Line Drying, I Give Up..

[vintagekitchen]

It's been a good fight, I've held my own as long as I could, but enough is enough. Vera Donovan was right, anyone can smell the difference between a line dryed sheet, and one thats been baked in a dryer, but this is getting ridiculous.

I have spent the last 2 years battling to line dry everything. Between all the working farmland around me, it has been a herculean task to accomplish this and still have clean laundry. The problem is, a good day for drying laundry also happens to be a good day for working the fields. Nothing is more frustrating than hanging 3 lines, each 50 foot long, full of clothes and linens, just to notice 30 minutes later that one of the neighbors is either spraying fertilizer, burning off brush, or tilling the soil, all of which send clouds of dust or stench to settle on your clean laundry. Not to mention dealing with cloudbursts just when the clothes are almost dry, stains from birds eating polk berries then shitting on the laundry, and lines breaking dropping clothes on the ground. Nevermind the misery of hanging clothes in winter.

Ok, so I will just do what they do in europe and dry indoors on racks right? Omg, how do they do it? I know that european washers are smaller, and they tend to just do each load as it builds up, rather than having a laundry day, but jeez, clutter of racks about the place, all the added humidity making the air conditioner work harder, cooking smells settling in the clothes if you forget to close the kitchen door, argh!

I caved. As of tonight, the old 80 series Kenmore dryer is hooked back up, and tumble drying my laundry to pristine fluffiness. I know, I am weak, my grandmother would be ashamed, (she never even owned a dryer until I was 16 and she was no longer able to hang clothes due to physical limitations), but I admit it, I love my dryer! So much easier and simpler to just pop the clothes in, take them out, fold them on top of the dryer, and then put them away.

Am I the only one who gave up on line drying?

 

[lordkenmore]

Am I the only one who gave up on line drying?

I doubt it. If nothing else, many people in previous generations gave up on it when they bought that first dryer....

I know my mother basically gave up on the idea. I don't remember the whys and wherefores. But at one point, I do vaguely recall her line drying outside. And I know there was a period of a few years when she line dried all the time, since the house we were in didn't have an outlet for a dryer. But at some point, she decided it just wasn't worth it. It may have been the day that she brought laundry in, and discovered that a bee had come along.... More likely, she found the dryer more convenient. And optimal outdoor line drying is only available part of the year. (When doing it year round, we must have had lines in the basement or something.)

I, myself, like line drying. I think of doing nothing but line drying, but it seems like I end up making exceptions:
-Years back, I machine dried certain clothes, since they looked OK without ironing. But line drying would require ironing.
-A couple of years ago, I air dried everything EXCEPT sheets. I could have air dried those, except I had only one complete set at that time, and I needed it dry by bedtime.
-Last couple of years, I've stopped air drying hand towels inside. I want them dried outside (where UV rays can help sanitize, or so I'm told) or in a dryer.
-Last winter, I started machine drying almost everything. Stuff did not dry on wood racks as fast as I'd like.

 

[lordkenmore]

Wood racks

can work quite well IF conditions are right. The best situation I had was years back, when I could place my rack in a bathroom near a heat register. My-then roommate ran the furnace blower constantly, and the constant air flow meant clothes dried fairly quickly.

Three years ago, the wood rack, carefully loaded, worked OK in the place where I lived.

Last winter, I mostly gave up on the wood rack. I didn't have a good location for air flow, and I keep my thermostat low. Drying more than a couple of items takes forever.

 

[launderess]

Line Drying, Get Em Up and Dry Em Fast

Though morning sunshine and fresh air are the best for line drying, find often that is when everyone else is doing something. Birds eating and doing their business, persons mowing laws and so forth. Thus one tended to do line drying on weekday morning (when most husbands in the area were at work, thus no lawn mowing or gardening chores) and early enough so things would be dry by afternoon. This required a good breeze and lots of sunshine.

As for living in a farm area you can try making a chart to help determine when and when local farmers are likely to be doing something that might ruin your wash. Of course back in the day "Her Indoors" probably would have marched over to the offending farmer and sorted some sort of arrangement out either with him or his wife. After all the latter likely had washing that had to go out as well and thus understood the situation.

If you're using a toploading washer without a decent high spin, you might wish to invest in a spin dryer or something to get more water out of the wash before it goes to the lines. Things will dry faster thus lessen the time required to be out and exposed to the "elements".

 

[tolivac]

My place has a closthline in the backyard---but the line is right next to the fence-my neighbor has five dogs.Then there are squirrels in the trees and scampering about-often they use the line as a jungle jim.Then,all types of bugs,fying and crawling.Then the pine trees-dropping sap and branches-and no pine smell.So---I just use a dryer as well-And I don't think my things would dry well in the extreme humidity-no drying.

