Married to the Empire

Monday, April 21, 2008

Laundry Central

My laundry "room" is actually a closet in my kitchen. It's not the best location, but I'm not complaining. Some of my neighbors have their washers and dryers in their garages! However, it can make the kitchen a bit crowded.

I'm trying to be more green. (Actually, I just want to keep our electric bill as low as possible, but it sounds better to say that I'm trying to help the environment.) I'm air drying more of our clothes. I'm a bit obsessive about my laundry. Laundry Day, which is usually on Tuesdays but is currently on Mondays due to my tutoring schedule, is strictly for our clothing. I typically do 4-5 loads of clothing each Laundry Day. But I'm only drying 2 loads lately.



I'm rediscovering one of the many reasons air drying is a good thing. It makes our clothes last longer. For example, Steven has had his volunteer t-shirt from Star Wars Celebration III for 3 years now. It's never met the heated dryer. It still looks like new.



I really should have been caring for all our clothes that carefully! But it does make cooking in the kitchen a little too cozy on Laundry Day. Two laundry racks take up a lot of space. I guess it's a good thing we don't have a table in there!

5 comments:

AnneK said...

I have been thinking of air drying for a long while now, but never got around to do it. Actually hubs is not a big fan of that. I have two questions.
1. Is there any musty smell from the air drying? (From the pictures, I take it that you do it inside)
2. Where did you buy the rack? Is it foldable? If so, I could put it in the outside porch in the sun and have it done.

Anonymous said...

I clothespin the waistbands of jeans to plastic hangers and hang them on the shower curtain rod in the bathroom. Woven tops or some t-shirts are hung on plastic hangers in the bathroom as well. I do have a drying rack which I use for drying clothing flat (such as sweaters). And yes, it does make clothing last much longer!

Anne Marie@Married to the Empire said...

I use the shower curtain rod in the guest bathroom, too.

Anne, I bought the smaller drying rack in the background at Target for about $30. The big one in the foreground is from IKEA. The IKEA rack was only $16.99, and it holds a ton of stuff! I have it fully extended in the picture, but it can be used without everything extended, too. It's very versatile, and I use it for drying my crafts, too.

You can buy inexpensive wooden drying racks for about $10, but they're not as sturdy. Calvin and Steven worked together to break the wooden drying racks I've had in the past.

I've never dried any of our clothes outside. I'm not opposed to trying that, but the clothesline I bought is too short to stretch from point A to point B in my yard. There is only one spot in my backyard without tree coverage (which means less chance of pollen or bird droppings hitting the clothes), and that's where my clothesline wound up being too short.

Anonymous said...

I wonder how many times we walked right by each other at Celebration III and didn't even know it!

Cheryl Dietz said...

Looks like my house most days, as it rains too much to dry outside all the time, and German dryers take forever to dry!