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I've always lived in a city. Not a big, ultra-urban city, but a sprawling,
post-70's suburban city. 20 years in southern California, from Ventura to San Diego and many stops in between.
Before that we lived in south Florida, in a much smaller town, but I was very young then. Most of my growing up, my
adolescence, my forays into adulthood, the beginnings of my marriage, and the birth of my first child all occured in and around
"the OC" as they say now.
Much of that time was spent in apartments, in neighborhoods where hanging
your laundry was anathema. It wasn't done - it was a sign of poverty perhaps, or simply a hopelessly outdated time-waster
in our rush rush society. It quite frankly never occured to me. Well, that's not exactly true. Once or twice,
tired of hauling laundry to the complex laundromat and paying a dollar a load to wash and a dollar to dry, I contemplated
handwashing in the bathtub and/or hanging some things in the shower. But not having the facilities readily available
nor the time to put to working it out, the idea languished.
Until we moved into this house, complete with a fenced and 3/4 enclosed
backyard equipped with a 3 line clothesline. Shortly after we moved, I got my hands on Cheryl Mendelson's Home Comforts.
If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. She has a section on hanging laundry, and I soon felt informed enough
to take a crack at it. I discovered that I liked it! Who knew? I'm not nearly die-hard enough to hang in
the winter, but as soon as the weather warms up, and any time it's clear (spring is often wet here), out come the clothespins.
I have the added "bonus" of not heating my house in the summer, as my dryer
conveniently (not!) vents *into* the kitchen. In the winter this is a good thing, as I don't need to pay twice the electricity,
for both the heater and the dryer, but in the summer it's unbearable. But hanging a pile of cool, damp, clean clothes
in the sun gives me such a sense of satisfaction, that I'm doing something *right*. And the wet keeps me cool in the
heat of summer while I'm standing out there. Besides, no matter how hot it gets (well over 100 some days) and how much
I don't want to leave the air-conditioned house, I just remember the dryer and I'm happy to hit the backyard. Those
few loads that I have to dry in the dryer can be done late late at night or first thing in the morning to minimize the heat
output.
And as for that electric bill? Well, with 3 kids (one in cloth diapers,
no less) we go through quite a lot of laundry, and hanging much of it has dramatically reduced my electric bill. I can
now finally see statements below $100 in the spring and fall, and not much higher in the heat of summer when the a/c is running
'round the clock.
Update:
Since my Clean Sweep project in 2004, the dryer has been fixed and it no longer vents into the kitchen.
Now that it's later in the season, my bone of contention is with the length of the grass in the backyard and my husband's
laziness when it comes to mowing. :) Also since then, I've had to go a week without the washing machine, when
the old one died and we gathered the funds to buy a new one and have it delivered. During that time I made a few efforts
to hand-wash clothing also, but that's a whole different story.
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In Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House, Cheryl Mendelson
devotes several pages to line drying of clothes and household linens.
She suggests that most household laundry can be hung, and if done correctly
this will reduce or eliminate wrinkles as well as result in fresh-smelling and sanitized clothing. Filled items, like
comforters or sleeping bags, should not be put on a line, because the filling will sink to the edges. Delicate items,
and those loosely knit, like sweaters, should be dried flat. Otherwise, the technique for nearly everything is the same:
fold a few inches of the item over the line and secure with clothespins.
Sheets and tableclothes: fold in half and fold one
hem edge over the line, securing with pins. Pin the middle of the edge on the line, but allow the other to sag open
to catch the breeze.
Pillowcases: pin corners with one side taut and the
other sagging for the wind.
Towels, receiving blankets, other small rectangular items:
fold a few inches over and pin once or twice depending on size (I fold the corner, rather than the side, of washcloths and
napkins and other small items, using one pin)
Shirts: hang by the tail (waist), either unbuttoned
and spread open or buttoned and leaving one side sagging - t-shirts hang just like pillowcases.
Dresses and skirts: she suggests hanging straight
dresses by the shoulders, but I hang by the hem. Spread full skirts taut on one side.
Pants and shorts: she says these should be hung by
the waist, but I think they dry better hanging from the hems because the waistbands tend to be thick and stay damp when folded
against the line. I spread the legs apart in a 'V', which takes up more room on the line, but small things can be hung
in the middle. This works for me because I have small children and their clothes fit nicely.
Socks, underwear, and bras: I personally don't hang
these items, in part because I tend to run short on pins and these small things take up more pins per load than other clothes.
However, in the interest of completion: hang bras by the hook end, socks by their toes, and underwear by the waistband.
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