 

[dj-gabriele]

No way I will ever give up line drying!
In full summer clothing get bone dry in as little as 15 minutes if thin and no more than 30 minutes if thick (towels and similar), just be careful to hang them in the morning up to 3 pm otherwise humidity will prevent them from drying at all. We constantly reach dew point at night in summer...
In winter clothes dry almost as fast as in summer because of virtually no humidity when there's clear sky and high winds of the area. The worst load will dry in 2 hours. This is also due to the hi-spinning machine we have compared to the old one.

We only use the dryer when it rains or we have special loads that we want machine dried. As we live in a residential area and have access to our personal flat roof there's no pollution nor garden crap problem. Birds never gave us annoyances!

 

[stan]

I'll never stop

line drying I want my sheets towels out where the sun can get them, also want my whites out side, and have to wash my pillows in Fels Naptha and hang out all day, but i'm not having your problems either, so I guess I cant blame you for giving up.
I don't have "laundry day" where everything is being done at once.
Smaller loads every other day or so!
Have not used my Dryer since last January (do have a drying rack but live in a old house, with a big floor register the rack sit over most everything is dry in 20 min or so!
HTH

 

[frigilux]

I become a line-drying convert 4 or 5 years ago (summers only), and love the way bedding smells when hung outside. Unfortunately, this has been the summer of road/street construction in my area, and both the street in front of my house and the main-route county road at the end of my street (I'm the 2nd house in) have been totally gutted, with new water/sewer pipes installed. Long story short: Lots of choking exhaust from huge machinery coupled with ensuing dust storms from digging equals no line drying. There were a few days of respite, but then the humidity was so high the clothes would have had to hang outside all day to get anywhere near dry. I resorted to using the dryer. Fortunately, my electric rates are very low, so no big deal in that department. Frankly, I like to use the clotheslines to extend the life of the dryer.

 

[pulltostart]

The only items that I routinely line dry are the Girls' linens - all sheets. And I have learned not to load the clothesline and then cut the backyard. Always cut the grass while the sheets are in the washer and THEN hang them out.

lawrence

 

[hoover1100]

Line drying

I really don't see whats so hard about it.

If it's a nice day, hang it out, if there's a rain shower, just leave it! It will dry again when it's passed. If it isn't dry by the end of the day and it's not meant to rain overnight, just leave it out! It really won't hurt it.

At the same time though if you have a dryer, use it on those occasions when it's raining and the washing can't wait until it stops, that's how we use ours.

If you have a lot of washing to do and can't stand having it clutter the house, just have one rack, the biggest you can find, and place it in an out of the way place (a spare bedroom or the garage, for example). Once it's full if there are more clothes to dry they will have to go in the dryer. Only dry indoors when you cannot, for whatever reason, dry outside. You don't want washing cluttering up the place non-stop!

There is a big difference in this Country though, line drying never had the stigma it seems to have picked up in the U.S., so dryers didn't catch on in such a big way. Also today, even the cheaper washing machines spin about twice as fast as your typical American top loader most much more than this, so clothes are a lot drier to start off with.

Also, air conditioning in the home is literally unheard of! Even many large shops, shopping centres, office buildings and cars have no air conditioning whatsoever (including the branch of TK Maxx I work in, and trust me, it isn't because you don't need it!). Even in the hottest parts of southern Europe domestic air conditioning is far from the norm. The humidity created by the clothes drying indoors is therefore, not an issue.

Also the cost of using a dryer is generally more prohibitive here. On our electric rates, running an American style electric dryer for an hour would cost the equivalent of around $2 to run, more like $3 when you factor in the lower average income. To most people this in an unnecessary expense when clothes can be dried for free with only slightly more effort!

So yeah, I line dry whenever the weather allows. In any other house I would dry clothes indoors in rainy weather, but in our tiny 1 bedroom flat which is cold and damp at the best of times, hanging more than a few t shirts up to dry will take about 3 days to be completely dry, even after a really fast spin!

Matt

 

[matthewza]

will also never stop

Here in SA the climate is perfect to line dry all year round. I tumble dry certain things but 95% of the laundry gets line dried. Will never tumble dry sheets or towels straight after washing as I love the fresh smell from the line. I fluff the dry towels in the dryer afterwards. I can hang stuff until 14.00 maybe 15.00 and by 17.00 everything is dry. Always. I dryer dry everything when it rains or if I need something quick. Stick to the line its worth it!

