Line Drying Your Clothes

We own a nice stackable washer/dryer that was a housewarming gift from my parents. During the winter, the electric portion of our utility bill is only about $30-50 per month. The furnace, water heater, and stove are all gas powered, and made up about 75% of our utility bills over the winter. I did use the dryer, vented into the house through a indoor dryer vent to not only help heat the house, but also to add some moisture to the dry air. With summer on its way, we know that our electric bill will increase substantially. With a newborn in the house (and a mama who is VERY grumpy when she's hot) we will be using an air conditioner. We did buy the most energy efficient model available, but I refuse to heat the house with a dryer while cooling it with a/c.

Drying clothes on a line is the most frugal way to get your laundry dry. There are many different ways to do this, and they each depend on your level of laundry, yard space (if any), and willingness to stick with it. Today I'll cover the different options for line drying, and tomorrow I will give tips on how to go about line drying your laundry. You may not realize that different clothes require different methods for line drying, or how great wearing a line dried item of clothing can be.

There are many different options available for the hardware involved in line drying. Here at our house, we have both a drying rack and a pulley line system. Other options include parallel or umbrella dryers, various retractable dryers , or the least expensive option of just hooking a length of clothesline between two points.

If you do not have a yard, or just have a small patio or balcony, the drying racks are likely your best choice. That is my preferred tool for drying cloth diapers and delicates. We have a large yard, so our pulley system spans about 50ft between a post and a tree. The system is simple. There's a pulley on either end, attached to heavy duty steel hooks. The rope is passed through both pulleys and cinched together to form a loop. Then you just pull/push the rope to hang the clothes on. Total, we spent about $20 to put it together, and it's something we'll use for years.

The problem with most of the line based drying methods is the sagging line. Even the heavy duty nylon or wire lines will sag with use. I prefer to stick to the cotton line and just tighten as needed. To do that, you'll need a line tightener, available through this link.

Tomorrow, we'll go into further detail of the pros and cons of these systems, as well as some tips.

NOTE: The highlighted links in this post will take you, via referral, to Amazon.com, where you can purchase these products.