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| an umbrella clothesline -- what I remember from my own childhood |
When my parents married (in the 1950s), my father made a couple of vows in addition to a lifetime of faithfulness. He vowed that my mother would never have to keep a vegetable garden and he would buy her a tumble clothes dryer as soon as they could afford it. My father grew up feeling poor. My grandmother was raising 5 children as a single mother. My father and his older sister were put in charge of the housekeeping and vegetable gardening (as well as tending the 3 younger siblings) during the summer months while my grandmother went to work. Both a large vegetable garden and a clothesline were reminders to my father of feeling poor.
My mother did need to hang dry the laundry for the first several years of their marriage. But when I was about six years old, they moved into a house with a spot for both a washer and a dryer, and they had the means to afford both. My mother would continue to hang or lay flat some clothing items to preserve their shape and lessen wear, however.
When my kids were young, I hung the laundry to dry as a matter of necessity, even after my in-laws purchased a washer and dryer for us when we bought our house. I hung it all -- baby diapers, towels, sheets, and all of the clothing for 5 people. I once calculated the monthly savings by hanging everything to dry each week. I think it was about $18 per month savings. When you have just a tiny amount of wiggle room in the household budget, $18 is a significant amount.
Although we can afford to tumble dry all of our laundry now, we continue to hang some clothing each week. While we do this to save money, it's not the savings on our electric bill that we have in mind. It's keeping our favorite clothing for as long as possible that motivates us. (Washing also puts wear on your clothes. But so far, I haven't found a way to keep my clothes clean and odor-free without washing.) All of that lint you pull out of the lint trap? That's part of the fabric of your clothing and other textiles! Both heat and rubbing of fabrics against each other is hard of fibers.
In a 1999 study reported by Science Daily, high heat drying can reduce cotton fabric strength (and lead to tears) by about 25%. In addition, tumble drying wet cotton fabric resulted in more wear than tumble drying partially dry cotton fabric.
I didn't know about this study when I was hanging our laundry to dry all of those years ago. But for many years, I sort of intuitively knew this through my own experience. I just didn't know how much line-drying prolonged the life of our clothing. If it seems that pieces of your clothing hold up longer when exclusively line-dried for it's life, it's not your imagination.
Here's my math. If I can extend the length of a shirt's useful wear an additional 25%, that's like buying one fewer shirt every four years. My favorite, around-the-house shirt right now is on the rack shown in the photo. I always, always hang this one to dry. It's developing tiny holes near some top-stitching in different areas. I'll be sad to relegate this one to the rag bag, as it's so comfortable and soft. I bought this shirt in 2015, ten years ago. I've worn it once per week, almost year round, for those 10 years. If the Science Daily estimates apply to this shirt, I imagine it would have worn out about 2 years ago.
I have 3 portable indoor racks for laundry-drying. In nice weather, we move them out onto the deck. They're collapsible. So when we have guests over, I can fold them up and stand them against a wall of the laundry room. While these three are very practical, what I'd really like to have is something like this:
Isn't that a beautiful clothesline? Practical tools don't need to look boring. I have just the spot in the garden for one like it. Perhaps someday I'll get some help building a set-up like that.
How do you feel about hanging laundry to dry? Does it call to mind feelings of economic disadvantage? Would/do you line dry specific clothing items so they would/will last longer?
I don't regularly hang clothes to dry anymore. However, I do hang unwashed clothes outside to refresh them if they aren't soiled. It gives them that wonderful outdoor smell and saves them from a time or two in the washing machine. But I can't do this when it's pollen season, which is many months of the year.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was growing up, we hung up all of our clothes to dry even when we had a working dryer (not all the time). We hung up our clothes outside even when it was freezing and the clothes underwent sublimation instead evaporation. One of my first jobs as a little girl (4 or 5 yo) was to hang up washcloths on a little clothesline my father put up for me. We were not as poor as your husband, but we didn't have much money. However, I don't have negative associations with hanging clothes up to dry.
Hi Live and Learn,
DeleteHanging clothes outside to air out sounds like a great idea. I will give that a try this spring with a couple of items. Thank you for the idea.
I air dry bras and I try to remember to air dry my wool hiking shirts/socks, but I'm less successful at accomplishing that. :) My mom hung out laundry in the summer--air dried sheets are nice and crisp to slip into at night, but I prefer the softness of towels that have gone through the dryer.
ReplyDeleteHi Kris,
Deletewe have some hooks on the wall in the laundry room that I use for drying undergarments and swimsuits. Dryer heat will really age those elastic synthetics.
We always tumble dry the towels now, but I remember those rack-dried towels --super stiff, I think they could stand up in a corner by themselves. The other problem with air-dried towels is due to their thickness, in my climate if they're not in the direct sun, they could get a little sour smelling from taking so long to dry. When rack drying towels indoors, I would place the rack over a heat vent to dry them quickly enough they didn't smell off.
Climate really affects the practicality of line drying clothes. When we vacationed in the southwest one summer, it was faster to lay clothes out in the sun to dry than to use the dryer. Michigan is quite humid in the summer and my experience is very different.
DeleteI can imagine that laundry would dry very quickly in many parts of the southwest, Kris. I didn't realize that it was humid in summer where you are.
