I really don't know what I have gotten myself into. I can't stand doing laundry. I avoid it until the mountain of clothing threatens to fall out of my closet, or I don't have any, um... really important article of clothing to wear.
Then, I do a load, forget it sometimes for days, and in an ultimate NON-green move, have to wash it again because it smells. This is terrible. Let's just say there is lots of room for self improvement here.
Recently, Seventh Generation emailed to ask me if I would participate in a laundry challenge. This involved a 30 day challenge to use only non-toxic, earth safe products to wash my clothes (like Seventh Generation makes), to only line dry clothes, and to wash only in cold.
Why, you ask? Just check this out:
· Laundry that's cold water washed and line dried lasts longer, helping to protect the environment and your wallet.
· Cold water washing and line drying helps conserve energy and the environment, while reducing climate change.
· If Americans air dried their clothing for 10 months out of the year, we could avoid 12 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.
· If every household in the U.S. replaced just one bottle of 100 ox. 2x ultra petroleum-based liquid laundry detergent with our 100 oz. 2x ultra plant derived product, we could save 466,000 barrels of oil, enough to heat and cool 26,800 U.S. holes for a year.
· 60 million Americans live in approximately 300,000 community associations. The majority of these restrict or ban the clothesline.
· You can reduce the full life cycle climate change impact of your jeans by up to 50 percent by line drying and washing them in cold water.
· Conventional detergents contain polluting surfactants like alkylphenol ethoxylates, or APEs. Natural laundry products use safe, biodegradable ingredients such as vegetable oils.
· Laundry that's cold water washed and line dried lasts longer, helping to protect the environment and your wallet.
· Cold water washing and line drying helps conserve energy and the environment, while reducing climate change.
· If Americans air dried their clothing for 10 months out of the year, we could avoid 12 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.
· If every household in the U.S. replaced just one bottle of 100 ox. 2x ultra petroleum-based liquid laundry detergent with our 100 oz. 2x ultra plant derived product, we could save 466,000 barrels of oil, enough to heat and cool 26,800 U.S. holes for a year.
· 60 million Americans live in approximately 300,000 community associations. The majority of these restrict or ban the clothesline.
· You can reduce the full life cycle climate change impact of your jeans by up to 50 percent by line drying and washing them in cold water.
· Conventional detergents contain polluting surfactants like alkylphenol ethoxylates, or APEs. Natural laundry products use safe, biodegradable ingredients such as vegetable oils.
· The average household can save up to $25 per month off electric bill by line drying.
Pretty compelling, right? They even sent me at portable clothesline (well, not so portable, read on to find out what I mean), a jug of Seventh Generation Natural 2x Concentrated Laundry Liquid (good for 66 loads of laundry), clothespins, a non-plastic laundry basket, and a flip camera to record the whole thing.
Now, we already do cold water washing (most of the time). Most of the time I also dry most of my laundry (or so I thought) on a drying rack. I thought it would be easy, really.
This evening, as you can see above, my oldest daughter "helped" me hang the laundry, after I put up the clothesline, and it was going very well. But I was surprised how much one load really is. I filled the rack quickly. All the while I was telling my girl how this is much better for the earth, and she beamed, shouting "save energy!" as she ran around the clothesline. Ah, green happiness (and some overlapping clothes).
Fast forward and then it is 8pm and my clothes aren't dry yet. I get the brilliant idea to collapse the rack and bring it inside. With all the clothes on it. I make it inside my basement, but now it won't open again. I wrestle with *&;%$ thing for far longer than I'd like to admit, almost breaking it. Currently, most of my clothes are still attached to it, damp, and collapsed in on top of each other. After all this, they STILL might smell like I left them in the washer!
Well. This is day one. So it has to get better. My moral? Hang the laundry early in the day (lots more hours to dry). And the portable clothesline is only portable WITHOUT clothing on it. And please keep your fingers crossed for me-- no rain!
PS- What are your tips for line drying? And I'll be posting about a sweet giveaway of the Seventh Generation Landry Challenge materials, listed above.
7 comments:
My tips for line drying in Vermont (or any other humid place):
1> check the forcast! cluster your washes on the dry days and hang extra wash on railings,etc. if need be!
2> have an indoor drying rack - this way you can pop things on it if the weather is iffy
3> hang the biggest, heaviest items 1st (like jeans) - it will make the rest of the load seem smaller & much more manageable
4> give yourself a break if it pours on your laundry and you need to start over the next day - it happens!
I love the smell of line dried clothes! It reminds me of my Mom. I wish more neighborhoods allowed clothes lines. I do miss it. I also use a non-toxic, concentrated detergent and it saves so much money!!
My dryer recently broke and have been line drying my clothes. I know its better for the environment, but they tend to come out stiff and wrinkled. There is definitely an art to line drying that our grandparents probably knew. I have done the indoor line drying thing as well since the summer sun here would most likely bleach out all my clothes. But I am not sold on this as my only way of drying. I would like to see how your challenge goes!
I have such a huge pile of laundry, because I have been at work and not able to get it done and outside!
Thanks so much for your ideas, Sharon, and for your comments, Mikki and Judy.
I love air drying my clothes. I dry every thing on a clothes drying rack year round. I dry inside most of the time since it is usually in the evening when I do my laundry. It works so well and saves me money and I believe it sets a great example for my kids about conservation and hopefully it will help save some resources for the future.
I grew up with a large clothesline, 2 poles and lots of line in our backyard. My mother also had a dryer. We hung up all bedding, most clothes, and miscellaneous items. But we used dryer for towels, they get too stiff on line and heavy items like jeans, etc, they also get too stiff and uncomfortable. Also besides the sudden storms, birds were a problem and often we had to rewash items!
No one mentioned the new energy saving front loading washing machines. Since they use much less water, the clean clothes are not as full of water and you use less energy to dry them in machine and they would dry faster outside.
We have a basement boiler room and we hung the wet clothes on the pipeline. they get dry overnight especially in winter when the heaters are on. A bit slower during the summer, but the water boiler runs 24 hours.
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