Beautiful Weather

My wife and I took advantage of the beautiful weather in Kansas City yesterday to do some laundry. "Why would you do that on such a day?!" you might ask. Well, because we love to dry our clothes outside in the breeze and sun.


As we have become more conscious of our carbon footprint in the last few years, line drying our laundry was one thing that we were holding out on. It just seemed like so much more work. We always made lots of excuses while we lived in apartments, even though our good friends and neighbors who lived right upstairs found creative ways to line dry theirs. When we bought a house most of the excuses we had made for years were even less valid than before, so we decided to give it a try. Turns out, it is not nearly as much work as it seems, and in fact it is quite enjoyable. I have grown to really enjoy the 10 quiet minutes after each load while I stand in the breeze and sunshine hanging up clothes.

This spring as we see more and more of these beautiful days like we had yesterday, why don't you consider investing $5 in a clothesline and find the nearest tree to give it a try. What's the worst that could happen?

Now, if you're living in the college dorms, or just have a small apartment, you have good options for line drying your laundry too. For around $20 you can head over to your favorite retailer and get a drying rack with 25 feet of space, all in a compact rack that fits in the corner of your room and then folds up nicely. We use these in the winter for inside drying. I know $20 sounds like a lot to spend on laundry, but when you think about all those quarters going into the dryer every week, $20 goes pretty quickly.

From here on out it's pretty simple. Enjoy the smell and feel of your clothes that no amount of "summer breeze" fabric softener can ever duplicate. There are lots of tips all over the internet for the best ways to hang what items and so one, or better yet, ask your grandma!

Do you have any tips for line drying your clothes? Have you ever done this before? What is holding you back from trying it? Leave your comments here and check back to see what others think about the idea.

p.s. We didn't just enjoy the nice weather by doing chores - we also left the laundry hanging for a while and took the motorcycle out for a spin too!