Considering the amount of electricity a clothes dryer uses, you'd think there would be more of them around these days, especially considering how simple they are. Either that or anything that reduces the amount of time a dryer has to run.

Sure there's some things you wouldn't hang up, but something like beach or bath towels that take forever to dry makes perfect sense.


I just think it's crazy that people will throw everything they wash into the dryer every time, and then turn around and bitch non stop about their electric bill

 

clothes lines....yeah, I'll get right on that....in my condo....

 

Why complain about the electric bill?

Natural Gas FTW!!!

 

The dryer's right next to the washer. Take out of washer, put in dryer, push button, come back an hour later.

 

That's pretty much the norm in the UK. I just wish clothes wouldn't end up so stiff, but they smell awesome after drying outside!

 

Some cultures, (besides the Amish) do not use clothes dryers. Noticed that my neighbor 2 doors down has erected one in his backyard. He is of East Idian descent, but I'm not sure if that is why his ugly swim trunks are visible from my deck.
He IS, as the common stereotype dictates, a cheap SOB (You still owe me for those Hot Wings).

Looking forward to the rainy season.

 

Obviously not an option for everybody, but I've seen some strung up inside before with a few eye bolts and hooks

Can be set up and taken down in seconds, which works for outside as well

 

Both are great, but you're still paying for it every time you use it. Takes like a minute to hang something over a line and take it off when dry

 

A lot of people in my area have them, mostly older people. It seems to be going away with that generation, which is surprising to me.

Depending on what it is, I throw them in the dryer for ~30 seconds after taking them down to soften them up.

 

My Grandma had those cast-iron posts in the backyard....ahh, memories....

 

Still see those around here.


And if a clothes lines isn't feasible or wanted, why don't people put things like jeans on a hanger and hang them from the shelving that most people have in their laundry room? Then "fluff" them when dry in the dryer to soften them up?

Assuming you don't need them right away, I can't see a reason why they need to be completely dried in the dryer.

 

I don't know.... maybe because there's few true housewives left that'll do that. Laziness and the "I want it NOW" attitude doesn't help either.

 

my parents house has one, its nice to put towels, blankets, and sheets out on a warm day. they dry in half the time.

when i was stranded in the UK(oxford) during the volcano, my fiancees host family was nice enough to let me stay and offered to do my laundry. they dried their clothes with outside via the clothesline or inside on the radiator coil

 

I have heard some HOAs don't allow them because they are ugly. The only thing I worry about is bird poop...

 

I hang most of my stuff on a drying rack or from hangers inside.

 

We hang a lot of stuff in the basement on hangers on the copper plumbing where we have the furnace and things dry pretty quickly. Also makes the clothes last longer. We have a dryer and use it for some stuff but quite a bit is hung.

 

We use our backyard T-post clotheslines every week-- they are great for larger items like sheets, sleeping bags, etc.

My wife sometimes tosses clothes into the dryer for a little while, then hang-dries them for the fresh scent not available from dryer sheets.

Hey, you've got balconies you can hang clothes off, right?
I'm sure your neighbors won't mind...

 

Against HoA rules

 

My PG&E bill rarely cracks 20/month. No need to string anything up unless it can't go into the dryer.

 

my family hang dry all of our clothes during the summer... i have racks that i bring outside, my parents house has this umbrella looking rack that opens up...

the winters here are virtually impossible to hang dry stuff so we use the dryers...

 

Ditto.

Much better for your clothes.

 

I think people think that it looks ghetto. I wish my wife hung them out though as I have no problem with it.

 

I remember washing my clothes in a 40 year old washer when I stayed at my grandparents, back in the late 70's. I remember hanging them on a line to air dry. I remember them feeling like sandpaper when I had to wear them. No thank you...

 

You can dry clothes faster in the dryer.
It's all around quicker.
Gas is so extremely cheap, the cost of "time" to hang up and take down, and wait for it to dry on the line....not worth it. IMHO.

