Anyone interested in greening their home?

[avjudge]

What do you all use for a clothes line?

Drying racks. They live in a closet in my back living room. I set them up on my back deck, which is a sun trap - house walls on 2 sides blocking breezes, catches sun from the SE & S. In the winter I set them up inside, as I mentioned.

I keep meaning to put up a clothesline, and I've looked at a retractable one, but the racks work fine.

But NOT the criss-cross ones that collapse if the top gets lifted!!! I have & love one like #304 here:
http://www.ecohousekeeping.com/clothesdryingracks.html
Though I needed a hook made of a metal coat hanger to keep it open - my sister's & mother's are tighter & stay open on their own. You can actually close it with the clothes on it to fit it through a doorway (like when it starts raining - you can bring the whole rack of clothes in at once!).

I have 2 of these & like that the rack is thin so you can use clothespins to hold on things that would fly away:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40122995
But the connectors between legs & top are flimsy & one broke on each. If another 1 or 2 go it will be useless.

(Another green thing - I don't use paper towels, I use rags, kept in a bucket under each sink, washed frequently. So there are lots of bits of cloth on my racks that get blown off easily!)

And I put shirts on plastic hangers and dry them on a rack like this:
http://www.improvementscatalog.com/home ... -rack.html

Anne

[melissakd]

My last worries about line drying are

• allergies (there would be a tiny chance of a problem if my pillowcase got blown full of pollen, but the cottonwood etc. usually doesn't bother me if I don't get up close and personal)
  birds
  fading
  stiffness when drying things indoors

Anyone?

MelissaKD

[lisascenic]

allergies -- I have terrible allergies, and line-dried pillowcases don't bother me. Truthfully, I don't really think that there's a lot of places inside your house that pollen can't go. (I do use those anti-allergy pillowcase liners, for dust mites.)

birds -- I can't recall anything being pooped on in all the years I've been line drying

fading -- I think our clothes actually last longer now that we line dry. Think about all that dryer lint. That's your clothes eroding.

stiffness when drying things indoors -- I won't lie. Towels get stiff in the winter. But one good "snap" shake-out takes care of the worst of it.

I'm willing to trade slightly crunchy towels for the energy savings. Have you looked at the amount of energy used by American home dryers? It's staggering.

http://tinyurl.com/29ywrfg

http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/recs/recs20 ... e2001.html

[jsmit]

I have several big trees around my house, so I'm always expecting to find some bird has used the clothesline for a toilet, but so far it hasn't happened. There are a couple months in the spring where I don't hang anything outside to dry since everything is covered in pollen. I do use the drying rack to dry clothes inside, or in the winter I'll hang clothes on the radiators. (I have one of those stupid racks that collapses if you look at it the wrong way. I've never seen any of those other types before.)

[avjudge]

I have maybe once in decades had a problem with bird poop, but that reminded me of an unexpected problem I also had when I left my laundry out overnight - cat spray (pee)!!! And right back in the washer that (whatever) went!!!

This is more a danger with racks than with a line, as everything is generally closer to the ground. And it was a larger item, a towel or a small rag rug from my kitchen (not sure which), so it hung near the ground.

The neighborhood cats had to make their statements to my Jack, who would then go around when I let him out in the morning and "reply." I don't have Jack any more - lost him last month at age 6 to advanced pancreatic cancer - and I don't smell as much cat pee around the house. But I'd much rather still have Jack and have to wash a few items twice.

[Kansas. 1911.]

Speaking of laundry, I decided to do a laundry theme one year for my husband's Christmas gifts. I ordered a nice big indoor drying rack. I also ordered those blue "dryer balls" for the 5-10 min. that he dries his dress shirts before hanging them on plastic hangers. So...he had to go back to teaching after the break and try to explain to friends who asked, that "what he got for Christmas," was "dryer balls."

[melissakd]

Speaking of laundry, I decided to do a laundry theme one year for my husband's Christmas gifts....he had to go back to teaching after the break and try to explain to friends who asked, that "what he got for Christmas," was "dryer balls."

Awesome!

Everyone, thank you for your detailed replies. I'm quite willing to give it a try when we finally buy the house. It was on our last visit that I noticed the clothesline attachment and am enchanted with the idea of leaning out my kitchen window with clothes pegs in my mouth. I'll just have to see if the local birds, breezes, etc. cooperate.

MelissaKD

[wrylass]

I have several big trees around my house, so I'm always expecting to find some bird has used the clothesline for a toilet, but so far it hasn't happened. There are a couple months in the spring where I don't hang anything outside to dry since everything is covered in pollen. I do use the drying rack to dry clothes inside, or in the winter I'll hang clothes on the radiators. (I have one of those stupid racks that collapses if you look at it the wrong way. I've never seen any of those other types before.)

I can understand that--they're busy with my car

I mostly use rags too, but there are occasions (I have 4 dogs) when paper towels are just the thing. These days there are even choices when it comes to 100% recycled paper products, which is all I buy. It took me a little while to reconcile myself to the texture, but I got over it.

PS My mother isn't nearly as enthused with the green thing as I am ... when she was unwrapping a vintage jadite soap dispenser, the glass is hobnail-style, and at first she thought it was a dryer ball--so she was thrilled to find it was something she actually wanted

[Kansas. 1911.]

hahaha That's funny. At least she likes old stuff. One out of two isn't bad.

[melissakd]

My mother isn't nearly as enthused with the green thing as I am ... when she was unwrapping a vintage jadite soap dispenser, the glass is hobnail-style, and at first she thought it was a dryer ball--so she was thrilled to find it was something she actually wanted

Delightful.

MKD