Evening SuperForest!
I came across this article in the New Scientist this evening and was surprised by how surprised I was: saving energy by hanging your clothes out rather than putting them in the dryer? So simple! So full of sunshine and fresh air!
I still hang my laundry (I fully admit, entirely through habit and not through a responsible thought process) but the New Scientist piece had some eye-opening statistics:
Some 80 per cent of US households own and operate a tumble dryer, with millions more of us going down the street to a laundromat. The average American household dries eight loads of washing a week; over 2 million households do 15 loads a week or more.
Needless to say, all this drying uses a lot of energy. According to figures from the Department of Energy, tumble dryers gobble up over 3 per cent of all household electricity, and that doesn’t include drying that gets done at laundromats, hospitals, restaurants, universities and prisons, which are home to 2 million Americans.
Yet clothes lines have become a rarity in the US, in part because draconian regulations make it impossible for many people to dry garments naturally. Around 60 million Americans live in homeowners’ associations such as condominiums, retirement communities and mobile home parks. Most of these ban or severely restrict the clothes line.
Clothes dried in a fresh breeze in the warm sun – sounds wonderful… But, not everyone has a garden, not everyone is allowed to hang laundry from lines outside, and sometimes the weather is just inclement. Hmmm…a barrier, yes! But one that can be hurdled! The humble clothes horse (do people still call it that? a clothes rack? indoor drying frame? now I’m just making things up) is totally practical. Ah! it is a horse!
Fling the clothes on the horse, come back when they’re dry (or in winter, for heavy things like jeans, put them on the radiator – there’s some debate about the extra energy your heating would use to dry the clothes as well as heat your room, but if you have the heat on a timer anyway I can’t see how it makes a difference so long as your room’s still warm enough?). Sure, it takes a little time, but – depending on how slapdash your method – really not much, and it can be quite a meditative activity – plus it removes the shrinkage risk factor and it gives a little humidity: winter, central heating ravaged skin win!
Alexander Lee, the article’s author, runs Project Laundry List, a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting line-drying and campaigning for the ‘right to dry’ outside. You can find out lots more about improving laundry efficiency and helpful laundry tips – and a great guide to practicing line drying on campus on the site.
I was again surprised by the heated comments to the article – in particular it hadn’t occurred to me as a feminist issue: can we, in good conscience, not use our dryers? by shunning labour-saving household appliances are we denying the advances of our gender? Well, for me, no (if I don’t do my laundry, before I go to work, nobody will) – but I can’t judge the position of a busy woman, looking after a family. Pegging the laundry may seem like stepping back into a traditional role.. but, male or female, I think it’s about having choices – we ALL have dirty laundry, but how we choose to deal with it is up to us:
It is not normally considered a proper subject for conversation, particularly among intellectuals, but if you start asking around, you will find that people take it more personally than you might imagine. Laundry, liturgy, and women’s work all serve to ground us in the world, and they need not grind us down.
Kathleen Norris, The Quotidian Mysteries
From laundry day at Camp Patricia, With Love
Recent Comments