aggieamy Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 I've been reading the "Things that have saved you money" thread and am very interested in this line drying. I will start off by saying that laundry is not my favorite chore and there are times when I really struggle with getting it done. That being said, how much more work is line drying then using a dryer? I'd love to cut our gas bill down and I've already implemented a few things in the house that cuts down on laundry. (No putting towels that have been used once in the laundry!) Do you have to use a line or could you use drying racks in your basement? We've all got allergies and I worry about things like PJ's getting pollen all over them. Tell me experiences with line drying - good and bad, please. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbsweetpea Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 We line dry the kids clothes because I resell them and I want to make sure they don't shrink, get too much wear and that I can get stains out. I also do most of my clothes. My husband likes his to go in the dryer. I have a bar hanging in my garage above the washer and dryer. I hang shirts, dresses on hangers and hang them on the bar. Pants and shorts get put on a drying rack. I do it all in the garage during 9 months of the year (because it is so warm here). It usually just takes half a day and then I put them directly in the closet or drawers. It does not take extra time since I have to hang the clothes anyways. Socks, undies, towels and sheets get put in the dryer. When it is cold outside I hang dry in the bathroom on the shower curtain bar overnight and use the hanging rack in the bathroom to dry pants. I have done this for years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shellers Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 I always line dry clothes when weather permits. The only clothes I won't line dry are black clothes, I run them through the dryer to get the lint off. I don't have fancy drying lines, we use plain old laundry rope, like what you would find at Walmart. I have five really long lines which go across our backyard. It's not pretty but it works and I have enough clothes lines to dry everything, include several loads of blankets and towels. On a really hot windy day it will take less than 20 minutes to dry towels on the line. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kolamum Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 We don't even own a dryer. ;) So we always line dry. It's not that bad, all though i miss having a dryer for socks. I do, I'll admit it. The rest of it doesn't bug me, but I do miss it for socks. That said, when we lived in the states anytime I lined dried I saved 50-80 bucks on the electric bill. Here, we've never had one and we have so much sun it's kinda pointless to use one all the time. All though winter time can take a while to dry stuff because our winters are cold and wet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elfgivas Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 we don't have a dryer. we have two portable drying racks that i can put in various rooms, depending on season and where it will dry most quickly. we have one five foot wire strung in our bathroom. we have three eight foot strands on a line dh made behind the house. it will hold a giant load of towels. i do one load every day. some days, its two or three. i wash in cold water, and have discovered that most things can be washed in the same load, so i do not sort by colour anymore. jeans get their own load. and when there are two loads in a day, one is mostly dark, and one is mostly light. it is more work, but not so much more.... maybe 15 minutes? but i hang to dry things that get hung in closets, so they go from the wire in our bathroom to the closets on the same hanger :001_smile:. i love to be outside, however briefly, so have come to treasure that. i do check the forecast before deciding to wash sheets so as not to end up with them strewn about the house while it rains outside. we all have tons of allergies, and haven't had a problem, but most tops go on hangers inside, so ??? hth, ann Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Down_the_Rabbit_Hole Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 I love hanging my clothes out to dry, but I use any excuse to go outside. As for the money saved. I noticed a $60-$100 dollar difference from the year befores electric bill. Not sure this will help with the allergy aspect, but I always run the clothes through the dryer 10 minutes to get any pollen and dust off them after they dry outside. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nd293 Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 If you have space, I'd go for a fold-down line in the basement, rather than use a rack. We have one outside, and one in the garage for using in rain, and they work well. They hold a lot on washing, including the bedlinen which I can never fit properly onto a rack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Margaret in GA Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 I love our clothesline. I hung two loads out yesterday and as it was hot and dry, both were done in about an hour. They say you save at least $1 per load (depending our the efficiency of your dryer), and I do at least one load per day so that's $30 a month. Easy money. As for pollen, here in GA when the trees (pine and oak) start sending out that green stuff early on in Spring, I can't hang anything. Also, I find that I have to iron less than when I use the dryer. One drawback is the time/effort of installing a clothesline. Hanging them is easy, but does take maybe 5 more minutes than putting them in the dryer. HTH Margaret Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmrich Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 How does the humidity factor in to drying clothes outside? