Air Drying Your Clothes Is Time Consuming but Totally Worth It

We’re spending more time at home these days. While we’re keeping ourselves occupied with rearranging (and buying new) furniture, various home improvement projects and finishing Netflix’s entire catalogue, there’s one simple thing you can do that’s basically free: line drying your clothes.

For those of you that haven’t clicked out yet, we have several reasons for you to switch up your laundry habits.

It’s Easier on Your Clothes

Fibers have a natural moisture content. When clothing is put through a dryer, the heat can cause the fibers to overdry which in turn causes them to become brittle and break. The tossing and turning inside of a metal drum creates even more friction on the fabrics.

Line drying your clothes, however, causes none of these issues. As your clothes dry, they’ll come to their natural moisture content without overdrying and retain their integrity, lasting longer than if they were subjected to a lowkey oven.

It Keeps Clothes Fresher and Cleaner

The sun can actually help your white clothes stay white. UV rays cause colors to fade over time (which can be pretty cool if you’re after a vintage aesthetic), and maintain your white t-shirt’s pristine polish over the years. Think of it as an all-natural, non-toxic bleach.

Those UV rays also help disinfect clothes, eliminating odors caused by bacteria. This makes it….

Hypoallergenic

Because line drying clothes doesn’t require dryer sheets and fabric softeners, which often contain harsh chemicals, it’s better for your skin.

Increases Humidity

Winter can wreak havoc on your skin. On top of the cold air sucking moisture from your skin, hot radiators and indoor heating can also make the air in your home extremely dry. Line drying your clothes indoors can help increase the humidity and can actually help your skin feel better. Sure, it’ll only happen whenever you’re doing laundry, but it’s less cumbersome and more productive than a humidifier.

It’s Good for You Physically and Mentally

We burn several hundreds of calories doing laundry the good ol’ fashioned way with a washer and dryer. When you’re taking the extra time to hang up your clothes, you burn even more. Go ahead — have the extra spring roll.

If you’re drying your clothes outside, it’s also a chance for you to get some fresh air and enjoy the sun. Rather than overhanding your load into a dryer as fast as your throwing arm can pitch, hang drying your clothes can force you to slow down a bit. It won’t replace your therapist, but it’s more bang for your buck.

Energy Efficient

It may not be energy efficient for you, but it will save some wattage for the grid. We understand that we’re barreling toward our own destruction with every scroll, but reserving resources can’t be a bad thing.

Saves Money

Whether you’re feeding coins into the lamest slot machine ever (the house always wins at Coin-Op Casino), or have a washer and dryer in your home, air drying your clothes saves you money. Sure, you might have to spend a bit on a clothes line and some clothes pins or a drying rack, but it beats buying drying sheets on a recurring basis.

The initial investment will pay for itself over time even if you have a dryer at home with some estimates reporting that certain dryers can cost you about 70 cents an hour.

Some Downsides

There aren’t many downsides when it comes to line drying your clothes, but there are a few.

It’s obviously time-consuming and requires more effort from you. Instead of dumping your laundry into the dryer in one fell sopping swoop, you’ll have to hang each one of your garments one by one, wait for a while and then take them down, one by one. You don’t need major lats, but, with enough loads of laundry, you’ll have more lats than you did before.

Whether by a stiff gust or a weak clothespin, your clothes could fall from the clothes line onto the ground, making them dirty again. I love having to do something twice, don’t you?

If you dry your clothes outside, you could fall prey to clothes snatchers, or possibly a strategically deployed bird turd. Exciting! If you’re looking for an excuse to get rid of your worst piece of clothing, but aren’t about to lug your bad decisions out to a donation center, you could try your luck on the clothesline. Here, for you weary and naked passerby, a fruit tree ripe with ironic t-shirts.

In the end, though, the few downsides are not enough to outweigh the upsides of line drying. Like many areas of our lives which we’ve had to readjust, laundry is low on the list of effort and well worth the shift.

Amazon

Heavy Duty Gullwing Drying Rack

• $40.99 at Amazon

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