Well, it started out all harmless like. My sweet heart was vacuuming off the back of the dryer, making us stay all safe like when bam, it happened. He plugged it back in and the whole house flickered. He was fine, but my dryer hasn't come back on since. Soooo, since we are not going into debt, we are saving to get the dryer fixed. And hanging up the laundry to dry.
Now if you live in other places in this great nation, you might not think this is a big deal, but this is the Pacific North West. Which equals rain. Lots and lots of rain. And if not rain, overcast. Even on nice days, we often have fog in the morning. So if you are from CA you really don't want to move here. (Just kidding, if your my cousins, but everyone else only sorta kidding)
Any way, that means we get creative. So we rigged this little set up.
It mostly works. But it only allows for two loads a day. Sometimes it really feels like an old time laundry in here. I have two of these racks.
They hold lots of socks and unmentionables. We put them in front of the furnaces. Yup, it's May and they are still popping on. Global warming my patootie! In the storage room we have a space heater and fan going to keep things drying down there. I hope my curtains are keeping my food storage cool enough.
For the most part, although a little inconvenient it hasn't been too bad. I have to wonder if the whole sorting clothes thing harkens back to the old days when there were no dryers. We seldom sort clothes around here. With modern dyes and the fact that none of my family get really super dirty or stinky, I just throw every thing in. I use the Amway laundry system, and I put the same stuff in no matter what the color or fabric. Between modern dyes and thrifting, nothing we have fades or runs so all in one load it goes. Then all in the dryer it would go and that was it. Now I can see why we might start sorting. Towels take a long time to dry. So do jeans. And they both take a lot of room on the line. Eight towels works really good like this. Jeans too, leaving the line for lots of smaller things.
Pluses for hanging laundry: *No getting behind on laundry. Ever, it just doesn't go well. *Matching socks is much easier. I don't know why, just is. * Kids who don't like hanging clothes wear them more often before throwing them in the laundry. Because it is true that you don't have to wash a dress you wore for an hour while playing steampunk. And jeans really do look fine the second and third day as long as you don't leave them in a puddle when you take them off and irons do wonders. *My electric bill has gone down even with the fan and heater going. * Laundry gets done faster when you don't have to wait for the dryer to get done. * Clothes and sheets and towels that have hung outside smell so wonderful, especially sheets.* Things get folded right off the line and hence don't sit in a mound on my sofa for days.*There for there is less ironing. That and we learned that if you pop the clothes before you hang them, they dry smooth.
Minuses for hanging laundry: * The reason they get folded so fast, is that they are hard as a board. Think clothes origami. *Towels are rough. I mean, lets have a brisking flaying after every shower. * When it rains, we have the laundry everywhere in house. * Laundry happens every day. (That is kinda a plus too.) * Crunchy towels makes going into more debt sound not so terrible on some days.
All in all, it is dealable. But some days I must admit we do end up here.
Not to often though.
p.s. Do you know how hard it is to find clothespins around here?
