Save your favorite sweater and the environment - Hang dry your laundry

Submitted by Violetta Nikisheva on Tue, 23/02/2016 - 20:07 | Updated Sat, 17/09/2016 - 23:49

Read time: 4 mins

Don’t dry your laundry in the machine; hang-dry on a rack at home! This method not only helps to use less electricity, but will also preserve the quality of your clothes. The machine wears out and destroys the fabric, while hanging on a rack in a room temperature keeps them soft and natural. If you hang on a rack on your balcony or your backyard, they will smell fresh too. Try hanging your clothes outside during winter. You will love the effect. Your clothes will smell the freshness of snow, and believe me it feels nice wearing something like that.

To prolong the life of your clothes and save tons of money on your energy bill, you should buy a rack and hang your clothes in the living room. You can buy it at Canadian tire or any home stores in the laundry section. It doesn’t cost that much, and besides you will save so much on electricity that it will pay itself off shortly. It is one of the best investments you’ll ever make.

The average dryer takes about 3.3 kilowatts per hour of energy and estimates approximately 11 cents per kilowatt of energy. A small load of clothes takes about 45 minutes to dry, so the cost would be 0.36$. There are a few other factors. When you hang dry, you don’t use softener sheets and additional chemical laundry fresheners, which cost a lot of money.

Hanging your clothes outside will smell even better. It’s natural! Moreover, if you hang your laundry out in the balcony on a sunny summer day, the sun lights will kill bacteria that may have been left after washing and give your clothes a warm and comfy tenderness. Your clothes will last longer and look nicer, as line drying is more delicate for the fabric. In a dryer, often, clothes tend to shrink. A big waste of money when you toss away in the garbage your favorite sweater.

By using less energy, you will not only save yourself dollars, but help save the planet by reducing fossil fuels. It is green drying. You will reduce carbon emission. 6% of domestic energy is used by running clothes dryers. The most commonly used fuel for electric power in Canada and the United-States is coal. Looking at how much power you need to run your dryer, it would take about 900 pounds of coal to be burned just for your dryer.

The carbon emission created from coal power generation equals to nearly 2300 pounds of CO2 emissions each year. Therefore, it would take 46 trees to eliminate CO2 emission from electric clothes drying by each household.

Laundry can contribute to a significant amount of carbon emission. Did you know that washing and drying every two days per household equivalents to a flight from London to Glasgow? By not using dryers we can make a big difference.

Don’t know how to dry your laundry? Here are some high quality tips to help you get that job done:

When using a drying machine, make sure your clothes are well spun out before hanging them on a rack.
If you have washed some delicate clothing, be sure you have removed as much water as possible by rolling the garment in an absorbent towel.
Give your clothes a good shake to make them softer, prevent wrinkles and reduce drying time.
Hang your T-shirts on a hanger. You can put them directly in your closet and they will be sleek. You won’t even have to iron.
As for the jeans, you will need multiple hanging racks, so that they get as much air circulation as possible. To speed the process, when hanging your clothes, try to place them near the heating or the air conditioning vent. An air or floor fan will also speed up the process. The fabric is thick, so a good air circulation is important.
Occasionally, we are in a rush and we need a particular blouse to be clean and ready within an hour, which means that there is simply no time to hang-dry. In this rare case, you should turn on the spin function on your washer. It will absorb all the water from your clothes and will take less time for the dryer to evaporate it from your clothes. It is better for the environment and much quicker for you as well.