Hang Dry Your Laundry: Just Do It!
Speaking of laundry… Hang-drying your laundry is so easy, it’s something everyone should do! The sun is just sitting out there waiting for some laundry to dry for free. Even in Seattle, we keep the clothesline up year-round (though it doesn’t get much use from October – May).
We hung some rope from the house to a spare bamboo pole, and then back again, to provide two lengths of clothesline from which to hang clothes. And we added a drying rack for increased capacity. You can also see stuff hanging from chairs and even toys.
We’re blessed with a large deck that has Southern exposure, but there’s no reason you couldn’t do this inside, or on a small scale if you have a smaller yard.
There are plenty of other tips to increase the space on the clothesline: hang clothes from hangers or even an old umbrella frame.
And the proof is in the financial pudding. Dryers are one of the biggest energy consumers in the house. We just got our electricity bill for June/July (when we’ve been able to hang-dry almost exclusively). We used 387kWh per month.
According to the Government, “In 2010, the average annual electricity consumption for a U.S. residential utility customer was 11,496 kWh, an average of 958 kilowatthours (kWh) per month. Tennessee had the highest annual consumption at 16,716 kWh and Maine the lowest at 6,252 kWh.”
So we’re at about 1/3rd the national average. Granted, energy costs are lower for us in the summer, so let’s look at our family’s yearly average (the Seattle City Light bill gives you a nice graph of your yearly consumption), 811kWh per month. Lower than average, but we still have some ways to go before we can beat Maine! In February, our most electricity-consuming month, we use over 4x the amount of electricity we use over the summer!
Not only are you saving money, by hanging your clothes to dry you’re also helping save the earth. I love when those two things go together!
PS: Washington state enjoys the 2nd lowest energy costs in the nation (probably due to all our hydroelectric). But that doesn’t mean you can waste it!
I’m curious about Maine. My guess is that low electricity consumption is due to winter heat being provided by oil burning furnaces rather than electric baseboards.
Good question! I couldn’t find anything by googling, so I asked on Quora. Hopefully someone there will know.
I would love to hang-dry laundry, but given the nasty grit that accumulates on everything on our deck (thank you Viaduct & coal trains), I’d end up having to wash everything again. Boo!
Oh I never thought of that! Yuck! Maybe there’s a workaround? Like one sacrificial sheet that blocks the rest of the laundry?