Random Question :)

[scrapperjade]

I love random questions - so fun!

Do you hang your laundry outside to dry?

So I hung out my laundry on the line today for the very first time this spring. It's a gorgeous day out today - full sun, nice soft breeze, no chance of rain, lol! I love hanging my laundry out to dry (except undies & socks - I hate when I walk by someones yard and their old granny panties are flapping in the wind!!).

[krystalhartley]

No!!!

I have done it--when I was young we were only allowed to use the dryer if it were raining and sometimes in the winter and then again when I lived in Spain (it's the culture there...few people have dryers).

I personally can't stand the smell of sun-dried clothes. I also don't like how they feel (even using fabric softener in the wash).

[jessica31876]

yes we hang them out to dry well except my daughter because she says it ruins her clothes and makes them all stiff so she does her own laundry. My 16 y/o son does his own as well but only because he is soooo particular about his stuff and so its easier to let him do his own then try to do it the way he likes it LOL. But hey I have two teenagers who do their own laundry right? I probably should not be complaining.

[scrapperjade]

They do feel really stiff don't they? I'm not a huge fan of that... but I find that they do soften up in the drawer after they've been sitting for a day or so.

Usually though, I'll toss them in the dryer for 5 minutes with a bounce sheet to soften them up before putting them away.

I mostly hang them on the line because it makes me feel productive, lol. And I love seeing bright baby clothes strung across the yard - it makes my backyard look decorated, haha!

[mummytothree]

Do you hang your laundry outside to dry?

Nope but it's only because I don't have a clothes line!! Maybe I need to get DH on that little project. I do not dry most of our clothes though...We each have a wooden rack like this that I hang all our tops and bottoms on then I only dry socks underwear and towels!!!

[Julie Billingsley]

LOL... I live in Oregon. I like dry clothing, so I can't put my clothes out on a clothesline. When I was a child, we lived in San Diego and put our clothes out all the time. I miss that!

[xboxmom]

Can you say Seattle! LOL and even if I didn't live here I would still use my dryer I just love my soft smell good clothes!

[sarahbhb]

I can't stand sun dried clothes...I hate hate hate the smell (we always hung our clothes out when I was a kid)...having said that we don't have a dryer hooked up here (our dryer is electric and the dryer hook up in the house we're renting is gas...and since we never planned on being here very long just never bothered with it) having said that...we have an unfinished basement with lots of space and I hang up clothes on lines there. Heavy items and large items go to the laundrymat to get dried...especially in summer when it's humid and towels and jeans take forever to hang dry.

[nietis]

I wish I can! My mom does it all the time at our home in Bali. But not here in the UK! All of them will just get wetter instead, with the amount of rain it pours here

[Jengerbread88]

We regularly dry them, and things that are line dry only, we have a place in our basement (where the laundry room is) that has a fan and blows on them... not energy efficient, but I like how it feels/smells better.

We used to have a garage (it became the master bedroom) and we had a line in there for hanging bathing suits and the such... it came in pretty handy!

[Balinda]

I adore line dried clothes and they aren't terribly stiff if there is a little breeze blowing. I don't have a line cuz hubby has not made me one despite the 3 years we have lived here and me begging...but I do put my hanger rack out and let stuff dry like that and I have tons of little plant hooks on my porch where I will hang something to flap around off the hanger until it's dry.

[Megan Turnidge]

No, I like them from the dryer. Plus there's a LOT of dirt here (we live on a dirt road) and it's been really windy lately. My clothes would need a washing after I brought them in if I hung them outside. haha

[coopert]

My husbands and the baby clothes go in the dryer, but mine and my 3 year olds hang dry on the shower curtain railing in our spare bathroom. I think they shrink less and last longer that way. I do wish I had a line outside, though. And I do put them in the dryer for about 3 minutes to soften them up before I hang them. I think that helps them from getting to stiff.

[pewtertm]

Nope, for one, the wind and Oklahoma red dirt would make for a real mess on clothes LOL. Second, we aren't allowed to (management's rules)

[aggiefamily]

Usually just blankets and such. I have a bed wetter so I wash his stuff and line dry it. Never my own items because I have really bad allergies. I once dried my sheets on the line and woke up with hives the next day.

