Many of you know that I have a thing about air drying our clothes. Unfortunately, I do not have a fancy-smancy, nor handy-dandy, laundry line….just a make-do-with-whatcha’-got line that is cobbled from an inexpensive retractable single line attached to my garage and ending on at a tall pvc pipe slipped over a t-post. Isn’t that something?

Last year I reported to you that we had cut our utility costs by 33% for the months of June/July and that I felt that solar drying and cold water washing made the huge difference. Unfortunately, my solar drying is meeting with some opposition this year from Hais and JMorgan. Both cannot stand the smell of fresh, air dried laundry…nor do they care for the crisp feel of nature on their clothes. Between their protests and my own issues with my life being totally unorganized I confess that my solar dryer is not getting much attention this summer. I still hang MY nicer clothes up in the basement instead of letting the dryer vent fill up with the threads from my favorite garments, but I have to admit that I have thrown loads of towels into the dryer lately.

Maybe the wet beginnings of summer kept me from getting in the groove with things…or maybe it is that I am just being lazy because my thoughts are scattered from here to yon. Who knows? Maybe today will be the day I begin to work toward re-establishing my old laundry habits. Hais’ comforter is hanging on the line as I write. She will be home from school in a few hours…maybe it will be dry before she arrives and I can just throw it in on her bed without her noticing. Maybe she won’t notice the lovely aroma…maybe it will soke up the “aroma” from her room before she gets home….maybe I can get away with saving some money while making a tiny impact on energy overuse.  We’ll see.

For those of you who are looking for ideas and motivation for solar drying your own clothes, I strongly urge you to take a look at Project Laundry List. From their website….

“Project Laundry List is making air-drying laundry acceptable and desirable

as a simple and effective way to save energy.

Save approximately 15% on your energy bill.

Do your laundry the green way.

Want your clothes to last longer?
Use a clothesline and cold water wash.”

They even have a store where the profits benefit the non-profit Project Laundry List.

See what I ordered? Adorable! I can hardly wait for it to arrive…..

from the website….
Nova Scotia Dress Clothespin Bag

“These beautiful bags are sewn in Nova Scotia by a woman who spent decades pinning things up on her clothesline. She wanted to have a place to store the pins that was attractive and whimsical. We bring you…the Nova Scotia Dress Clothespin Bag.”

Stop by and take a look at all they have to offer at the Project Laundry List Store.

I guess, about somethings, I am very naive. I never knew there were places where you could not hang your laundry out on a line. On occasions Anita at Prairie Dreams has mentioned that she is not allowed to have laundry lines in her “community” and it always makes me feel badly that I am able and she is not. I love hanging laundry and find it difficult to understand why a such a basic thing as hanging laundry can be denied. In Anita’s case, I believe the reason for the “law” is mainly because it is temporary housing, but there are places in the United States where is it actually written in the laws that laundry cannot be hung outside the home to dry. I find this absurd and right up there on the STUPID LAWS shelf with…not being able to collect water off of your roof line.

Project Laundry Line is an organization dedicated to education and advocacy of “making air-drying laundry acceptable as a simply and effective way to save energy.”  My Project Laundry List newsletter arrived the other day and it referenced an the article, about a laundry line art exhibit titled “Unmentionables’ Sculpture is Hung Out to Dry” from the Washington Post.

{snip}

“From The Washington Post, “Of all the office buildings downtown, Washington Square is perhaps the oddest place for an underwear-art [hung on a clothesline] controversy: One of its tenants is Victoria’s Secret. The lingerie store, under renovation until fall, is just a few feet from where [the] installation once stood. Victoria’s Secret is known for its racy window displays of scantily clad mannequins.” Nevertheless, lawyers got involved and an experienced artist, Joyce Zipperer, was forced to remove the exhibit…..” Read more HERE.

{snip}

Another interesting find at Project Laundry List is the “Petition to the Whitehouse to Regain Your Right to Line Dry” from the Right2Dry.org. (Be sure you have your volume turned up to hear the banjo music.)

“It is the inalienable right of every man, woman and child to line dry.”

Le-e-e-et the su-unshine…let the sun-shine in….the su-unshine i-in….le-e-et…the sun-shine…. le-et the sunshine….
Are you at least humming the tune now?
Yes, we have finally have some sunshine!

I am so very excited to report that the solar dryer is back in business, at least for today. There is still a slight bit of dampness in the air, but the winds and sunshine will more than overcome that one small obstacle.

Harmony and understanding…. that we must all become better stewards of our earth.

Did you know that electric clothes dryers account for approximately 5-10% of all residential electricity useage in the United States?  According to Project Laundry List, hanging laundry could save the average household more than $100 on a household electric bill, and that clothes dryer fires account for about 15K structure fires a year. That is pretty impressive, but if the money aspect doesn’t move you to action, maybe the facts that your clothes last longer, or that sunlight is one of the best bleaches/disinfectant, your clothes smell like a summer vacation, or  the big kahuna of them all….it CONSERVES ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT will cause you to ponder for a moment the possibilities of our own solar dryer.
My very own makeshift clothesline has gone through two (very ugly) design tests, neither which will be permanent, but I DO have a line…errr….solar dryer. This may sound bizarre to some, but my day got instantly better in the realization that I would be ablet to hang clothes today.

While perusing Project Laundry List, I discovered that there are no longer any wooden clothespin manufacturers in America. The Penley Corp. clothespin plant closed in December of 2002 and now imports clothespins and other goods for resale. I found that to be a bit depressing.

I am going to leave you now with The 5th Dimension and Aquarius and Let the Sunshine In….