 

My parents have one at their house. They've had it ever since I can remember, probably before I was born.

They used to dry everything on it ... clothes, underwear, sheets, etc. Now they pretty much use it mainly for bigger stuff like sheets and towels.

 

Ah yes, the fresh scent of the City of Angels.....

 

I have a crazy old single neighbor who wears the most colorful stuff - imagine our surprise when we first moved in and saw her big ol' undies hung up in all different flourescent colors for her neighbors to see. I can see hanging stuff up - but please throw your underwear in the dryer

*cringe*

 

damn hillbilly.

 

I must live in a better, less smelly neighborhood than you.

We probably wouldn't hang-dry on a clothesline in the 909 or 951.

 

Nope. That's why I have a dryer.

 

Because I don't have a washing machine.. sooo I have to go to the laundromat anyway.

 

My HOA doesn't allow but we do hang up my dri fit type shirts in the laundry room to dry.

 

My jeans are stiff like this after air drying, but a quick tumble in the dryer afterward and they're like new

 

Whatever works. Gas sounds nice and is obviously cheaper, but I don't think people with electric dryers realize how much electric they use compared to other appliances in a house, and I imagine the majority of people in the world have electric dryers over gas. Not to mention the "miles" put on a dryer (or any appliance) every time it's used.

As for faster, yes it is, but if you have five pairs of jeans to dry, do you need them all at once? Same with a bunch of shirts.

And for me, shirts already go on hangers, so there is no difference letting them tumble in the dryer for a minute to get the wrinkles out after washing, and then hanging them to air dry the rest of the way. Then off to the closet already on the hanger.

 

Now that's



Another good point brought up is how much longer your clothes last. A lot less fraying, fading, and shrinking (especially shirts) when you hang them to air dry.

For the winter time or rainy days, what I can't air dry on hangers in the laundry room I'll drape over the back of chairs/bar stools to dry. Which can also replace the need for a clothes line altogether if you have enough of them.

 

Yep! I've been looking to pick up a used one some time in the near future since I live outside of town now.. laundry is more annoying than ever!

And good point about clothes lasting longer, I hadn't thought about that. I have this terrible problem of shrinking a lot of my clothes and it's always the ones I like most! >_< I'm tall and lanky, so I have a tough time finding shirts that are long enough but not huge. Usually they're just right when I buy them and the dryer fucking destroys them. arrgh

 

We use the clothes line at our house. Only time we don't is during the winter. But the strong california sun is perfect for it.

Toss everything into the dryer for 5 minutes with a dryer sheet and your set. Same done here my friend.

 

Back in the day I had a window seat that overlooked the city with a super strong steel bar above it for hanging clothes. Man! Winter time I was too much of a cheapass to drop an extra $50/month on eletricity to heat the place, so I'd just put on double socks, double pants, etc. when I got home from work each day. One thing I truly looked forward to though was each morning pulling down a FRESH ice-cold card-board stiff pair of jeans from the drying pole... man nothing like the feeling of that arousing texture against your baby soft skin and sliding into those refreshing air-conditioned jeans.

Seriously miss it but haven't found a way to duplicate the experience in the USA. I spent $70 here to get a garment rack strong enough to hold up wet clothing, but I started to get extremely pissed after about 3 months of the damn thing taking nearly 25% of the floor space in my apartment and making it trouble to climb around it every time I had to use the restroom. They also have a scam going on here where laundromat washers are extremely expensive but dryers are super cheap. (In Japan for example using dryer 10-mins costs $1!!) So I save only about $10 off my normal $40 laundromat bill for all the effort of carrying about 200 lbs of wet clothes from my car into my closet apartment.

 

My gas dryer has a minimal impact on my utility bill.

I don't have the space for a clothes line even if I wanted one.

 

We use the gentle cycle with the washer and low heat with the dryer and this helps the longevity of clothes a ton. This is how I and/or my wife wash all of our clothes and we rarely have any shrink on us this way and they seem to last a long time.