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Monday, March 16, 2009

Air Drying the Jeans Load....

Some observations:

  • Hanging out the wash isn't cheap. It cost $20 to buy the cheapest laundry drying rack I could find. I went with metal because the wooden one I had in college broke if you put anything heavy on it.
  • A load of wet jeans weighs a lot - it strained my back to carry it up stairs and out to the back yard.
  • I hung half outside and half inside at about 10 am this morning. It is now 6 pm and neither the inside jeans nor the outside jeans are dry yet. I am leaving for a meeting and can't leave them out any longer. I am going to have to bring them in and dry them in the dryer!
  • My family needs their jeans load done in one day...we don't have any jeans to spare. So hanging out the jeans load is not a good option for us.
  • I'm thinking the environmentalists that recommend this option as a good way to go green aren't doing a family's worth of laundry at a time.
  • I'll try it again with a different load, but for now, I am convinced air drying the laundry isn't worth my time and effort....

2 comments:

  1. I got my laundry drying racks at IKEA for a good price...not useing them now but I am hanging my laundry and in this dry air the stuff is dry in 2 house but so are my eyes, nose, lips, hands, hell my while body. I have broken down and I am using my oil of olay face cream on my body and on the kids, it is the only think that will find the dry. Jeans dry in 3 hours. In michigan jeans will dry in 3 hours on this hot windy days so only another 3 months for you :)

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  2. I agree with your experiment results. I don't have much success with hanging jeans out to dry, either. Takes too long and they end up uncomfortably stiff.

    I do, however, hang sheets, pillowcases, and some quilts out on the clothesline. They dry fairly quickly and hanging them out in the sun helps with bleaching any whites.

    I don't hang towels out on the line because they become scratchy-stiff.

    I don't have an electric clothes dryer - ours is a gas dryer and we run it on propane.

    Whatever carbon expended on the dryer, I believe can be offset in other ways - like switching to CFL lights, unplugging appliances not in use, and washing in cold water.

    Being carbon neutral is one thing, but being realistic is another. :)

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