Our dryer is not working, and for a little over a week now I’ve been hanging our clothes outside. I’m fortunate enough that I live in a part of the country where it’s sunny and warm year-round. I’ve been thinking a lot about women around the world who do this as a matter of course. I feel so spoiled here in middle-class America.
Yet I don’t miss the dryer as much as I thought I would. There’s something aesthetically pleasing about clothes fluttering in the wind. The colors, textures all out in the open, bathed in natural light. However, there are still a few downsides to letting the sun and air do the work for you:
- It takes longer
- Running outside when it suddenly starts to rain and trying to rescue your wooden rack and clothes
- “Crunchy” clothes if you leave them out in the sun
The first one: well, you’re going to have to wait, sister. Planning is key. Fortunately there are ways around the last two. I can leave my wooden rack just inside my terrace area and thus out of the way of an average downpour.
As for crunchy clothes, if I leave them overnight, the night breezes rustle the clothes and in the morning I have softer clothes. Not as soft as clothes from the dryer and using fabric softener, but at leasta sock that can lie down as opposed to stand by itself 
I have a wooden rack that only holds so much. When I wash husband’s clothes, I feel like the wooden rack fills up way too quickly. As a result, I would like for him to install one of those clothes lines. Much more space, and I can do two loads at once. Oh, I would need clothespins too I’m assuming.
I like the fact that we are saving money as well as being environmentally conscious. Now if my washing machine goes kaput, you’ll see me running to get a new system in no time!
What do you do if you live in a place where there are hardly any sunny days, lots of rain and no dryer? I would like to know. Feel free to share your comments!
Hi, I followed your link from the WTM board.
I’m up in the Midwestern Snowbelt, but I hang our clothes on the clothesline every chance I get (sometimes even in the winter if it’s sunny and breezy out). I highly recommend an actual clothesline and wooden snapping pins if you’re going to hang clothes regularly. It’s very relaxing to me to hang the clothes on a nice, sunny day. Try some liquid fabric softener in the washer to help ward off some of the “crunchies”. Thanks for the tip about leaving them out overnight to rustle in the breezes a bit.
Tot ziens.
Dank je wel, Obi-Mom. I love your name, BTW
I’ll be sure to use a clothesline as well. Also much more practical since husband’s clothes are so much bigger than everybody else’s.