I recently watched the film Winter's Bone, about an impoverished family in the Ozarks. Laundry hang drying was a common back-drop in this dark film, and too often, it is portrayed in media images and popular culture that give it an association with poverty.
My view on hang drying laundry: it is an act of environmentalism, economic empowerment, exercise, meditation, and beauty.
Living in a garden apartment complex in New Jersey that does not allow residents to dry laundry outside, I hang dry year round on a drying rack in my apartment, clothes on hangers on my shower curtain rod, and towels on the racks. Even sheets and blankets air dry.
When I travel abroad, I adore the sight of laundry hanging out to dry. I think of our ignorance on the matter. What is so offensive about the sight of our neighbors trying to save money and energy? If a small act can help provide cleaner air and more money in wallets, I support it. I also ponder how detrimental it would be if everyone consumed resources at the rate Americans do.
Fondly recalling laundry out to dry, on the balconies of Barcelona. In romantic Tangier. In a Lisbon courtyard, with bicycles at the ready for a trip to the market. I spied a laundry rainbow. Floating over a quaint cafe in Rome. Above the canals of Venice. In colorful Burano. Check out Project Laundry List's Top 10 Reasons to Line Dry.
Images of this are all over New York City. Women, repeat after me: we shall not wish to wear $500 shoes because some fictitious character wears them and clever product placement tells us we must. We know better. Meanwhile, I popped into The Family Jewels Vintage Clothing, a vintage store where you can find everything from Victorian garb to eighties fashion. Hmmm, maybe I should have saved my pink day glow purse from the eighties and sold it?
Let's peek in the window. Love the apron. Cute bandana. Note the laundry hang drying in the background.
Project Laundry List is one of my favorite grassroots groups. I hang dry everything - clothes, towels, sheets, blankets - on a drying rack and on hangers in my one bedroom apartment. It can be done!
Check out this video by American Josh Soskin living in Spain. He calls the act of hang drying "beautiful," "meditative" and "a small difference in how we live" and wonders "if these small details aren't ultimately what will make or break us in the future." I completely concur.
Glamour, why did we abandon it? The Notebook was on television this weekend and my sister and I so admired Rachel McAdams' feminine, classic style. In New Jersey, I've seen far too many people out in their pajama pants. Unless you've just gotten out of surgery, I'd say it's a "fashion don't."
A Victorian era top that was hanging in my dressing room. Adorable, but not at over $100.
Okay, so I coveted something expensive. But the key: I didn't buy it. I thought I looked quite fetching in this hat, but at $109, I couldn't justify it. There was a store wide 10 percent off sale, but even still.
I was just thinking how many of my skirts are too short, when I came across "A Long, Lean Backlash to the Mini" in The New York Times style section that longer hem lines are coming into fashion. Bow ties, and instructions on how to tie a tie. Love a man in a suit. Well that was fun. But thrift shops are far better hunting grounds for vintage clothing or at least recreating the look for those on a budget. More about that next.
Out to dry: a clothesline in Burano, Italy. "If 95 percent of Italians, some of earth's most fashion-conscious inhabitants, don't own a dryer, then why are Americans so adamant about tumble drying their clothes?" This was the question posed by Chelsea Hodge in a New York Times piece, "Rethinking Laundry in the 21st Century." Compare that to the approximate 80% of U.S. households that owns a dryer.
Alexander Lee, creator and executive director of Project Laundry List, has some thoughts:
Much like the major agri-giants sold Americans on cheap food with little thought of the costs to our health and environment, the idea of a dependency on so many electrical appliances didn't factor in the consequences on these same elements.
"The tumble dryer is the second largest energy-consuming appliance and the leading cause of house fires among appliances. There is no such sense as an Energy Star dryer; these machines are inherently inefficient, using natural gas or electricity to heat air," Lee asserts in the New York Times.
I've hung dry my clothes on a drying rack and hangers in my apartment, and have abandoned the dryer for good for my towels and sheets, drying them in the same fashion. A side benefit: every load I don't dry saves $1.50.
