The argument for a laundry line and air-drying your clothes

Laundry lines aren't the most glamorous topic, but they are more interesting than you might think. Especially if you're trying to reduce your carbon footprint. Oh, and save money.

Your clothes dryer is one of the most energy-intensive appliances in your home. BY some estimates, they cost about $85 a year to operate and emit an average of about 3.9 pounds of carbon dioxide every day (according to the Sierra Club).

No wonder line-drying has become rallying cry for environmentalists. Yes, there are now laundry-line activists who are fighting to overturn municipal ordinances and homeowners association bylaws against line drying. (Visit them at LaundryList.org)

It's a compelling argument. We installed a laundry line this spring. And we hang out our laundry maybe three times each week. I admit that sometimes it can be a hassle to lug the laundry up the stairs and outside. Line drying definitely takes more time-- there's the lugging, the hanging, and of course, the fingers-crossed hope-it-doesn't-rain-before-my-clothes-dry dance. Oh, and line drying makes your clothes a little "crunchy", which is remedied only by lugging them back to the laundry room for a 5 minute tumble in the dryer to soften them up.

My hubby was the driving force behind the laundry line. I admit I was slow to warm to the idea. But now that we're in the groove, I love it. There is something relaxing about slwoing the pace of my over-booked life long enough to pin up each sock and towel as squirrels scurry in the trees above me. Something invigorating about the fresh air.

And something great about slightly lower electricity bills, although it's hard to tell how much of that is laundry and how much is our switch to compact flourescent bulbs. (That's another story.)

Even though our neighbor protests, insisting that laundry lines are low-rent (A common perception, despite all of them growing up with mom's who line-dried), we aren't alone in our laundry lining.

Here are several news stories on the issue:
This Story in the Boston Globe

A story in the CS Monitor

We like it so much we're thinking of upgrading with two high-tech laundry lines, one outside and one in the basement laundry room. (Check these out:http://www.clotheslineshop.com)