I'm finally drying my clothes outside!!

[GenB]

Its amazing as I age how the simplest of things make me happy! We are really trying to get our electric bill down (old house and its obscene!) so I went to Walmart and bought two folding drying racks and have started drying everything outside on the patio in the sun! THere is really nowhere in my yard for a clothesline but this works amazingly well! I used my dryer one day last week for a bedspread that was too heavy for the racks.

This has been incredible! My clothes smell sooooo good, towels are super-absorbent and DH loves his underwear!! I grew up with line-dried clothes and forgot what a cool thing this is.

Am I crazy or what???

[superstella]

I love drying my clothes outside too. I have one of the umbrella type lines, and I love hanging my laundry out. I too wonder if I'm nuts.

[Scribe]

We strung up some lines and have been doing this for the past few weeks too, but I've run into a big problem--bird poop. No matter what time of day I hang things out, 2-4 items end up with poop on them and have to be rewashed! It's awful.

[amandaleigh37]

I just started doing this too, it's not as hard as I thought since I'm outside with my son all day anyway. We haven't had any bird poop but we dont have many trees in our yard either...

[mommathea]

this was my first week line drying the laundry. We had a showing on our house, and don't want people to know I have a removable unbrella clothes line, so I didn't hang out the towels and jeans which take forever to dry. But it was wonderful how fast the laundry got done in the washer. I felt like I actually had more time to my day, and because I'm actually touching each piece of clothing before hanging it up I caught some spots that didn't come out of clothes, which would have been just tossed into the dryer without even looking before.

[loriedna]

I am also stupidly happy about a clothesline that I have for only two weeks. Is there something wrong with us, you are saying? You think is serious?

[kdabbler]

Originally Posted by loriedna

I am also stupidly happy about a clothesline that I have for only two weeks. Is there something wrong with us, you are saying? You think is serious?

Add me to the club. I too just started doing this a few weeks ago. I'm drying inside our house and inside our porch instead of outside because of dh's allergies.

Our clothes aren't as wrinkly anymore. Probably because I leave them too long in the dryer :

I grew up on line-dried clothes. This brings back happy memories.

[GenB]

Oh all these good memories, sweet smells and general good feelings I have generated by hanging out my laundry and the mosquito truck comes by yesterday not once but 4 times and managed to spray the entire neighborhood while I was at the store. DD told me when I got home that I might want to re-wash that lovely load of whites I had hanging outside in the beautiful sunshine.

I smelled the spray as soon as I drove back in the neighborhood then I remembered my clothes. Sure enough, they decided to "kill those little buggers good" and swooped by 4 (yes 4 not once) leaving a trail of fog as thick as pea soup. Gross. I REEEEEAAAAALLLLLYYYYYYY hate the mosquito truck. (Needless to say, they are not spraying citronella essential oil.):

[mommathea]

Originally Posted by GenB

I smelled the spray as soon as I drove back in the neighborhood then I remembered my clothes. Sure enough, they decided to "kill those little buggers good" and swooped by 4 (yes 4 not once) leaving a trail of fog as thick as pea soup. Gross. I REEEEEAAAAALLLLLYYYYYYY hate the mosquito truck. (Needless to say, they are not spraying citronella essential oil.):

Ugh, I'm sorry. I remember them comming by and spraying as a kid. Mom would make us stop playing and run inside and close all the windows and wait till the smell had dissapated from the air: As a kid we hated it.
I'm sorry about having to rewash. What a pain.

[Nitenites]

Ew! The mosquito truck! I remember that from my childhood, too.

And, no, OP, you're not weird for being happy about outdoor clothes-drying. I have three clotheslines in the basement (for winter & inclement weather), and one in the backyard. There are few things that smell better than line-dried sheets! And the $$ it saves! WOW!

[sunnysandiegan]

Oh, this thread is reminding me that I need to call our HOA (homeowners association...we live in townhomes) property management company about the fence! I miss using my retractable clothesline that I've had since DD was born and I used cloth diapers. She's 7 now. Anyway, the fence it is attached to was never put back into the wall properly after work the HOA contracted out was completed. Last I heard, the contractor wasn't finished with the project. Um, okay, but I have been watching them work around the development (I walk a lot) and they haven't been touching the fences. I think they just forgot. Besides, they destroyed two of the fence boards, too. When I pulled out my line after all this work was supposedly finished in our immediate area, my items sunk nearly to the ground.

Maybe I can even send an email??? Hmmm...where is that last newsletter???

[GenB]

Originally Posted by Nitenites

Ew! The mosquito truck! I remember that from my childhood, too.

And, no, OP, you're not weird for being happy about outdoor clothes-drying. I have three clotheslines in the basement (for winter & inclement weather), and one in the backyard. There are few things that smell better than line-dried sheets! And the $$ it saves! WOW!

Yeah, I'm gonna be very interested to see if our power bill is any lower. We live in an 85 year old house and the electric bills are rediculous. Its a 2 story so upstairs always gets alot hotter than downstairs. None of our windows open which doesn't help. I have used the dryer very minimally for over a week. DD just dried a load of her stuff and I dried a bedspread I didn't have room to dry but other than that its only been an occasional 20 minutes here and there to fluff stuff. That thing was running ALL DAY LONG! Hope we see a difference!!

[KaliShanti]

Can anyone suggest a good drying rack? Links? Places to buy? I do not have a fence or trees to hang a line from but I want to try line drying this summer!

[nathansmum]

I've always dried my clothes on a drying rack outside under the patio and I still get a buzz seeing them drying lol. Something about that nice warm sunshine on them I think lol. Of course, if there's been more than a few wet days in a row it can be a challenge to dry them off since I don't own a clothes dryer!

[sunnysandiegan]

Originally Posted by KaliShanti

Can anyone suggest a good drying rack? Links? Places to buy? I do not have a fence or trees to hang a line from but I want to try line drying this summer!

I just have an old wood drying rack that is an accordion style. I don't recall where I purchased it (long time ago). It folds up flat and is about 3 inches thick when folded up. It opens up to about 3 feet high and 18 inches wide with 3-4 wood dowels across the top and just over a dozen alternating down the sides and middle. I actually use this one indoors, as needed, but I would use it outdoors if needed. It is very basic, but efficient.

[GenB]

I got mine at Walmart. (I have 2). They are just like the ones you mentioned, sunnysandiegan. I leave mine up in the back yard on the patio and put laundry on them all day. One of them holds much more than I thought. They are about 10 bucks at Wally World but I'm sure you can get them at Target or somewhere else.

[Luv_My_Babies]

We have T-Poles (that what they're called) that I swiped from Grandma's yard outside. I put them up last summer and used them. I need to start using them again but it keeps raining here : My electric bill has been through the roof lately and line drying would really help.

[KaliShanti]

The clothing racks you talk about would just blow right over I think. We have very strong winds here at times...

[Strong Mama]

When we moved in our house in Jan my dad asked me what he could get me for a housewarming gift and I said: build me a clothesline.!!

So he did and my dryer has only been on 4 times this month so far! on now as i forgot i washed clothes last night and forgot to hang them out and they stink. LOL

people think i am crazy but whatever.

[Luv_My_Babies]

We dried outside today! Woo hoo!

Rather, I made DH dry the laundry outside