Line Dry Clothes

Now that the weather is starting to warm up, this is a great time to take advantage of that clothes line you have in the back yard. Instead of drying your clothes in the dryer, hang them to dry. A clothes dryer and be up to 10% of your homes utility expenses, so being green can save you some green. If you don't have a yard to hand clothing, consider buying a foldable one for indoors. Of course if you use the indoor variety you will want to hang your clothes up at bedtime so that they can dry overnight and you can fold the rack up during waking hours.

Here are a few tips

• Watch the weather forecast so you don’t have to rush out in the rain to collect your clothes.
• Sheets dry very quickly, so fold them in half before hanging
• Shake out each item to get excess water and wrinkles out before hanging up.
• Shake clothes again when taking them off the clothes line to ensure you don't have any "hitch hikers" coming inside with them.
• Jeans take a long time to dry, if you can, turn them over mid-drying. If drying inside, consider drying them the night before you have a big day planned so that you have extra time for them on the rack (without the rack being in your road all day)
• Hang shirts and socks upside down. That way the crinkles from the clothes pins don't leave "tents" on your shoulders or toes.
• Consider drying shirts on the hangers. This will allow you more room on the clothes line and makes them easy to put away when dry.
• If you have an item that needs that extra "softener" cycle. Consider hanging it dry and them simply throwing it in the dryer for ~10 min to "fluff".

Photo: Flickr/martcatnoc