Something I've picked up over the years of being on the information super highway, is that generally Americans don't hang washing outside to dry. There must be plenty of opportunities to dry clothing on a line outside in the warmer months, but it doesn't seem to be a thing they do, even if they have a freestanding house.
I can't dry clothing outside, even on the balcony, as that is prohibited by Owners' Corporation rules. But when we had a free standing house, we dried clothes on an outside clothes line, perhaps at times having to give them a final finish in a clothes dryer for ten minutes in the winter. Truly, I could never tell the difference but people used to say how lovely and fresh their clothing, bedding and towels were if they were dried outside (in air full of traffic exhaust fumes).
Now, I and my tenants hang our washing on the clothes rack in the spare bedroom and turn on the ceiling fan. Maybe twelve hours after being under the overhead fan, the garments will dry. They never use the clothes dryer, but I do for a short time to soften up my towels once they are dryish. My worn socks and jocks are washed about once a fortnight, and dried in the dryer. I am not hanging up 42 small garments on a clothes rack. Not shown in yesterday's post of our house was a pull out clothes line attached the neighbour's brick wall, but I can't remember what it was attached to when pulled out. The clothes dryer was rarely used.
Of course the Australian invention, the Hills Hoist, dried clothes in most back yards of Australian houses. They would spin around in the wind and they were raised higher by a crank handle, or if you were posh but without staff, mains water pressure. On very hot days with a strong wind, you could almost hang your washing out and take inside as dry the first garment you hung up by the time you hung out the last garment. Strong horizontal bars on something that could spin were very enticing to children, so a number of inferior brands would have bent bars. Yes, I was guilty.
I expect if people have the space, a form of the Hills Hoist is still used, now made by aluminium and nylon cord but back in the day, galvanised steel and twisted wire rope.
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So be it Britain, Europe or America, how do you dry your clothes, and is it economical?
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Back when I had a freestanding house I got fed up of birds pooping red on my laundry, from eating local mulberries, also squirrels tearing down small stuff, so I ended up using the basement to dry clothes.
ReplyDeleteNow in a town house I air dry everything except sheets and towels. Can't dry outside, HOA rules.
I use my apartment building's dryer. That's really my only option.
ReplyDeleteThere are so few days here that allow me to dry clothes outside on the line that I tend to just hang them up on a rail in the boiler room. They dry in just a couple of hours. In the summer when the central heating boiler is not switched on I use a dehumidifier in there, or I hang them on a clothes airer upstairs in the south facing spare bedroom which gets most sun. As mentioned above, the garden birds usually poop all over my washing if it is outside on the line.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I just dry it in the backyard on the stands
ReplyDeleteI have a folding rack in the bathroom, but usually, I throw it in the dryer. When we return to the woods, I will have an outdoor clothes line.
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