A lot of energy is consumed around the house for activities that can be done manually with slightly more time and effort.  A great example is the clothes dryer, which can consume four to five kilowatts per hour to do something that time and sunshine will do on its own.  By line drying your clothing, you can significantly reduce your carbon footprint and decrease your electricity bill by $75 to $120 a year.  Air drying is possible anywhere, even if you don’t have a lot of space.

If you do have a backyard, you can hang a clothing line between two trees, fence posts, or posts stuck in the ground.  A retractable line can maintain the beauty of your background while you’re not drying clothing.  If you don’t have access to outside space, you can still dry your clothes inside.  I put my wet laundry on hangers and space them evenly on every hook, rod, and cabinet door in my small studio apartment.  They usually dry overnight and are ready to wear the next day.  Tough to dry items like jeans and sweaters can be placed in the sunshine, over a radiator, or near a stove with a pilot light to dry faster.  If you’re really particular about your laundry, read this article for further instructions on how best to line dry.

Air dried clothing is not quite as soft as laundry out of the drier, but the stiffness disappears almost immediately upon wearing.  If it really bothers you, you can wait until the clothing is almost dry and pop it in the dryer for five minutes to fluff it.  If the whole process seems like more work than it’s worth, I suggest trying it just once.  You’ll quickly realize that an extra ten minutes is worth the savings in electricity and money.