With the kids back in sports, our laundry volume is back with a vengeance. M & I also work out every day, and sweaty clothes can't (shouldn't) be re-worn the next day. Teen boys also are some sweaty creatures, so there is a LOT of laundry happening at my house.
Volume aside, I thought I'd share how I do laundry, as it's intended to preserve the life of our clothes, and also save money. I wash all of our clothes, as normal, but on the "casual" setting (42 minutes, I think), using an eco friendly temperature. If the clothes are particularly grungy, I increase the water temperature.
Once the washing load is complete, I separate into two piles - dryer, and drying rack. Our drying rack is quite large, and was previously in our spare bedroom. M uses the spare bedroom as his office, and having a laundry rack in the background is... a no go. ;-) So, we now have the drying rack in our second shower. A little background - the shower is handicap accessible & really unpleasant to use (it's open air, basically), so we don't use it as a shower. We have plans to remodel it. But, for now, it's serving a great purpose as the clothes drying area. It's especially great, as the area has a floor to ceiling window (yes, in the shower?!), so it gets a lot of sun & the clothes dry quickly.
Items we line dry:
- All of my undergarments
- The boys athletic shorts
- Any "dri fit" or athletic style tshirts
- The boys jogger pants
- All workout gear (pants, sports bras, tank tops, etc)
- My tshirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, etc.
- Pretty much everything else, minus what's on the "items we machine dry" list, below
- Towels
- Socks
- Jeans
The odd shower is actually a blessing in disguise for you right now. We live in a very humid climate, and have a zoning restriction for no clothes lines. When we added on to our house we added a large laundry room. I have an ikea closet system (no longer made) that features a rod, top shelf and 2 drawers. I hang just about all my clothes on plastic hangers then dry them on the hanging rod. It works for me. The house is dry so clothes dry fairly quickly that way.
ReplyDeleteI do use the dryer for underwear, towels, jeans and linens though.
The underwear line drying was a game changer in how long ours lasted, after we started hanging them dry. Mostly because I found they were always tangled & snagged on something, when running through the dryer.
DeleteAnd yes, the odd shower is finally useful! :-) I'm envious of your large laundry room. We had one in our Seattle house & it was fantastic.
I remember those days so well. I'm pretty sure most days I did two loads a day back when all the kids were in sports. I've always kept my drying rack on my back porch. I do the same things you do. These days with only myself and my hubs at home I usually only only have three or four loads once a week now and that even includes sheets.
ReplyDeleteOur fall/spring weather can be a bit windy, but I'll need to think of a solution when we remodel our shower, because I love the line drying.
DeleteI do at least one load of laundry every day. I don't have a clothesline here, but I have a great drying rack. I machine dry pretty much everything except jackets, dri-fit anything, my skirts, and men's cotton shirts which wrinkle. I have a fairly large laundry room in this place, with a nice sized bi-fold closet, where I hang the shirts and skirts to dry. There's a large window, and a heating vent, so anything draped over the drying rack dries quickly regardless of the season. In nicer days at our old place, I would line dry the bed sheets as a special treat. A clothesline is a definite for our new build.
ReplyDeleteI miss the large laundry room we had in our Seattle house. It was awesome! There's no good space in our current house for that. Well, there's space, but it would be in the dining room or something. :-)
DeleteThe second shower sounds like a good place to dry the clothes on your rack, although I wouldn't want to take a shower there with the window. LOL
ReplyDeleteThat bathroom design is really mysterious to me. It also has a built in shower planter. Like, with dirt. And, plants? In the shower. We covered it up when we moved in, but it's such a strange design. The shower window does look out over our back yard, so no one would see you, but i've definitely fallen into that trap, and then someone would be in the backyard during our remodel. There were some embarrassing moments for sure.
DeleteI use hangers and the shower bar of the second bathroom for the non dryer clothes. I do remember the old days of softball uniforms, football pants and compression shorts, along with having baby and toddler clothes! Now, I do laundry one time a week and it is mostly done by mid morning, other than the air drying.
ReplyDeleteOne time/week is the dream! I do love that everyone here is active, so I'll embrace this phase.
DeleteI'm SO impressed that you don't have a dryer. I can't imagine it, and it's a big mental shift for me. Well done, and love that you embrace the crunchy towels!
ReplyDeletewith the towels and socks: we line dry them, then pop them into the dryer for 10 minutes with the wool dryer balls - no more crunch! (well, we do run the socks all the way in the dryer now, since the dog has started stealing them off the drying rack! we're working on it)
ReplyDeleteI can imagine the dog has complicated the laundry process!
DeleteI personally can't wait to get my new clothesline installed. I will dry everything outside except, towels, (I am the same way to sandpaper) socks, and jeans, everything else will be hung.
ReplyDeleteHow do you feel about crunchy socks? My running socks, in particular, feel different if they weren't in the dryer.
DeleteUse vinegar for your softener, I’ve used it for years. Just as good as softener.
ReplyDeleteExcellent - thanks for the tip!
DeleteYou are very organized with your laundry. I separate into two piles; whites/very light clothes and everything else. We bought the largest residential washer and dryer available and I can fit so much in. I shove until I can't fit anything else and call it good. I can wash all of our household laundry for one week in 3 loads if I shove enough in there. No joke. Everything goes in the dryer except cashmere sweaters. I then fold or hand up the laundry as I watch TV.
ReplyDelete