We all have it.  Most of us hate dealing with it.  It's stinky, you have to deal with stains, it takes time and energy and then you have to fold them or hang them up only to start the whole process over again.  On top of all of that, it's downright expensive, especially when you run the clothes dryer.

Running a clothes dryer costs most families hundreds of dollars a year.  And clothes dryers are rough on your clothes.  A simple solution to rid yourself of this expense is to hang clothes out on a line.  How did we forget this?  Our mothers did it.  Our grandmothers did it.  What did they know that we don't? 

They knew that the sun could bleach out stains from whites better than any commercial product.  They knew that turning shirts and pants inside out kept the sun from doing the same to their colored clothes.  They knew that they could hang their clothes out there and forget about them for hours, going back for them when good and ready.  They also knew that when they brought their clothes in they were clean and they smelled great.

What have we found now that we've been using dryers for so many years?  Well, aside from the cost of the electricity we use, we find lint traps filled with fibers that used to be part of our clothes.  Dryers are hard on clothing, just as hair dryers are hard on hair.  We found that dumping dirty, stinky clothing into one machine, then removing the cleaner smelling but wet clothes and dumping them into another machine, meant that a while later we could remove that formerly stinky pile of clothes and they'd be fresh, sweet smelling, and wrinkle free if we remembered to run when the machines called us.

We found that we didn't get spiders on our clothes anymore, and we didn't have pollen blown onto them from the trees and plants nearby.  We found that we didn't have to put much physical effort into doing laundry anymore.

But at what cost?  For me, the cost is too high.  I LOVE putting dirty, stinky clothes in one machine and taking them out of the other in happy, wearable condition again.  And I have terrible allergy problems so I didn't bother with a line for many years.  But... a friend mentioned hanging her clothes out and how much she was saving from not using the dryer and I realized she was right.  I spent $7 on a very nice basket, $5 on a hundred clothes pins (could have saved a LOT more on both of them), and about $40 on 50 feet of clothes line.  We hung the line on some old poles in the backyard who's ropes had long ago rotted away from the folks that lived here eons ago and we washed about 7 loads.  I don't seem to have any worse allergies wearing line dried clothes than electric dryer dried clothes.

It took a little bit of effort to get the clothes out to the line.  Not much, just a little.  It took a bit of time and effort to hang them all up there.  It was just a bit embarrassing when my overly large sized clothes hung in the breeze for everyone to see.  I hid my undies behind some sheets.  And it took a bit of effort to gather them all and fold them and dump them dry and clean into my basket, and carry the basket back into the house.

I had to shake off one spider.  I probably should have shaken them all a bit to rid them of pollen. But I brought in the most satisfying bunch of clothing I've done in years.  They smelled great!  I felt great.  A bit of physical activity didn't kill me after all!  Whoda thunkit?  The clothes were slightly stiffer than they'd have been in the dryer, especially the towels.  But I saved hours of dryer time, hours of heat and tumbling, hours of that dial on the electric meter spinning like crazy.  And I had wonderful smelling, wrinkle free clothes to hang in the closets.

It was a good feeling.  I may use the dryer for the towels, I'm not sure.  And I may use it on snowy days.  But when the weather is even somewhat OK, the clothes are going outside.  I feel good about it.  You will too.

Addressing The Stiffness

There are several things you can do to reduce or eliminate stiffness in clothes hung out to dry.  Much of the problem comes from those detergent manufacturers. They say to use "this" much detergent.  Well, of course they do, they want you to run out more frequently and buy more detergent just as frequently.  But it's been found that clothing is stiff partly because of built up detergent.  Try using half the suggested detergent.  You'll save money on detergent and the agitation will get the clothes washed.  The best part is that when you pull those clothes off the line they'll be much softer. 

There are other things you can do, as well.  One is to refrain from using fabric softener but instead use vinegar in the final rinse.  Two cups of plain white vinegar will not only soften clothes but kill germs that cause odors.  It's been shown that our clothing does not get all that clean in our machines.  Dogs can still smell the odors left behind.  Vinegar will not only soften the clothes but help with the odor and you won't be able to smell the vinegar when you pull them out of the wash.

Some take the clothes in when they're just a bit damp and put them into the dryer to finish.  Some put the dry clothes in there with a damp cloth on "fluff" with no heat for a few minutes.  Both work well.  But for me, I've found using vinegar, which I also use for cleaning all around the house, works beautifully.  Try smelling a clean towel on which you haven't used fabric softener or vinegar, then one on which you've used vinegar.  There IS a difference.  Don't cover it up, get rid of it.  Vinegar is a lot cheaper than fabric softener.