5 Tips from a Line-Drying Expert

I am lucky to have a Line-Drying Expert right here in my own home: my husband, who hails from Stroud in England. When we were first married, he was somewhat shocked at my lack of air-drying skills. 

Drying clothes, growing herbs 

on our tiny beach-house landing

With my husband's help, I've gradually figured out to dry clothes without a dryer and without anxiety. He's offered lots of washing and drying help and advice over the years.

Here are his five top line-drying tips:

1. Check the weather: You can line-dry your laundry in any climate, but it helps to be in tune with the environment. In years past the BBC radio announced which days of the week would offer "perfect drying weather" and admonished the ladies of the house to get their washing on. Today you can check for weather updates on the www.weather.com or on your iPhone. Wash sheets and towels the night before you expect sunny weather - hang your things out in the morning.  

Folding sheets in half widthwise

2. Towels: You might feel that towels dry too slowly on the line, however you'll significantly reduce your energy usage if you avoid resorting to the dryer. Run your towels through the spin cycle twice to squeeze out moisture. Wrung-out towels dry quickly in the sunshine but may take overnight to dry indoors. Once dry, you can fluff them up on the air-only cycle in your dryer if you like them nice and soft.

Hold the two corners together and pin to the line

3. Sheets: Get a friend to help if possible. For indoors: fold the sheets in half lengthwise and lay them over the drying rack. For outdoors: fold the sheets widthwise. Hold two corners together and use a clothes pin to attach to the line. Then hold the other two corners together and pin to the line. You end up with a tunnel - the wind can blow through and dry the sheet faster. What's more, the sheet doesn't drag along the ground.

A look through the drying tunnel

4. Use the dryer...judiciously: If your laundry isn't quite dry when you need it, pop it in the dryer for five or ten minutes to get your things bone dry.

5. Shake it, baby: Shake your clothes out before you hang them up - they'll need less ironing. And as much as we like drying, nobody likes to iron.

In which we get serious about reducing consumption

It's February 1 and time for the January report. 

I'm tracking how much energy my family uses, and how fit I am. And I'm (ahem) sharing this with the whole world.

First a bit of history. Back in 2006 I commuted a long distance to take my son to a very wonderful Waldorf preschool, unfortunately located twenty miles from our house. I drove 1250 miles per month. 

I had to make a decision about what I was prepared to do to improve the health of my family and that of the planet. I was ready to Give Up The Car.

Here's what we've changed:

- I don't commute anymore. I now work part-time from home (since 2005)

- We withdrew our son from private school. We now walk to the school near our house

- I don't do all the grocery shopping in the car. Instead I do some on my bike

- We stopped using the dryer. Instead we use sunshine  

- We don't live in a house with a backyard anymore. Instead we live in an apartment

and my son, age five, now begs to travel by bike, scooter of bus because he wants to save the polar bears. 

Polar bears enjoying the snow (courtesy of National Geographic Kids)

Scooting to school on the beach path

We're making some progress, but we could make more. I want to measure. 

Here's where we stand:

My current weight: 166 lbs 

My goal: 130 lbs

My car mileage: 650 miles driven in January 2009 (down from 1250 in January 2008)

My goal: Reduce by 50% to reach 300 miles per month

My electricity consumption: 225 kilowatt hours in January 2009 or $28.05

My goal: Reduce by 25% to reach 170 kilowatt hours per month

My natural gas consumption: $46.63 (sorry, no measurement available) in January 2009

My goal: Reduce by 50%

Here's my plan of attack:

Car usage

- Do all the grocery shopping on foot, by bike or on the bus

- Experiment with public transport here in L.A. 

- Keep a log of car travel

Electricity

- Unplug the TV

- Unplug the laptop at night

- Experiment with a few electricity-free evenings

Natural gas

- Take shorter showers. Get a shower timer

- Wash some of our laundry in cold water

My weight

- Eat less

- Exercise more

We'll report how I do on March 1.

How to dry your clothes outside

I never wanted to dry my clothes on a line; it seemed like a lot of work. My first experience without a dryer was in Italy. My landlady didn't seem to know what a dryer was, or why I would possibly want one. "La macchina...la machine..." I stuttered, "the machine that DRIES."

