October 17, 2009 at 2:21 pm (Caring for the Planet)
My summer of line-drying has sadly come to a close, as the dreary Portland rain can attest. My switch back to drying the modern (and energy-sucking) way means I’m trying some new ways to dry green.
Allow me to explain the cryptic photo above. Those two green pointy balls are something I discovered at my local discount grocer. They are dryer balls, a green alternative to dryer sheets. Having been disappointed with every brand of “green” dryer sheets (including Seventh Generation, which are like trying to soften your clothes with a thin piece of cardboard) I thought I’d give these babies a try. They work great! You throw them in the wash of wet clothes and they bounce around loudly amongst the clothes, softening them up and removing static without chemicals. We did find they caused some dings on the inside of the dryer so we now use them inside a pair of old socks, which seems to fluff the clothes just as well. If you like scented clothes (I don’t) these green balls won’t help you out but you can always throw in a bag of dried lavender if you must have scent on your freshly washed clothes.
The other item in the picture is exactly what it looks like – dryer lint! Instead of throwing it in the trash I am saving every last little scrap until I have 3 full cups. Then I’m going to try this crazy recipe from Real Simple to make modeling dough out of your dryer lint. It sounds kind of gross to me (what about those long hairs that get caught up in the lint?) but I think my 2-year old will think it’s cool. With this dreary fall weather we are on the lookout for new indoor activities. I guess we’re that desperate already.
What about you? What are you doing to keep your cold weather laundry green?
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May 21, 2009 at 2:46 pm (Caring for the Planet, Saving Money)
Why does linedrying our clothes seem so quaint, so old-fashioned, somehow backward? Some communities even ban line-drying saying it’s an eyesore or some other benign hazard. My unofficial survey of friends across the globe tells me that 98% of the world line-drys their clothes, at least in good weather. Basically the whole world except North America. When I lived in Japan, everyone dried their clothes outside no matter the weather. When I lived in Australia ditto. And two summers spent in Europe tell me they do the same there as well. And during my family’s trip to Turkey last month we found ourselves, you guesed it, hanging up our clothes to dry.
And why wouldn’t we? Dryers use up vast amounts of energy, even the Energy Star ones. According to a 2001 Department of Energy Report, dryers account for 6% of US household electricity. Why would I put my clothes in a machine to dry when today it’s 75 and sunny on my back deck? After returning from Turkey I was inspired to unwrap the drying rack I had bought last summer at Ikea that has been since hiding out in the garage. I put it out on the back porch and hung a full load of clothes to dry in the yummy spring sunshine. Within a matter of hours they were dry and smelled so fresh. They were even soft thanks to some ancient liquid fabric softener I’d found shoved in the back of my laundry room cupboard.
My husband thinks line-dried clothes feel too crispy, even with fabric softener, so we don’t line-dry his clothes. The rack from Ikea only holds one load and we usually do 3-4 loads at a time in our house. I can’t have mountains of wet laundry sitting around so, so far, I’m drying about 1/4 of our laundry outside and the rest in the dryer. I guess it’s all about baby steps but maybe the next baby step I need to take is to invest in another $6.99 drying rack from Ikea.
Do you linedry your clothes? Year round or just in the summer? Have you noticed a cost savings?
6 Comments
Beth
