Left hanging

Over the past few months I have only used a clothes dryer on a few occasions.  I first thought I might want to try doing without a clothes dryer for a while in early April.  We had a few of those days where the weather was warm and sunny and I got really excited about hanging clothes up to dry outside, but then it quickly returned to the cold and it rained for weeks.  Meanwhile, the dirty clothes piled up in my closet while I waited for a sunny and warmish day that was suitable for hanging clothes up to dry outside.  Finally, the weather turned nice and I had time to do laundry.  I found a rope in the garage and strung it up on our deck out in the backyard.  It took me a few days to get all my laundry done and dried.  The really sad thing is that I have so much clothes that I could have piled up so much dirty laundry.  Since then I think I’ve only used the dryer on a few occasions.  While I was in El Salvador using a dryer wasn’t even an option.  I’m not sure what I’m going to do when winter finally sets in.  I might hang up some stuff to dry inside, but I might go back to using the dryer.  We’ll see.  

Laundry from today

Yes, hanging clothes up to dry outside takes longer and it’s more work than just throwing stuff in the dryer.  You have to deal with or avoid the elements of the outside world- wind, and rain mostly.  My mom graciously chased down clothes that tried to escape on a really windy day.  I can’t just do laundry whenever I want- I have to make sure there is time and appropriate weather for the clothes to dry. 

There are benefits though:

• The real reason I wanted to limit my use of the clothes dryer is because it uses a LOT of electricity.  The clothes dryer is responsible for 5-8 percent of the average household’s electricity use.  By hanging my clothes up to dry, I’m helping the earth and I’m reducing the electricity bill.
• It’s nice watching the laundry gently blowing in the wind.  One day I had T-shirts hanging of almost every color of the rainbow. 
• There is something romantic and nostalgic about doing something people used to do back in the good old days.
• Drying my clothes outside has made me dependent on the weather.  In a way it has made me more dependent on God- I have to wait for God to provide good weather for drying my clothes. 

I still feel a little bit weird hanging my clothes on the line outside, because that’s not how the neighbors do things here in the suburbs.  But I do it anyway and hope that my neighbors will join me in harnessing the power of the sun and the wind to dry clothes.