Then I married my husband and moved to London. When our son was born I developed a serious case of Dryer Panic. I didn't know how to raise a child without a clothes dryer. So I whipped out the Visa card and bought a dryer, costing us a whopping $800 in London. I loved watching it whiz the clothes around, that is until we received our first electricity bill. The electric company actually came to the house to see if there was something wrong with our meter. Sadly not. 

That was when I got religion and started hanging all my clothes up to dry, baby or no baby. 

It's easier to make the switch to sun-powered drying if you start with solid, well-designed equipment. One option is the classic "umbrella" rack, which gives you lots of space for clothes and won't blow down in a breeze. Try the Breezecatcher Umbrella Drying Rack for $169.00 from Gaiam, an eco- and fair trade product company. These racks work best if you sink the base into the ground and cement in place.

If it's difficult to find a permanent place for the umbrella dryer, try a retractable line - perfect for drying sheets. You need to position in between two trees, walls or posts. You can make your own with or without a pulley. Look for instructions on Martha Stewart's website.

Or purchase a 5-Line Retractable Outdoor Dryer for $74.00 (www.stacksandstacks.com). Pull the line open when you need it; close it when the laundry's dry and it's time for a barbecue. If possible, choose a location for your rack or line that's close to the house so you won't have to carry your laundry basket very far. While you're outside in the sunshine, plant some herbs in pots to perfume your path.

Get some retro-chic with accessories. Clothespins will get you in the mood - try Target - and then you'll need a kitschy bag to hold them. You can make your own. Cath Kidston also offers an adorable collection of laundry accessories including a Spray Flowers Peg Bag for $14.00. So cute that you'll probably want the matching laundry basket and ironing board cover. 

Don't worry, you're saving heaps on electricity bills.

In our next post, we'll interview an Air Drying Expert.

Solar power drying: world tour

I live in Los Angeles. You can say what you like about this city, but it's certainly sunny. Yet my neighbors, or rather their cleaning ladies, are holed up day and night in utility rooms drying clothes. The dryer roars as the cars thunder by and the planet burns. Maybe it's time to try an alternative.

You want to use solar power, but how do you get started? Here's a view of laundry drying from some other places and times. In the next blog we'll show you the essential kit you need to unplug the dryer once and for all.

Store your clothes pins in style 

with this Cath Kidston peg bag 

First stop, England. It's a rainy place, and maybe that's why the English are expert at air-drying clothes. It takes technique if you don't have much sunshine. Indoors, outdoors, in the sun, over the oven or in the airing cupboard, they've got it down to a science.

My husband and his mother 

hanging sheets to dry circa 1959

And in Italy, where I lived and worked for a few years, the sophisticated, well-heeled and Valentino-clad ladies I met hung their laundry out to dry in the sun: some perhaps on a roof-top deck, out of public view.

Laundry drys in Venice...

...and in Naples

You're going to need a Victorian kitchen maid's apron to play the part. Make your own with this pattern from EvaDress.

Washing day in 1880

What the trees have to say

I want to get closer to the natural world, and these headphones are bringing me very close indeed. I'm listening to the sound of trees drinking water at Kew Gardens near London. It's astonishing to hear the hundreds of gallons of water gushing upwards into the slurping trees. A beautiful sound. 

Admittedly, it's hard to escape from the ominous vibe these days: friends calling to say they've lost their jobs, weather that's peculiarly, distressingly hot in January, the thick layer of greasy black soot that drops daily onto our windowsills.

Now seemed like a good time for me to become a couture pioneer. I've lost interest in shopping; I'm crafting clothes for my entire family. I'm shying away from restaurants; we're growing winter crops of sprouting broccoli and kale (admittedly with mixed results); I've abandoned my car in the garage; despite mighty unreliable leg muscles I'm carting groceries home in an enormous wire basket affixed to my bike. I'm hanging out my laundry to dry, braving the raised eyebrows of my neighbors in tony Manhattan Beach. I'm trying my best to remake my life and by extension the world. It's fun. It's an improvement.

This blog is about my efforts to remake my life and my family's. In the spirit of statistical process control, I've decided to measure everything: our electricity usage, how much meat and sugar we consume, how many miles we drive, how much exercise I get and whether it improves my waistline, how many things we can make and grow ourselves. 

It's about nutrition, fitness, sewing gorgeous clothes, baking bread, making cheese, growing a garden, living (mostly) without a car and above all living an elegant life, not actually becoming hippies.