Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Drying Laundry

A blogging friend, Donna, asked if we have a drying rack to dry our clothes. We do! It is a smaller metal one that I sometimes pull out to hang our whites on. Besides this we have a huge clothes line outside, a retractable line that I stretch across the upstairs room and we have one of those exercise pull-up bars in one of the doorways of the living room that I hang clothes on a hanger from. I like to hang clothes on the hanger off the retractable line upstairs sometimes too.

We have always had a clothes line in our marriage. I thought it fun at first to use as it was a novelty. My granny always hung out her wash but my mother did not do this much. James' whole family hung out their wash and when we were first married, we lived on family land. It was sort of neat to be at my line and look over, seeing James' grandma hanging out her wash. Then I'd look over the other way at the same time and see his aunt (or uncle) hanging out theirs. :D When we moved here 20 years ago there was already a line installed. James has since added more posts and more line due to our growing family.

With all that said, I do not currently use it full time. There has been seasons in our marriage when I had to use it all the time. There have been seasons in our marriage when I used lines all the time by choice. Right now I use it about half the time. We do about four, super-size loads of laundry a day. About two of those loads get hung. Yet, on some days I just want the wash DONE and we push them through the dryer. Some days all wash is hung. Perhaps as things slow down with Mama's health, we will get mean with it and hang out all wash again. :D

What about our dryer? We have a gas dryer and it's awesome! It heats so much hotter and the loads dry more quickly. Gas for us is cheaper than the electric is. I would definitely recommend a gas dryer over an electric one for those who have an option.

We did have a front loader washing machine, which did spin the clothes to where they were dryer. Still, I did not like the front loader for multiple reasons. Especially if you have a large family and only one washer, I would not recommend a front loader. We had the front loader for a little over three years. We now have a conventional, large capacity top loader. I put it on extended spin and it seems to be sufficient in wringing the water out.

2 comments:

donna www.merryheartcrafts.com said...

I so enjoyed reading about you hanging clothes out and seeing other family members hanging out their clothes as well. I love hanging out clothes but also realize it is not always practical. They sure do smell nice though. Enjoy your day and God bless.

Vicki said...

Hi, Susan! I hang my clothes to dry full time now-I sold my dryer two weeks ago! I hadn't used it for months and when Quentin cleaned his building out two weeks ago, and my dryer was blocking his tiller, he told me it was time for it to go. :) I hang all my clothes except for towels and socks on the shower curtain rod on clothes hangers to dry in the winter. Large towels dry on towel bars and socks, rags, and wash cloths get draped over the hampers by a heat vent. It takes everything about 2 hours to dry. Spring, summer, and fall everything drys outside. I would not be able to do this if I had the amount of laundry you do though!

Have a great Thursday!

:)Vicki