything away. It is really easy and convenient. I actually think it is less work then putting them in the dryer and having to remember them and get them out then sort them and fold them before they get all wrinkled.
I line dry year round. I have one of the outdoor five line dryers stretched between the two walls in my basement for the larger stuff and then put all the smaller stuff on three racks. We own a dryer but its more for emergency use only like when my husband forgots to wash his work coveralls or we are out of blankets.
I line dry as much as possible (hate paying when I can dry for free). And can do it almost year round. I live in the lower parts of the tropics in Central Queensland Australia and while winter is no problem, Summer can be. With the scaled back version of the wet season we have here, it can rain for a week straight and it a rush to hang washing out in the rain.
We do have under cover lines in our carport, but with moisture in the air it can take a while to dry. This year I am thinking of getting a drying rack for indoors as even though we will still have the humidity (somewhere around 90%) at least we will have fans inside to help speed up the process.