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeaganS Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 Our washer/dryer is in our attic, and I strung a ton of clothesline up there. Because it gets so hot in the summer, I wash and then hang the clothes first thing in the morning. I actually enjoy hanging the clothes more than just doing normal laundry. It does take significantly more time, though. I figured out that if I hung dry 10 loads of laundry, it would pay for the line, so there wasn't much of a loss if I didn't stick with it. I always hang dry sheets and towels and the white loads. The other loads and cloth diapers I usually hang dry as well. I find that line-drying my clothes makes me keep up with my laundry better because I can only dry about 2 loads at a time, so I have to plan ahead. This is a good thing for me. I live in an incredibly humid area, and line drying inside in our attic takes most thin clothes about 4 hours and thicker items like towels or diapers about 24 hours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer in MI Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 We have two lines in our basement and one outside. I don't remember the last time we used the dryer! It takes some planning - the kids play sports and sometimes come home with dirty clothes that they need the next day. In that case, we throw in a load at night and hang them so they'll be dry for practice the next day. It definitely takes more time than using the dryer. It takes around 5 − 10 minutes to hang a load - depending on what's in it. We try to hang all sheets and towels outside, weather permitting. Since I started hanging my laundry, I've kept up better with laundry because it requires me to plan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeenagerMom Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 I don't have a line outside either. I use my chainlink fence. I call it my Redneck Laundry line (in Arkansas)! I just hang the clothes on hangers. The pants go on the plastic cheapy kids' pants hangers from Walmart so they hang full length. On a nice breezy hot day, it might take 20-30 minutes for the clothes to dry, usually the time for me to run another washer load. Our laundry room is on our screened in porch. I have a table out there for folding the laundry on, a hanging rack to hang the clothes on as I am pulling them out of the washer & putting them on hangers, and a shower rod that hangs above my washer/dryer to put hangers on. After I hang the clothes, then I just step outside & put them on the fence. I may take me an additional 5-10 minutes. Then when they are dry, shirts & dresses go straight into the closet on their hangers. Some pants stay hung and shorts get pulled off and folded. Pjs generally get tossed in the dryer with towels, socks, and undies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 We used a clothesline for a couple of weeks while our dryer was out. Here's a picture--there's actually two, one that you see, and one that goes from the playground to the tree in the back--like a corner. There's something refreshing to me about having the clothes on the line! LOL That said, I prefer the texture of the clothes from the dryer--the cardboard jean syndrome is uncomfortable for me. I was, however, surprised how quickly they softened up as I wore them. I couldn't hang anything while the oak pollen was falling, that's for sure. Otherwise, not a problem--and we live in the woods, so there's lots of bugs, tree stuff, etc., but it doesn't affect the clothes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane in NC Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 How does the humidity factor in to drying clothes outside? Humidity matters. When other posters reported that it only takes an hour or two to line dry, I figured they must live in a place that is significantly less humid than where I live. I also wonder if people have clothing that contains polyester. A cotton t-shirt takes a while to dry outside where I live--even on an 80+ degree day--due to humidity. I use a drying rack as opposed to a line. Where I live, pop up showers happen frequently in the summer. Did I mention that it is humid here? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tammyla Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 We have a line in the basement and laundry racks for drying. I don't use them all the time, but they certainly work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pink Elephant Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 Clothesline drying... all good IMO. I've been line-drying for over 25 years, and still love it as much today as I did when I started. Aside from an outdoor clothesline, I also have a wooden drying rack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catwoman Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 Clothesline drying... all good IMO. I've been line-drying for over 25 years, and still love it as much today as I did when I started. Aside from an outdoor clothesline, I also have a wooden drying rack. Pink Elephant, I would like to welcome you to the forum, but I would also like to ask you if you are aware that you are bumping years-old threads back to page one? Why not just start new threads about the topics which are of interest to you? It's not a problem to occasionally bump an old thread, but you have bumped several of them today, so I thought I would remind you to check the dates to see how old they are. (Don't worry -- I'm sure many of us have done the exact same thing!) Again, welcome! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aggieamy Posted December 6, 2014 Author Share Posted December 6, 2014 I think I entered the twilight zone. I saw the thread and saw my name and had no idea what was going on. I thought there might be an aggieamy-imposter on the loose. Wow. May 2011. That was a long time ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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