I live in an apartment where there is no place to hang clothes except (maybe) through my living room, and I cannot imagine that would be pleasant. (And they’d all smell moldy)
But even growing up, with a backyard and something that I’m pretty sure was a clothesline for a few years, we used the dryer. (btw, doesn’t drip drying leave cotton scratchy? I know I read somewhere that line dried towels ended up dry, they weren’t soft and fluffy - and the same with the rest of the cotton. was I lied to?)
“I know I read somewhere that line dried towels ended up dry, they weren’t soft and fluffy - and the same with the rest of the cotton. was I lied to?)”
No. But coarse towels are kinda neat. They do soften after the first use however.
If I have time I line dry when the weather’s nice. There are some days it’s so hot here that by the time I get done hanging stuff on the line, the stuff I hung up first is dry! The only things I use the dryer for 100% of the time are the towels and my husband’s socks. The towels come out like sandpaper when hung dry (buy Handy’s right, only for the first use, heh.) and my husband’s socks are extra super thick. They just never get completely dry outside. If I have extra large loads for some reason and am adventurous I drag out the folding rack, which you can use anywhere in the house and put the small items on that.
There is nothing better than crisp, line-dried sheets. NOTHING!
Outdoors whenever possible. Smells better. Saves money. Things need less ironing, too, when they can drip and blow freely. And the towel thing, well, mine seem a bit hardish fresh off the line, but by the time they’re shaken out and folded to put away they’re already pretty soft. The cheap ones with poyester blends are noticably a lot worse than the pure cotton ones.
And we do have a dryer, but it’s for rainy and freezing weather only. Having to use a dryer here means you can’t afford a house with a garden; the inverse of the “too poor for a dryer” idea someone mentioned.
Im from Ontario Canada and we hang out clothes to dry ALL the time. Some people around my town actually hang clothes out on sunshiny days in winter, when it’s not too cold. But yeah I don’t put hardly anything but towels in the drier because I don’t like the risk of my clothing shrinking in the drier.
I’m Australian. I live in the (allegedly) sunniest city in Australia. I don’t even own a clothes dryer. It’s not a rural thing – this country is intensely urban – most people in the city use their outdoor clothesline more than their dryers.
Using a dryer when it’s warm and sunny outside seems a little wasteful to me.
Toddly said, “There are no regulations that prohibit hanging clothes out in our area yet we use a dryer. We have 2 kids and with a dryer you can clean clothes at night. My experience in the past with hanging them out to dry was that the clothes were always stiff when dry. When they come out of the dryer they are softer and less wrinkled.”
I don’t have the space for a dryer and I couldn’t afford one anyway. Luckily I prefer line dried laundry, especially linen. I live in the inner city (yard terrace) and everyone here hangs out their washing in the back yard. Mine’s in the back yard right now. Some friends of mine who live in a pit-village in Yorkshire ( back to back terrace) have their clothesline fixed to their opposite neighbours house and his to theirs, they hang the washing out all across the street like in the olden days.
I don’t hang them out. I haven’t seen a clothesline anywhere in my town and I’ve looked because my parents are both stubbornly clinging to this method of drying and it annoys me. I want to be able to say with some authority that they are talking out of their asses on this subject. I detest the way towels feel after they’ve been on a clothesline.
I don’t have anywhere to hang them out: the only part of the ‘yard’ (such as it is) that gets enough sunlight is the front. And I’m not hanging my clothes in the front yard!
I do however hang things in my shower to dry, depending on the item. If I ever clean up my bathroom enough, I’m tempted to put in a retractable line in there so I can hang up more clothing. (There’s a fan installed in the ceiling, that can also serve as a heater: it’d be perfect for the times when you need a little extra heat to dry the clothes, but don’t want to start up the dryer.)
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When its really cold & rainy I have to use the dryer at the laundromat. But they seem to impart a kind of ‘public dryer stink to clothes’, if there were such a phrase. Line drying doesn’t give me any lint or fabric shrinkage.
I’m also in Baltimore (in the 'burbs), and as FairyChatMom said, my neighborhood has a regulation that doesn’t allow clotheslines that are visible from the street. We had one in our yard just like the one Rayne Man linked to when we moved in, but we never used it and my husband took it out about a year after we moved in.
The farther out you go, the more you see people drying clothes outside. And when I do see stuff drying outside, I see mostly sheets, hardly ever actual clothes.
I used a fabric softner in my laundry. Then hang them out on the line. By the time they have been hauled back in and shook out, folded packed to the appriate bedrooms, hung in the closet for a day or two they are just as soft as in the dryer. But with little shrinkage or fading.
About half the year my household hangs its clothes out to dry. It would be stupid not to honestly, since in the summer it’s 100+ degrees outside and the clothes dry faster than the dryer could ever work. Plus we’re all poor college students so we could use the money.
But yeah I don’t put hardly anything but towels in the drier because I don’t like the risk of my clothing shrinking in the drier.