http://www.democraticunderground.com/1093806Oh my.
Re-inventing the wheel.
Pool Hall Ace (5,768 posts) Wed Feb 12, 2014, 11:01 AM
Do you ever air-dry your clothes?
I saw this in The Vermont Country Store Catalog and was intrigued. When I was a sprog, our house had a rather large laundry room where clothes could hang to dry. We could also hang them outdoors if weather permitted (no pesky HOA rules back then).
I have also heard about an IKEA drying rack that is supposed to be good.
Even if my dryer was not starting to go on the fritz, I like the idea of saving both energy and wear-and-tear on my clothes. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that people in Europe and Asia live quite comfortably without a clothes dryer.
So how about you? What kind of impact has it had on your energy bills and clothing? Do you need to use a particular type of detergent?
LiberalEsto (19,440 posts) Wed Feb 12, 2014, 11:09 AM
1. I air-dry some things
I like the way things smell after hanging outdoors in good weather. I also air-dry delicate items outside in the summer, inside on cold or rainy days.
I drilled holes for eyehole screws in the laundry room's ceiling beams when we moved to this house, and strung clothesline back and forth across the room. Very useful,
hlthe2b (49,666 posts) Wed Feb 12, 2014, 11:13 AM
2. Oh, yeah, all the time...
My basement is only semi-finished and I have a long steel "beam" with railing that goes directly across where my washer/dryer are (and another one in the back of the basement that I can use to hang off season clothes--which I periodically spray for clothes moths before storing.
I also have one of these that is handy for towels--which I tend to dry in the dryer to about 20% dry and then air dry to finish. BED BATH &Beyond sells these
http://s7d9.scene7.com/is/image/BedBathandBeyond/15062617445383p?
The kind you are looking at are very top heavy, so you have to really be careful about balancing clothes as you hang them to prevent toppling, but certainly can work.
I don't have a large household so don't do as much laundry as others, but still, the less you use an electric dryer, the better the $$ savings.
NEOhiodemocrat (819 posts) Wed Feb 12, 2014, 11:26 AM
3. I air dry clothes
In the summer I hang out clothes, but out in the country no HOA, not everyone can I realize. In the winter thought I put a clothes pole (like you do in closet) over my washmachine from wall to wall. We have a small laundry area. I can hang shirts etc from it. Also have one of the folding racks that I put socks, underwear other small items on. Sit it in front of the wood stove if in a hurry. And as a backup when need more room hang hangers of clothes from the shower curtain rod. But our laundry area is right off the bathroom so that is handy for me. I use my everyday laundry detergent but the kids gripe because I don't use softener. I do put my towels in the dryer alot of the time as I don't like them hard. I feel that not using the dryer much must save money, but no data on that.
Curmudgeoness (12,921 posts) Wed Feb 12, 2014, 07:29 PM
7. Of course it saves money. It is free to air dry.
^^^the primitive with the sensitive bottom; a pal of the big guy in Bellevue, she's still looking for a charity for the homeless run by atheists.
canoeist52 (1,767 posts) Wed Feb 12, 2014, 12:25 PM
4. When my sister visited Sweden in the '70's
They had a rooms set up with clothes racks and lines with hangers around the perimeter, In the middle, were placed room fans to move the air. This seems to be the fastest and most efficient way to dry many loads at once.
I have an indoor folding wooden rack for drying the non dryer woolies in the winter.
I love my outdoor clothes line, I can hang two large loads of laundry at once from March to November. Cloth lasts much longer when it's air-dried. I like my stiff cotton towels.
Pool Hall Ace (5,768 posts) Wed Feb 12, 2014, 06:33 PM
5. You really do like the stiffness? 
I know that some people say it helps with exfoliating. I've read a few blogs that talk about using eco-friendly laundry detergent to help prevent stiffness when air-drying clothes (or use soap nuts, which are mentioned in another thread).
hermetic (1,971 posts) Thu Feb 13, 2014, 12:03 PM
8. I use vinegar
Add 1/2 cup of white, distilled vinegar to the last rinse cycle of a load to act as a natural fabric softener.
http://www.wikihow.com/Add-Vinegar-to-Laundry
I have not put anything in a dryer since 2006. 100% air-dried, indoors and out.
Curmudgeoness (12,921 posts) Wed Feb 12, 2014, 07:28 PM
6. I often air dry clothes in the summer,
but I don't have a good place in the winter. My basement, where the laundry area is located, is very damp and cold in the winter, so things just don't dry. I think that they would mold before they dried. I have no problems with just using my regular discount laundry detergent, although I will say that some things are stiffer than I like. I never thought that this would be due to the detergent that I am using.
snacker (2,769 posts) Sat Feb 15, 2014, 10:30 PM
9. I only use my dryer for towels
Everything else air dries---outside if the weather is decent or in our basement if it's too cold. I hang towels out to dry on windy days.
Whoa-ho.
That reminds me.
I've of course mentioned s-o-o-o-o-o-o many times about growing up in a home without television, but now I suddenly remember (my childhood was a long time ago) we never had a clothes-dryer either. A state-of-the-art washing-machine always, but a dryer, never.
It couldn't have been for lack of money or space, because there was no lack of those.
I dunno why; we just never did.
Where we lived when I was a child, alongside the Platte River of Nebraska, one just walked out the ground-level door from the laundry-room to the clothes-line; just some several feet away. Where we lived when I was an adolescent, in the Sandhills of Nebraska, one just walked out the ground-level door from the laundry-room to the clothes-line; just some several feet away.
Spring, summer, autumn, during raging blizzards; the clothes inevitably got dry.
<<<bets the parents of Sacred Memory saved a fortune on electric bills, what with no television or clothes-dryer to suck up wattage.
My living conditions of course are different now; the laundry here's done by the wife of the retired property caretaker; she comes every Monday to pick up things, and brings them back every Wednesday. I dunno what she does, but she's an excellent seamstress too, because I'm rough on clothes.
<<<however, not averse to hand-scrubbing clothes (on a wooden bread-board, with soap and a stiff brush) and hanging them out to dry in the clean fresh air of the Great Outdoors, if need be, which sometimes happens.