 

[tomturbomatic]

Tant pis.

 

[maytagbear]

Line drying.....a question of appropriate technology

......at least in my opinion.

What works for one person may not work for another. I live in a place that has no back yard. What little green space there is is designated for the parking of other tenants. Drying in the front yard.....is not feasible due to living on a very, very busy state route...car exhaust. Also, if I did hang clothes in the front yard, there WOULD be theft, especially of my nicer towels and sheets. I AM going to be getting a drying rack soon, however. (When we sold the house, my sister grabbed Ma's nice, heavy galvanized metal drying rack, and won't give it up. Lehman's Hardware, here I come.)

So, it's a question of what is right for one's situation, I believe. For me, for now, I let my Maytag gas Dependable Care dryer do the drying.

Link is for Lehman's.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

Lehman's - Products For Simple Living

Live simply with the Lehman's online store. We sell oil lamps, wood cook stoves & more. Non-electric tools & homesteading supplies since 1955.

lehmans.com

 

[DADoES]

 
I've not line-dried (outdoors) anything in 25+ years.  No clothesline at either house.  Hang-dry the occasional item(s) *inside* the house, on hangers on door knobs or open shower enclosure.

 

[westingman123]

I "hang out" whenever weather permits. Which, basically, is all of spring/summer/fall. The poor dryers probably feel left out (or are glad of the respite) as I don't turn them on for months.

When we hung out laundry at the farm, Grandpa knew not to plow or work in the chicken coop or whatever on Mondays. Grandma would cause him pain! Since you're surrounded by non-family farms, I'd have to agree with Launderess--get 'em out early and get 'em in as soon as they are dried. If does sound to me as if you're liking that dryer, though, so maybe you're better off going with the flow!

It tickles me that when I was growing up, EVERY house had clotheslines. Now, I'm one of the last bastions in the neighborhood. A new (young) neighbor leaned over the fence the other day and asked me if I would help her put up clothes poles in her back yard. The circle continues...

 

[washerboy]

I wonder if part of our problme with line drying and smells doesn't have some thing to do with the fact very few people smoke inside the home and people have reduced the amount of frying. When I was growing up my father smoked at least 3 packs a day..all over the house and I never remember thinking..my clothes and bedding smell like smoke..but you know I must have wreeked of Winstons..it's a wonder my mother and I both didn't die from lung cancer years ago...but now if I'm in a home were someone smokes I have to change my clothes and somethime shower because I wreek.I seem to be more sensitive to smells now than what I used to. My grandparent had a farm and the clothes line was out in the middle of a feid away from the brush line; few times do I remember my grandmother throwing a fit because the birds pooped on the clothing. I grew up in town and I remember there was a certain day (Tuesday I think) that we could burn trash. If I recall correctly it was becase mom's did wash on Monday and if the neighbors were buring trash it would make the launday smell. I tried to go "green" and line dry...It was just a pain in the butt. I try to use the dryer after 8pm and before 8am Mon-Fri and Sat and Sun until 8am Monday morning..some how or another the price of electrice goes from 12 cent a kw and hour to 4 cents. I agree bedding lined dryed is awsome...but I hate my bath towels to be like sand paper..oh yeah and there's the underwear issue...I like for my undies to shrink up in the dryer so there snug when I put them on..guess that sounds a werid...lol!

 

[whirlcool]

We don't line dry that much ourselves. This is due to pollen in the air, bugs flying about and in the summer the temps and humidity is high with very little air movement at all. In the spring and fall is when we get our windy days. So that is the best time to line dry.

 

[dustin92]

I like to line dry (when weather and time permit), we just moved into a new house, and I plan to put up clotheslines in the back yard (I need to check to make sure there are no ordinances against it first, NONE of our neighbors have them). At our old house I very rarely line dried because the clothesline was behind the house and we had LOTS of bees/hornets/wasps/yellow jackets, and I am allergic and deathly afraid of them. I have seen very few at this house though.

 

[iheartmaytag]

I line dry

but I'm not fanatical about it. I do bedding, towels, but I like the Perm press to be died in the dryer (less wrinkling).
Jeans do really well on the line as they stiffen up and are almost like they were pressed.

I have to limit line drying when the cottonwoods are flying and when the pollen count is high as it makes sleeping difficult when you are having an asthma attack.

Line drying also makes your whites-whiter.

Had to add: About a week ago it was 106 outside. I Was hanging sheets. The first ones were dry before I got to the other end of the line. I actually was able to take the sheets back in with me after about 10 minutes total.