This week for my Thrifty Thursday post, I'm talking about one way to help keep your electric bill down during summer - air drying your clothes!
If you are lucky enough that your family doesn't suffer from allergies, and you live in an area where you have space to air dry your clothes, you should try it! Not only will you save on electricity by not running your dryer (believe it or not, a non-Energy Star compliant dryer is one of the biggest energy users in the average home, just behind your hot water heater!) but you'll also save on your cooling bill! That's right, running your dryer can raise your overall temperature inside your home by several degrees in most houses, causing your air conditioner to have to work just a little bit harder.
Think those lines for hanging laundry on cost too? At Lowe's, I found them for $3.99 AND they came in lots of colors - even purple, aqua, and pink! I found clothes pin at WalMart for $3.99 a pack, and the wooden clothespins at the Dollar Tree for just $1.
Think the lines are ugly? You can purchase a "laundry tree" that's a post that goes into the ground with a web like circle of strings. When you're not drying clothes, you can close the strings down so no one can see anything but the pole.
Rent and you can't do either of the above? Purchase one or two sweater drying racks to hang clothes on, and leave them on your porch or deck. You might not be able to dry a full load at once, but you can certainly cut down on your dryer use that way.
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2 comments:
We used to hang clothes in our garage, but with the humidity it made our clothes stinky...and our association has strict rules about hanging clothes outside.
We did get a new dryer though, and it seems to be making a positive impact on our bills.
I LOVE my clothesline tree looking thing. My family was kind of against it last year but I didn't give them the choice. If you want clean, dry clothing, then it will be hung outside. Everyone has adjusted to it and I love the savings on my electric bill. I think this winter there was only 2 or 3 times I couldn't hang stuff outside to dry.
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