Return to Line Drying - Tips And Tricks

Bimmer Man set up my new clothesline outside. I"M SO EXCITED.

I honestly don't know any other nerdy hippie that would be SO EXCITED about a clothesline.

It's 40 feet long, so it stretches from our back sun porch to the garage. I can hang approximately a half load of clothes on it (well, we have a super capacity washing machine which does 2-4 loads of clothes at once compared to a regular washing machine. I generally do 4-5 loads of laundry per week).

So with line drying clothes the question becomes, do I really want crunchy clothes or not?

I don't line dry underwear or undergarments. Too embarrassing (but what did people do before dryers?).

I don't do towels either after I used a crunchy towel after a shower one day. I read somewhere that dermatologists suggest using line dried towels for exfoliating and what not but I really think it depends on the towel. Our nice Ralph Lauren towels are too crunchy but the ginormous Ikea towels aren't all that bad after line drying.

After a few weeks of line drying (and drying about 10 loads now...) I have a few line drying tips.

• Dry clothes inside out - brightly colored clothes won't fade and the pit stains in shirts will be sun bleached
• Dry them hanging upside down (so pants should be hung from the legs, not the waistband)
• T-shirts need to be dried inside out and upside down
• Napkins fold neater and much more nicely after being line dried (aka no ironing necessary)
• Socks take the LONGEST TIME
• White clothes are most definitely whiter after being in the sun (no more pit stains, yay!!)
• Vinegar in the rinse cycle (put it in the softener part of your washing machine) gets out excess laundry detergent which means less crunchiness since there's no leftover soap
• It's ok to fluff clothes in the dryer - but I just fold clothes straight from the line and put everything away (I bring out 3-4 blue Ikea bags to sort and fold depending on what's in the load - 1 for me, 1 for Bimmer, 1 for the Monkey, 1 for household crap). I feel like returning the clothes to right side out and shaking them a bit helps to get out the crunchiness

So there's my tips for line drying clothes. I'm really happy with my clothesline but I sure do feel like the neighborhood hippie with our clothes hanging outside!