Laundry Tips

Do you know what this means??

Spring is finally here! I love that I can hang my laundry out to dry now! I love the smell of freshly air-dried laundry, it reminds me of home and childhood.

My mom always dried our laundry outside, except for in the winter of course. It saved (and still does) energy and money too. Sure, our towels were a little rougher and our jeans a little crinklier, but we grew up with that and didn't know any different.

Now I love that I am helping the environment just a little bit more, and saving my energy costs. I don't like bugs landing on my laundry, but it comes with the territory unfortunately.

If you are looking at getting an outdoor clothesline, I thought I'd give you some tips on drying your clothes outside. (Yes, I'm totally out of blogging ideas!!)

1. Start your laundry early in the morning. I try to have my wash finished by at the latest 10 a.m. If it's really hot in the middle of summer, this doesn't matter as much, as I've hung my laundry out at 1:00 or 2:00 and still had it dry by the end of the day.
2. Don't use Oxy-Clean in the laundry. One year I was throwing in a scoop-ful with each load to help get out all the stains the boys seem to always get. Once that laundry got in the sun, the colours in the clothes started to fade more and more. It wasn't until my sister pointed it out to me that I realized the culprit behind my not-so-colourful t-shirts.
   
3. If you're doing a load of whites, I find you don't need to add bleach. You can add some Oxy-Clean in then, and the sun will do the rest of the brightening for you.
   
4. I put in a little extra liquid fabric softener. It helps with the crunchiness.
   
5. Watch the forecast. If it's going to rain later in the day, get your laundry out earlier.
6. Shake the clothes out as you take them off the line!! Sometimes bugs hide!
7. If you decided to hang your wet clothes out late and leave them all night, you could end up with earwigs inside.
   

That's all the tips I have for you. As you can see, I have an umbrella style clothes dryer. It sits in the ground in a post-holder. I take it down every winter and store it in the garage. These types of lines can be expensive, but I've had mine for at least 8 years now, and it's still going strong. It's well worth the cost.