My Favorite Household Chore

In honor of Earth Day (or Week), I’ve decided to share the one thing I’m passionate about when it comes to being “green.” It starts with my favorite household chore: laundry. Honest! I believe it’s the one chore in this house, while never-ending, that I don’t get frustrated with after completion. Case in point: dusting. Our old house is a dust magnet. While I love it when there is abundant sunshine pouring in our windows, it makes me cringe because it’s just a reminder that no matter how many times I sweep, or wipe down furniture, that there is an eternal layer of dust EVERYWHERE. Once upon a time I thought it would be neat to live in a house with hardwood floors. Now that I do, I find it an impossible challenge to keep them clean and free from dustbunny tumbleweeds. And don’t even get me started on cleaning the bathroom…

But I’m a little off track. Let me say it once again: I enjoy doing the laundry.

Did I mention that we don’t own a clothes dryer?

Call me crazy. (Some of my friends already have!)

I guess this is where my attention to detail and organization come in handy. Coupled with the fact that both Jake and I grew up in households where our mothers hung a majority of laundry out on the clothesline, it’s just what works best for our household. My parents still own the same dryer that they did when they built their house in 1978! My mom has been known to hang out laundry at 9 p.m. on a winter’s night. Now that, to me, is just a bit crazy.

Moving into a house owned by a relative (we bought Jake’s grandparents’ house) made it nice because all of the appliances were left here, including a dryer. Our guess it was from the 1970s or early 1980s, and we were told that Jake’s gram rarely used it as she preferred to hang out the laundry. Having a nice clothesline in our yard excited me, because after 7 years of apartment living, I would hang my clothing on racks to dry. I don’t remember using a dryer all that often, and I think for a period of time I’d take my laundry home because I hated wasting quarters, and am thoroughly convinced a dryer shrinks clothes.

Anyway, the washer and dryer were in a closet upstairs (easier access for his gram, and our downstairs was once an apartment) when we first moved in, and the one time I actually tried to use the dryer, I found that the closet door could not be opened far enough to allow the dryer door to be opened. After we cleaned out our sun room to actually use it, and semi-cleaned the basement, we moved the washer and dryer downstairs.  Jake bought stuff to hook up the dryer, but he also bought a dowel rod so I could hang shirts on hangers to dry. And I wasn’t really bothered by not having the dryer working. Never mind the fact it was a bit wobbly, non-energy efficient, and a likely fire hazard. Finally, this fall, we (well, Jake and his dad) put the dryer out to the curb for trash pickup.

During our 4 years of living here, I’ve either hung our clothes in the basement to dry, or outside. I’ve not given a second thought about not having a dryer. And since we heat with electric and our electric bill shoots up during the winter, I am glad we’re at least saving a little energy by not using a dryer!

I’ve had many questions on how I live without a clothes dryer, and so I figure I’ll share a couple questions and answers for anyone who may be interested in being crazy like me…

1    Aren’t your jeans/socks/towels stiff? Just a little, but I give each article of clothing a good shake before I hang it up to get rid of any excess water and to get some wrinkles out. I do not use fabric softener, but I do find using white vinegar in its place helps soften fabrics. And I hang socks downstairs no matter what because it is kind of a pain to hang up each individual sock with clothespins.

2    What about those clothespin marks? For whatever reason, some days the marks are prominent, others not so much. I think it may have to do with how long I leave stuff out, and how warm it is outside. Once I fold clothes or hang them in the closet, I barely even notice them by the next time the clothing is worn.

3    What do you do in the winter? Everything gets hung in the basement on drying racks or hangers. On the occasional day the temperature creeps up in the 40s and its bright and sunny, I’ll get a set of sheets out on the line. We have enough sets of sheets to get us through the winter, and I’ll admit, I don’t really enjoy hanging our bath towels downstairs (mainly because we have bath sheets because Jake is so tall and likes a big towel), but with the dehumidifier running in the laundry room, stuff dries pretty quickly.

4    Doesn’t the sun fade your clothes? I truly think not. For some dark items, I will hang them inside out (Jake prefers his work t-shirts to be hung that way), but when the girls’ clothes are out on the line, I find that the sun is a great bleaching agent for those odd stains that don’t seem to come out otherwise. And I will say that I’d rather have a little fading over having clothes shrink in the dryer. I’ve been to the local kid consignment store, and I’ve picked out clothing in my daughters’ sizes and there is NO WAY those items would fit them because they are way too small for the size on the tag, and I can tell those clothes were cycled many times in a dryer. But that’s a little off the subject…

5    Doesn’t it take a lot of time to hang stuff out on the line? Well, yes, it’s not as easy as throwing stuff in the dryer. However, once you have clothes in the dryer, you can’t really leave your house. (Can you? I know my mom never did.) I for one would not feel secure in leaving my house with one running. But I can hang a load of clothes out before work and not worry about them… unless an unpredicted rain shower comes along. (That has honestly only happened one time that I can recall.)

Having a clothesline is one of the perks of living in this house. There are some developments here in State College that don’t allow clotheslines. If and when we decide to move, if we can’t have a clothesline, that is a deal breaker. Seriously.

Still think I’m crazy? That’s quite all right. It’s the one smidge of my life that I actually feel like a Supermom.

But don’t expect me to make my own laundry detergent anytime soon.