As I mentioned in my last blog, without cable, I have had more time to evaluate how I live. After I got my worm composting going, I looked at other things I could do to 'green' my apartment up a bit. So the next thing I did was try to save energy, money and my clothes by line drying. You, know, the good ole' fashioned, hang your clothes out on a line with some clothespins and let evaporation get to it. The problem was that I live on a 2nd floor apartment, with no backyard.
No worries, the 21st century is here, and I found an incredible product for line drying clothes in confined/indoor places. It's made by Barbantia and works perfect in an apartment. It has five lines so you can fit a lot in one area, mounts easily on the wall, and retracts when you aren't using it. Also, it works awesomely...if that is even a word. [picture from Amazon].
I know you might be thinking, ugh, I don't have the time to wait around for my clothes to dry...BUT if you're like most people of this century, you probably have plenty of spare clothes to wear while these dry. I usually wash my clothes and leave them to dry during the day while I am gone or at night while I sleep. When they are dry I toss them in the dryer for <5 minutes to fluff out any wrinkles they may have and then fold/hang and put them away.
You might also be thinking, ugh, there is NO WAY all of my clothes will fit, or that that little thing will hold my duvet/sheets/towels...BUT IT DOES. I have my Barbantia lines strung across my bedroom (~10ft wide) and it holds a FULL load of clothes, all my towels, my sheet set + blanket, or my duvet + blanket, and even my heavy rugs. It has been unstoppable.
Still need more convincing to quit wasting energy on drying your clothes when mother nature could do it for you? The first month I switched to line drying, I saved $20 on my electric bill. How's that for motivation?
Until next time, hang tight.
-Becca