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| Photo Credit |
I wash my clothes using THIS RECIPE in my front loading Bosch. I think I've saved lots of dough over the last few years using this high efficiency contraption! I am super thankful for it! When drying lights or darks I'll pop them in the dryer (again a Bosch) on the lowest perma-press setting. After about 10-15 minutes the beeper lets me know they are ready. They are still quite wet, but the dryer has taken the excess moisture out of them and fluffed them enough that they won't be stiff. Some shirts are dryer than others, but they are all still on the damp side. I take them all out and hang them up. I have a drying rack that's attached to the wall that can hold about 8 shirts/ dresses on hangers.
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| Something kind of like this. Photo Credit |
Then there's a small rod between the wall and a cabinet in the laundry room that holds about 4 shirts/ dresses on hangers. I also have a few hooks in the hallway and another rack that I can hang up about 5 or 6 shirts in the hallway to dry. My future plan is to have hubby put brackets on opposite walls in the laundry room so I can hang a removable rod to dry more shirts so they can be a bit more concealed in there instead of hung hither and yon in the hallway. He's also going to install brackets and a removable rod in the garden room (a small room off the hallway that holds our pool gear, swimsuits, towels and a mini clothes line -- I'll get to that) so I can hang even more things up.
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| Kind of like this...but with plastic hangers. Photo Credit |
After I've hung up all the shirts I then run the rest (usually shorts or pants) in the dryer on another cycle until they are mostly dry. A few pair may have to be draped over the chair since the waistband is damp, but they are dry in a few hours. (I plan on having hubby make me another drying rack so I can take them out and drape those over when I also take the shirts out.)
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When it comes to the towels I take the wet bath and hand towels from the washer and drape them over a Wooden Clothes Drying Rack
in the garden room. I usually have to open the back door to get some air flowing, but since it doesn't open in the direction of the horses we're good to go. (I can close the door from the house to the garden room so if it's hot outside the clothes will still dry, but the house will stay cool.) Right now I'm drying washcloths, kitchen rags and towels in the dryer (it doesn't take too long) or if I have room in the garden room on my Retractable Clothes Line. 
When it comes to undies and socks, those get dried in the dryer..I don't like my unders to hang dry. First off we don't have enough space...can you imagine how many pairs of unders I have to wash?! And if we have company drop by I really don't want them seeing our unders. You know? *smile*
All of this to say that sometimes you have to get creative when you want to shave a few dollars from the budget. This has helped our electric bill since I'm not running appliances longer than I need to (they are high efficiency but they still use electricity) and I'm not heating up the house and causing the air conditioning to run more than it really needs to. I also get the satisfaction of "hanging out" without actually going outside in the sun and heat. *double smile*
Do you hang outside? Everything, including unders? Do you hang some clothes inside? Am I the only one? Ferris? Ferris?
4 comments:
Hi Carmen,
This post made me smile because after days of torrential rain and being cut off from town for a few days my family/dining room resembles a dry cleaning shop - there is so much laundry hanging from the ceiling! With no one coming to visit with our road being closed I took the chance and hung up the unmentionables too! We have high cathedral style ceilings and beams and earlier this year came across two old vintage wooden ladders. One is in the kitchen and is going to be a pot rack above the new stove. The other is for drying clothes and my husband installed it just the other day. It sits just under the ceiling fan and close to but not directly above our Stanley wood stove. We're not sure about the chain used to string up the ladder - looks a bit industrial but it makes for a great drying rack. I'm going to find some nice wrought iron hooks to attach to the side to increase the drying space. I'm using wooden hangers on the rungs but have seen some nice decorative iron quilt hangers on ebay. I have not used my dryer for months and months and we have had a very wet year thus far. Most of our rain falls over summer but has continued into winter. I have a large rotary washing line which is often full. When the ladder is not being used for drying clothes I may hang up bunches of herbs to dry. Very country, very rustic but an old ladder is ideal for drying clothes if you have the room. Did take some searching to find wooden ones though!
I usually only wash once a week. If I can, I hang out everything, even undergarments. I just hide them in a row between something larger.
good idea!!! With our second child (3 months now) we decided to do cloth diapers and i have to hang dry the outside of the diapers and most days i just line them all on my front porch! i told my husband we needed a clothes line in the backyard and i think he thought i was kiddin! we live in the middle of no where (so not a lot of people to see our clothes - i would just dry the undergarments!) but maybe ill start just hanging all around the house... he might get the hint to make me a clothes line haha :)
I have been married and keeping a home for almost 40 years. I love to line dry my clothes. I also have several wooden racks and rods in my laundry room to hang clothes. My dryer is the one thing in this house I would give away in a New York minute except my husband says NO. I would use the space for another drying rack, but he says I need to keep the dryer for 'emergency' use?? Don't know what emergency will require a dryer.
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