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Benefits of a Clothesline
Margaret Boyles
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Why would people line-dry their laundry when dryers have already been invented? I’ll give you 10 great reasons why you should hang out your clothes todry!
I started out with an outdoor clothesline held up by wooden posts. When that collapsed, I found a new clothesline online featuring steel posts and crossbeams—and a lifetimeguarantee.
Because it was a gift for the man of the house, I had the product delivered to my office so I could keep it as a surprise. It arrived one day when I was out of the office, appearing to be nothing but a couple of long, beefy steel poles taped together (the cross pieces were tucked inside the support poles, and customers provided their ownclotheslines).
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How to Choose a Clothesline
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Because of my reputation as the office exercise fanatic, my colleagues assumed I’d ordered a stripping pole since “pole dancing” was one of the hot new exercise trends that year. We all had quite a laugh when I let them in on the true purpose of the poles. I hauled them home in our ancient pickup, and the gift was well received. We set the support poles into 18 inches of cement, and years later, our laundry still swings brightly on sunny daysyear-round.
Line drying simply fits my Down Home way of life: being self-sufficient, frugal, and natural. Let me give you some of my top reasons for hanging the family laundryoutside:
- Line-drying prolongs the life of your clothing. The roiling and tumbling of damp laundry takes its toll on the fibers in clothing and bedding. High dry heat often shrinks and ruins some fabrics and can cause irreversible damage.Line drying is more gentle tofibers.
- You’ll lower your gas or electric bill. Project Laundry List estimates theaverage household could save 10 to 20 percent on utility bills by hanging thewash!
- Line drying laundry also protects the environment, conservingenergy for your fellow man.Air-drying clothes can reduce the average household’s carbon footprint by 2,400 pounds ayear!
- You’ll lower your risk of a home fire. According to the National Fire Protection Association, clothes dryers or washing machines cause about 4 percent of house fires. In 2006, these appliances caused 15 civilian deaths, 360 injuries, and $194 in direct propertydamage.*
- Hanging laundry gets you outside. Being outside in bright light can alleviate depression, improve immunity, increase social relationships, and more. There’s also just something surprisingly peaceful about hanging the laundry outside. It’s even a physical activity that gets you moving and burningcalories!
- Sunlight is a good bleach and disinfectant. This is especially great for white sheets and linens. The downside: Fading.To prevent bright colors from fading, turn the items inside out, or hang them on bars in theshade.
- You can’t beat the smell of laundry dried outside. Ah! Plunging my nose into a pile of sun-dried clothes releases a cascade of feel-goodendorphins.
- Rough, air-dried towels make the best exfoliants. Not only do they save time and money but also you can multi-task by exfoliating all over while you dry off! No need to buy exfoliating scrubs andscrubbers.
- Line-drying helps remove stains without adding chemical agents to your wash. Getting ride of chemical laundry fresheners like dryer sheets and fabric softener is good for your skin, especially if you are sensitive to perfumes, dyes, andchemicals.
- Have you ever felt your bed sheets after they were dried in the Sun and breeze?Fantastic!
Note: If your neighborhood has banned clotheslines in your yard, there are still many types of indoor clotheslines and collapsible dryingracks.
Ready to hang? See our article on how to choose a clothesline.
Money-Saving Tips
About The Author
Margaret Boyles
Margaret Boyles is a longtime contributor to The Old Farmer’s Almanac. She wrote for UNH Cooperative Extension, managed NH Outside, and contributes to various media covering environmental and human health issues. Read More from Margaret Boyles
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All the reasons you wrote in support of not using a dryer are good, but I'd like to be more specific on another one: where do you think the lint from the dryer comes from? Yes, our clothes. In time the "vanishing" of our clothes via that lint/dryer adds up. This is why I'm able to have some of my clothes for decades!
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I’ve had a clothesline for 40 years. Accessible from the back porch it’s on a pulley that sends the laundry out over the backyard. I have a rack in the laundry room for items I don’t want to put in the dryer like bras and delicate tops. I admit I put underwear and socks in the dryer and only use the clothes line April to October.
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Allergies, allergies, allergies.
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I have a clothes line and use it on the rare days that I'm not dealing with so much wind blown sand and dirt in the air that my laundry would go out clean and come in dirty. Meanwhile, and especially in the winter, I use a couple of wooden drying racks in the living room near the wood stove. Dust devils are a daily occurrence here from Feb through late Oct or early Nov. Most summer days see multiple dust devils hitting the house. At least I can open my windows in the late evening through early morning, but not at all during the day!
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No thanks I will just have to pay extra on my electric bill. Birds seem to like perching on my clothes lines and we all know what they leave behind, along with the occasional bug or insect. Downey and Bounce ALL THE WAY!!
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And not so sweet…as a child living in Arizona the heat was abominable when hanging out laundry, but the “sunshine” smell was great. Now living in Pine, Arizona where it’s a bit cooler than the desert I have just started hanging out laundry and am so happy! Brings back good memories of family…even though it was hot. Saves money, saves heating up the house and the clothes smell like “sunshine” again!
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Living in an area where even native species of squirrels are protected and not far from a preserve for protected bird species .... so poo ... lots and lots of poo! (Which carries diseases) I used to love the smell of line dried linens, but not anymore!
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Its FUN - I call it my "solar powered clothes dryer" took photos and sent them off to friends it took a bit of a pause then they got it.
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Just so those new to clothes lines know, you can’t hang clothes out to dry in rainy weather. But cold dry weather, it is fine. Even clothes that freeze on the line will dry in the radiant sun and in the breezes.
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Heh. I too have always line-dried our laundry - in the winter, I hang it on racks in the kitchen, which helps to moisturize the air in the house - but thought you might appreciate an anecdote from a friend in Maine. Whenever a boat docks at the Portsmouth Naval Ship Yard for overhaul, the sailors are billeted with families in the surrounding area, and one year, my friend had a young sailor from California staying with her for about six months. On his last evening with them, my friend and her husband took him out for a traditional lobster dinner. He commented on how much he had enjoyed his stay, then asked, "There's just one thing I still don't understand. What is the cultural significance of hanging out clothes on a line?" Being from New Hampshire, I still relish this example of how different life on the Other Coast is!
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