When I see clothes on the line to dry I get the same feeling I get when I see solar panels – now there is someone who cares about our planet.
I suppose back in the 40s or 50s, seeing laundry out on the line might have provoked some kind of snobby or elitist attitude – Snort, THOSE PEOPLE can’t afford a clothes dryer, I wonder if they even have a TV or indoor plumbing?
The bottom line is if we are to save our planet from turning from a blue marble to a roasted marshmallow, we need to start thinking hard about where energy is being wasted.
By far the worst offending appliance in our household is the clothes dryer. Basically a spinning oven for clothes that are run for hours. We probably spend less time microwaving meals than running that clothes dryer.
One only has to hang outside by the dryer vent to feel all of the warm air our dryers produce and then expel from the house.
While other appliances such as refrigerators, washers, and dishwashers have gotten more efficient over time, dryers have not.
A typical electric dryer may now consume as much energy per year as the combined use of an efficient new refrigerator, clothes washer, and dishwasher, reports the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group.
Hanging clothes out to dry in the sun is being rediscovered as a FREE and non-energy wasting solution to drying clothes that have been around since the first caveman wore his first loin-cloth.
Even indoor racks can be used especially if you have access to a nice warm furnace room or wood stove but you won’t get those special scents people love from drying their clothes in the great outdoors.
Indoor drying racks are great because anyone can use them from apartment dwellers to people living in associations that have rules against hanging laundry out to dry.
In many states, those association bylaws have become nullified by state laws that prohibit the banning of clotheslines.