[MamaBee]

Originally Posted by krystalhartley

I personally can't stand the smell of sun-dried clothes. I also don't like how they feel (even using fabric softener in the wash).

ME TOO!!! I can't stand the smell... I grew up always putting clothes out and it was such a pain. Plus my hubby doesn't like his clothes as stiff as cardboard. So, he prefers that I do not so it... phew!

[Darcy Baldwin]

Yep - sure do

[lovely1m]

I live in an apartment, but since it gets costly and sometimes they aren't finished drying after I dry them, I hang them in the closet to finish. I hate air dried clothes though. They are so stuff and crusty feeling. Yuck.

[jessica31876]

When I hang the clothes it smells really fresh like a summer breeze (like orange blossoms, jasmine and freshly cut grass...I love that smell!! I think its better then any fabric softener/detergent scent ever!!)

[nun69]

Originally Posted by xboxmom

Can you say Seattle! LOL and even if I didn't live here I would still use my dryer I just love my soft smell good clothes!

can you say DITTO!!!...Oak Harbor WA!!!! plus I live in gov't housing so I don't have to pay an electric bill...gonna dread having to pay that when I move into my own house!!!

[nonnie]

I am so glad I am not the only who doesn't like the feel or the smell of line dried clothes! As crunchy as I am I do not like line dried clothes!!!

[jovi_girl]

i gotta say, this i am SO surprised by this thread!

Here (western suburbs of sydney) everyone line dries clothes. Year round. Even if it rains, we hang clothes on an airer or an undercover line. The only time stuff goes in the dryer is if its been raining for a week and weve run out of underwear, or i forgot to wash hubbys work uniform and he needs it dry quick.

I guess its partly because its sunny here most of the time, it doesnt rain for long periods of time and it never snows. And the fact that electricity is insanely expensive.

I even prefer the smell/feel of line dried clothes. I guess it all just comes down to what your used to!

[Milmomma]

Okay first off we are in Korea, they don't believe in Dryers. Thank goodness the army doesn't like you showing off your skivvies so they gave us a dryer(loaned for 3 years). Our 6th story appt came with a drying rack in the breeze way! I thought they were crazy. However, it was nice in the winter to hang the snowy coats out there and will be nice for swim suits. I prefer to keep my personals personal.

[DawnMarch]

I'd like to but we don't have a clothes line. I'm also lazy so I suspect that even if we did, I wouldn't stick with it for very long! I do love the smell and feel of sheets that have dried outside.

[jessica31876]

My favorite is towels dried outside. They just feel more absorbent that way. I can soak a machine dried towel with my hair being so thick and long but a towel dried outside it takes alot longer to soak through it. Soemtimes I need two towels to get my hair ssemi dried with machine dried towels.

[Cari]

I would love to hang my laundry outside, but we don't have a pole and probably wouldn't be allowed to put one up

[heatherbird]

I only dry the cloth diapers outside, everything else gets put in the dryer! I think I would hang more outside if I wasn't so paranoid that the dogs would eat it. LOL.

[kristine]

No - I can't be bothered

I have enough trouble remembering to put the clothes in the dryer, I really can't be bothered to take them all the way outside. Also I forget, then it gets dark, and I have to take them in when I can't see anything, and then there's always a spider or some other unwelcome bug on the clothes..

[Gemma]

No, my back garden is awful, like a little hill, and all weedy, the people I rent the house off wont do it for me, and I don't have the £1500 to do it myself, if I had that much money it would be used to move house never mind do the garden of this one.

Plus the UK isn't really known for it's amazing weather so my luck would be that I'd hang it out, it would nearly dry then it would rain. LOL.

[joelsgirl]

Originally Posted by nietis

I wish I can! My mom does it all the time at our home in Bali. But not here in the UK! All of them will just get wetter instead, with the amount of rain it pours here

Hey, I'm going to Bali next month; it's my FAVORITE! Which part are you from?

