To dry, or not to dry

[SirDude]

TO DRY OR NOT TO DRY, that is the question? As I was washing clothes today, got to wondering, how many still hang-dry (at least most of) their laundry?

Please don't forget to vote on the Poll question and then if you want to share how or where that would be great.

Thanks,

SirDude

[RiverPines]

We do both in winter and summer. In summer its outside and in winter its indoors with drying racks. I have 3 large drying wracks I spread around the house.

[SirDude]

RiverPines, thanks for your answer, I added a Poll question, can you please vote.

Thanks,

SirDude

[cnichols]

We do not yet hang our cloths. However, that being said, we do plan on it. Last time we were home I purchased one of those umbrella style clotheslines. Always used them as a kid and for part of the time I was an adult. Haven't had a chance to put it in yet or even decided where to put it, but it WILL be going up next time we're home. I love the fresh scent of line dried clothing.

[ldc]

I hang dry whenever possible, inside and out, summer and winter. Usually during June the chiggers get bad, so I hang the clothes on a rack in front of my window fan inside. When I do heavy things (ie., comforters) I have to find a mechanical drier in the summer, 'cause everything mildews on the shady line. After October, most things dry w/out mildew outside. ldc

[Timberline]

I line dry outside in spring, summer and fall. In the winter, I have drying racks around the stove pipe and Magic Heat (at a safe distance). Combine that with a ceiling fan and Colorado's dry air and my laundry gets dry real fast, even heavy lined jeans.

I use the dryer occasionally for bedding when the dogs are shedding. The dryer dehairs things better. I just put them in it for a few minutes after they come off the line.

[SirDude]

Originally Posted by Chalk Creek

I use the dryer occasionally for bedding when the dogs are shedding. The dryer dehairs things better. I just put them in it for a few minutes after they come off the line.

That's a good point, have you / do you use the "air-only" (no heat) cycle when doing this?

[Minelson]

I need to be convinced why it is so much better to hang clothes to dry...seems like a lot of extra and work and time to me

[chickenista]

I hang my clothes all year long.
I do it because it just seems wrong to waste and pay for power to dry in a dryer..especially in the summer.. when I have nature's dryer just right outside.
And I do love the smell of the sheets when they have been in the sun all day.

I will toss them into the dryer for a few if they are still a little damp or furry or linty.

[CaliannG]

I am afraid I use a dryer for now. That is simply because I rent our acreage and I am not about to put in the improvements needed to have a clothesline. (An area fenced away from dogs, goats, and chickens, because all of them like to play tug-of-war with cloth, ect.)

However, I do prefer to hang-dry, at least when it is a bit windy or breezy. When I am in a place that has a clothesline, I will use it during any season as long as too things are true:

1. It is not actively precipitating.
2. There is some kind of wind or breeze.

I'll use a dryer if it is raining/snowing or if the air is still.

(The still air thing is because it has been my experience that jeans hung on a line to dry without a breeze come off the line with the consistency of cardboard, same with towels.)

[SirDude]

Originally Posted by Minelson

I need to be convinced why it is so much better to hang clothes to dry...seems like a lot of extra and work and time to me

Since I forgot to answer my own thread, I will add it here.

Minelson, I would normally do it because of the cost and the heat, which comes back down to cost in the form of higher utility bills.

At this point in time I do not for two reasons.

1. I live in FL and it's just too humid most of the time.
2. I no longer have an area to do it. At the old house I had an area to at least hang some things out on the nice "dry" winter days.

Right now running the drier really does add to the A/C running more. So I wish I could get away without.

[CaliannG]

Originally Posted by SirDude

1. I live in FL and it's just too humid most of the time.

Nonsense. I lived in The Hammock, Florida (about halfway between Daytona Beach and St. Augustine off of A1A) for the first 11 years of my life, and my grandmother hung out our clothes for all of it. She refused to let ANYONE get her a dryer, even though everyone in our family tried to do so.

She hung clothes out winter, summer, spring and fall, during all weather, and they got dry.

Her clotheslines were strung between palm trees in the yard. The lines had been there so long they had grown into the palm trees.

[jwal10]

Outside in the sun when not raining (this is Oregon) inside in the Bath/sun room or under the pavilion outside the dining room if raining. We have a manual dasher, hand wringer....James

[lvshrs]

I love to line dry! I hang shirts on hangers then place them on the line so that it saves room to hang my other items. I also have a place inside to hang stuff to dry as well.( I really don't care to have my neighbors knowing what color my undies are!) Saves money and doesn't take that much more time to me.

[Michele of MI]

I usually hang mine with the exception of tentworm season, and part of winter. I cannot stand tentworms, and I'm pretty squeamish so I just use the dryer until they are gone. In the winter if it isn't snowing too much I do sometimes hang them outside, but I am hoping to hang a line indoors at some point, so I can hang them year round.

[MN Gardener]

We don't have clothes lines, the only place to have for clothes lines are in the front yard and it is so dusty they would be dirtier then before I washed them!

[bubbahead]

I hang dry. All the time. I love the smell, plus we are in such a difficult time financially right now that every dime saved really helps. Our electric rates are crazy high.

[CarolynRenee]

We line dry because it saves $$ on the dryer & there is nothing like the smell of clothes and linens dried in the sun.

I do, however, use the no heat fluff setting on my dryer for the dog / cat de-fuzzing as another posted or if guests are staying over & I'll use the dryer on the bath towels for them. I don't so much mind the "crunchy" towels, but I'm sure others may not be as fond of them as I am.

[SirDude]

Originally Posted by CaliannG

Nonsense. I lived in The Hammock, Florida (about halfway between Daytona Beach and St. Augustine off of A1A) for the first 11 years of my life, and my grandmother hung out our clothes for all of it. She refused to let ANYONE get her a dryer, even though everyone in our family tried to do so.

She hung clothes out winter, summer, spring and fall, during all weather, and they got dry.

Her clotheslines were strung between palm trees in the yard. The lines had been there so long they had grown into the palm trees.

On the Gulf side of the state where I am, unless it's the drier winter months, they will "dry" but they will still feel humid / damp. Even the clothes that come out of my drier "get damp" when I hang shirts to take in the car with me.

Unless in direct sunlight inside the car my shirts will feel like you left them in a bathroom while taking a hot shower. Are the moldy, no, but are they fresh, not really.

[Danaus29]

Line dry, all the time except for 2 loads of towels I took to the laundromat to dry last month. My 20 year old dryer (lasted 20 years because I used it so little) broke just before Christmas and Santa couldn't shove a new dryer down the chimney. I use a clothes rack and line in the basement in front of the woodburner and 2 lines wrapped around t-posts outside.

Why line dry, I get to be outside (although I don't like the spiders on the line), the clothes smell so good, no electricity costs, and I do like the feeling of stiff line-dried jeans. Oh, and I don't have to use fabric softener on fuzzy blankets if they are line dried.