DeleteI would hang pretty much all my clothes to dry if I could. I grew up with an outside clothesline and we hung everything up in the summer when the weather was nice. I love the smell and feel of sheets dried on the line.
ReplyDeleteNow I live in a small, rather damp apartment. My lease actually says we are not allowed to dry clothes inside due to possible mold issues. I asked the landlord about this, because I have some clothing items that can't go in the dryer. I was given permission to use a small drying rack inside.
I also have a small patio, and we aren't really supposed to dry clothing out there. But I will occasionally put the drying rack out there when it's sunny. And I installed a series of hooks on the inside of the cedar privacy screen for my patio, and I will hang shirts out there to dry on hangers in the summer. No one can see it but me. :)
Hi Tina,
DeleteI can imagine the problem with indoor mold from rack drying laundry indoors. I get where your landlord is coming from. The air is damp here 9 months of the year. It could be that the apartment has had previous issues with mold and they don't want to reignite a mold situation. But at least you can use a small rack for some specific items. I'm also glad you've found "private" ways to hang a few shirts outdoors in summer.
I forgot to say that I also love the texture of "crunchy" towels dried outside.
ReplyDeleteCrunchy is a good word to describe air-dried towels!
DeleteNo negative thoughts on air drying clothing here! I have happy memories of playing in the backyard while Mom hung clothing out to dry and again when she took it down. You can't beat the smell of line dried clothing. (Well, except maybe a newborn baby's sweet smell!)
ReplyDeleteI have a backyard clothesline and I have some lines in the basement for winter clothes drying. In addition, I have 2 folding drying racks. In the spring and fall (muddy times), or when there is a large chance of rain, I will use the drying racks on the deck, watching the weather closely.
In the winter, I use the lines in the basement, and put the drying racks on the main floor over some heat vents - this helps humidify our dry winter home. On lovely spring, summer and fall days, I use the backyard clothesline.
I definitely agree that air drying extends clothing life! I use my tumble dryer for socks, underwear, towels, and sometimes bedding. I also use it for a quick wrinkle release treatment on certain clothes that are line dried.
If you read or watch European blogs or vlogs, they relate that most Europeans do not have tumble dryers. They line dry everything, indoors and out.
The clothesline in the photo is gorgeous! Mine is just the utilitarian type from the hardware store.
Jo
Hi Jo,
DeleteIt sounds like you have a good set-up for air drying laundry year round! If we had a basement, I'd try a clothesline there, too.
I've read that about the UK and rack or line-drying laundry as the most common method. I guess a tumble dryer must seem like a luxury to many folks overseas.
I know. I love that Victorian-inspired clothesline. I saw this photo about 10 years ago and have been dreaming of having one like it all these years.
I used to line dry everything, weather permitting. In the winter I’d hang stuff on clothesline I put up in my laundry room. I did this for years to save money. I now put most things in the dryer. I don’t like carrying wet clothes upstairs then outside. I only do 2 or 3 loads a week so the money isn’t a lot.
ReplyDeleteWe now take my Dh’s work clothes to the laundry to have them washed and pressed. I’m done ironing. It costs about $75 a month-well worth it to me!
Diane
Hi Diane,
DeleteYou bring up a very good point about carrying wet clothing upstairs from a basement laundry area to take out to a clothesline in the yard. Wet laundry can be very heavy!
I think you've made a good call on having your husband's work clothing cleaned and pressed somewhere else. The washing part wouldn't be so bad, but the ironing is tedious, has to be done just right, takes a chunk of time, and it just gets hot ironing several shirts and slacks, only to have to do it all again the next week.
Growing up I helped my mom by hanging clothes on a clothesline. I always liked the way they smelled also.
ReplyDeleteWhen my children were babies and I used cloth diapers, I always hung them to dry. It was therapeutic to me to hang all those diapers and see them in the sun and flapping in a breeze. The sun was a great deodorizer and also helped fade any stains.
I have a wooden rack that I frequently use for items I don’t want in the dryer. I often will use it to dry loads in the summer. But, with the wind we have here, (there’s a reason the Wright Brothers chose to fly here!) I will often look out to see the rack blown over on the grass. I used to have a retractable clothesline that worked well. I keep eyeing a replacement online. In the winter, I too put them over a heat vent to hasten their drying. However, our dryer was just “fried” by a power surge :( A new one is scheduled to be delivered today. We will be glad to have that as an option again!
Regarding hanging clothes outside to freshen them: We have a long running outdoor drama here, The Lost Colony. I don’t know if any of you know the story of Virginia Dare in 1587. It takes place in Elizabethan times and the queen’s costumes are elaborate and expensive. William Ivey Long, a Broadway costumer (The Producers, Hairspray) and a native son, always has the Lost Colony costumes turned wrong side out and laid out in the sun to deodorize them. If it’s done by him, I’m good with doing it too!
Hi Lynn,
DeleteI hope your new dryer is up and running and serving you well. It is nice to have the option to use a dryer.
Thank you for sharing about The Lost Colony's costume refreshing. I will do this in spring or summer on a nice day. If a garment isn't stained, this sounds like a great alternative to the dry cleaners for items like wool coats that are worn on top of other clothing, not really dirty, but just need a refresh.