I go back and forth between line drying and using my dryer. I read that the dryer isn't a big energy hog, so really, why bother? I hate how crinkly my clothes get, and it's such a hassle. My clothes don't fit as well, either, line dried. Yet right this moment, I have a load out there soaking up the sun. Because I am a better person than I want to be.

[nanienamou]

Well, DH washes the clothes, and he would not put them outside, so they are machine dried. However, when we are at the cottage, we don't have a dryer, so we hang the clothes to dry. I love the smell, but not the stiff feeling.

[Leontine78]

No, I live in a appartement, too small to hang my wash.....and besides that a dryer is quicker.....I am an impatient person

[Darcy Baldwin]

I wrote a ton...felt a blog post coming on and didn't want to sound preachy (was not my intent but couldn't assume someone might not take it that way), so removed it here. If you care to read it...here it is.

[nonnie]

Originally Posted by kristine

No - I can't be bothered

I have enough trouble remembering to put the clothes in the dryer, I really can't be bothered to take them all the way outside. Also I forget, then it gets dark, and I have to take them in when I can't see anything, and then there's always a spider or some other unwelcome bug on the clothes..

Holy cow!!! This is so me - I am right now re-washing some clothes I forgot in the washer - what we really need is this little number -

http://www.lgwasherdryer.com/combos/wm3987hwa.htm

I used one in the TLF and fell in love - there are some drawbacks It does take forever to finish one load, But I really really really want one!

[ZaCola3]

YES! I loveee hanging my clothes out on the line-and honestly I see a big difference in my energy bill from Winter to Summer-my dryer is an energy sucker!
I used to hate the stiffness of the clothes-but honestly it does go away-AND-it makes my clothes last longer. I have also found that the sun takes out stains that the washer doesn't always get-Zak has a tendency to get his white t-shirts so dirty from football, and if I leave them out a day or so the sun does the work and bleaches out the marks!

I also LOVE that my towels are stiff, makes them more absorbent when I use them!

[HeatherKS]

Ick! I hate clothes that were dried on the line. I don't like the way they feel or smell. But I'm with Megan, I live in the middle of a field so they'd be dirtier after hanging on the line than they were before they were washed. lol

[Stacey42]

I have outdoor allergies & any time I hung clothes out to dry I ended up sneezing non stop for days because of the pollen and other allergens on them

We use a dryer. It's only a year old and very energy efficient, unlike our old dryer

[Linz]

nope. not a fan of how it makes the clothes feel....or how it would make C sneeze and itch. i don't like the smell either, but i don't like my laundry to smell like anything so that's no surprise (i don't use ANY scented laundry products). there's no way it would be allowed in this neighborhood anyway.


my parents live in the middle of nowhere and have mostly amish neighbors...it's so strange to pass an amish house in the middle of winter (IN, so it gets pretty cold) and see clothes hanging out to dry. yikes...wouldn't want to put those on fresh off the line.

[livelys]

I line dry when the weather permits. Though I prefer the softness of tumbled, I prefer the price of drying on my line outside!

I tumble dried so much this winter, I'm making the most of the free sunshine now.

[Paula]

Do you hang your laundry outside to dry?
With the weather here where I live, no I don't. One day it will be 70 like today, then the next day it'll be 32 and snowing. I would LOVE to hang it out to dry though!

[Jennilyn]

Nope, haven't for years. I don't like how stiff they become and the chances of having a spider crawl on them or the line is pretty good here so I don't want the chance of having to come across one. Plus I'm lazy. LOL

[Gabbina]

I live in Italy.. And here we hang out clothes.. Someone has the dryer, but its rare. I wish i had in winter, though

[Sarah8914]

Wow, I'm surprised by this thread too! I don't know anyone here that line dries their clothes. My family never did so I never have. Never really thought about it. It sounds fun! Hm, now I'm going to have to peak at all our neighbors yards to see if anyone does it!

[[michele]]

How funny - I the smell of sundried clothes, towels and sheets.

But no - we live in a condo so there is no place to do it. And with 5 people (2 are gymnasts, 1 is a soccer player) we would need a reallllly long clothesline!