I'm trying to save money on electricity by line-drying my clothes outside, but, while the clothes do get dry, I find that they also get stiff. This is especially true with towels, and some of them are almost sharp and bristly after drying on the clothesline. I don't remember this happening when my mother would put our clothes on the line, so maybe I'm doing something wrong. Do any of you dry clothes on a clothesline, or do you always use the dryer?
Are you using fabric softener in your laundry? I like to line dry my clothes when I can but they do come out stiff if I do not use fabric softener.
My friend does it a lot, not all of the time, and they save quite a bit of money. But their family is a family of 14 :O I think it depends on the size for if you actually save money, and how many loads you do a week.
We don't have a clothes dryer and what we bought is a clothes hang-dryer that we place in the terrace. We also have a line clothes dryer by the side of the house that we use to hang the laundered clothes. Maybe you can say that it is one way of saving electricity but it also saves us money from buying a clothes dryer which is expensive here. But when it is raining, we cannot wash the clothes otherwise they will not dry properly and develop at bad odor. That's the time we use the rack clothes hanger in the terrace with a running electric fan to dry help in drying the wet clothes.
I think line drying is best for clothes and towels, but as for getting towels soft and fluffy, that's usually only when you tumble dry them. The best thing to do is once you have brought them in is to put them in the airing cupboard and the heat in there will soften them again. It's the heat that makes them soft, so if it's a breezy cold day they won't be soft, but if it's a hot sunny day they will be.
Some great advice in here! I love the idea of air drying my laundry naturally. I'll definitely remember about heat softening clothing.
It also helps save money because there is less wear and tear on the clothing when it air dries. The clothes don't get overheated or shrink. If you miss a stain, it isn't "baked in" by the dryer, etc. If you use good fabric softener it should help with the stiffness, but there is also another trick. You can air dry clothes, towels, and linens, until they are almost dry and then pop them into the gas or electric clothes dryer for just a few minutes. Five or ten minutes in the dryer instead of an hour + will still help cut down the electric usage and costs. You get soft clothes and savings. There are also more appliances all the time that claim to be much more energy efficient. You might look into buying a more efficient dryer.
I always line dry my clothes, but have never faced this problem. Can’t say what went wrong with you. Maybe it is the material. Some materials tend to become stiff after washing.
I have to be honest and while growing up, my parents always hung clothes out to dry on the line, I nearly always no use the dryer. It does of course use a lot of electricity and if your trying to save then a dryer isn't for you, but it does cut down on time and is a lot more convenient. I guess when we talk about trying to save money, it's always a battle between saving time and energy and saving money as most of the time we can't do both. In this case we want clothes to dry and quick as possible but don't want to pay for the electricity for a dryer, so we have to compromise a little.
I line dry my clothes everyday since I don't own a dryer. I guess the clothes stiffens depending on the soap that is used. The clothes that I usually wash with powdered detergent is the one that gets stiff versus using liquid detergent. I have heard that line drying clothing is much better for the clothes than with the dryer.
I love the feel and the smell of line-dried sheets; but towels and clothes do tend to get stiff when they are dried on the line. If there is a breeze then that can help out a lot because it is almost like tumbling the clothes in a clothes dryer. If you have a clothes dryer, then a good way to do it is to dry the clothes outside on the clothesline, and then bring them inside and tumble them in the dryer for just a few minutes to soften and fluff them up. Otherwise, if you take the towel and shake it , like you were shaking something out of the towel that will also help to soften it up; but nothing works as well as thumbing them in the dryer for a fewminutes once they have dried outside on the clothesline. Drying clothes outside in the sunshine is also a natural way to bleach the clothes and make white clothes whiter and brighter again. However, this is not so good with clothes that are dark and you do not want them to bleach out. I usually turn those clothes inside out, so the sun only hits the inside, and that allows the outside to stay darker longer. Drying them in a shady area works, too.