Alexander Lee says his group is fighting the idea that clotheslines are ugly. Nothing ugly about this picture.
"It's much uglier to look out the window and see rising sea levels," he remarks.
More ways to live un-electrically? Beware of "energy vampires," devices that use electricity even when turned off and can account for up to 20 percent of your electric bill, according to the Sierra Club. Americans waste $10 billion annually on vampire energy, and if we didn't waste this energy, 30 coal-fired power plants could be shuttered.
One huge energy waster: your home-entertainment system. But what about your DVR, you ask?
He recommends a Bits power strip. I don't have a DVR, so I just have a regular power strip for my cable and tv, and one for my computer and speakers that I shut down when I leave for the day and overnight.
Lamps excluded, I reduce my energy consumption by unplugging anything not in use: my alarm clock, toaster, coffee maker and microwave. Who wants to pay more to their electric company?
Appearances. It's something our American society so often priorities over what is so essential. Think of all the time many spend grooming themselves, shopping for and donning stylish clothes, shoes and accessories, and working out at the gym, but when it comes to their eating habits, little thought is put into how the food being put inside one's body is produced (think growth hormones, genetically-modified ingredients, and pesticides, for starters).
The same extends to our homes. Is the physical appearance of that perfectly green, manicured lawn worth all the chemicals leached into our soil? Is the convenience of driving that large SUV and its style (often just to keep up with the Joneses) worth the extra pollution it is spewing into our air?
Some Americans are thankfully returning to a more simple way of life and getting back to the basics. Little lifestyle changes translate into major benefits long-term, both for the Earth and our wallets. But the visual is again coming into play. Some neighbors are annoyed at the sight of laundry hanging on a line (a sight I find completely charming and rustic). Isn't all the added pollution caused by powering those clothes dryers more outrageous when we think about it? Perhaps because air pollution is something we cannot always necessarily see with our eyes, many do not abhor it as much as we should.
With that CBS Sunday Morning's Bill Geist featured this amusing, bewildering and though-provoking piece on one woman's battle to combat global warming, one clean shirt, towel and sock at a time.
I bet I was the first one to wish you that. Fellow environmentalists are always challenging us to think about our energy consumption and providing easy ways to reduce it. One simple solution, according to a group called Project Laundry List, is to hang dry our clothes.
Nearly 6 percent of residential electricity use goes towards the clothes dryer, according to DOE EIA statistics from 2001. That doesn't even take into account the millions of Americans who do their wash at commercial Laundromats and multi-family housing units, nor does it factor in the 16 percent of U.S. households that use gas dryers. If all Americans would use a clothesline or wooden drying racks, the savings could shut down several power plants. Project Laundry List, you are so wise!
They encourage investing in a clothesline for homeowners or a drying lack like this, which is great for apartment dwellers like myself. I purchased one at Bed Bath and Beyond when I moved into my first apartment. Each load I don't dry saves $1.50, which quickly adds up. I also just put most of my clothes right on a hanger and leave them to dry on my shower rack. Easy!
Have more questions, such as what to do about stiff towels and jeans; how to use vinegar in your laundry, and if you should be concerned about germs washing in cold water. Find the answers here.
How green is your laundry? Take the Sierra Club's 10-question quiz and find out.
Flashback to my entry on greening your laundry routine. In addition to the Method dryer sheets I recommended if you do wish to use a dryer, I've also discovered lavender dryer bags at Trader Joe's. They come four in a box (each bag will get 5-10 uses), and after their life cycle is over, you can sprinkle the florets on the carpet and vacuum.
Project Laundry List states among its principles that "Frugality, or thrift, needs to be a universally practiced virtue." Amen to that! Money is power, and it is time that Americans take charge and save money on their utility bills, which will certainly benefit Mother Earth.
Independent thinker, writer, reader, activist, voter, food lover, thrifter, volunteer, supporter of family farms, main streets, and libraries, traveler, park-goer, friend of animals, people and the Earth, lover of life
This blog is for people of all dietary backgrounds. The Vegan Good Life is not The Vegan Perfect Life. I am not a pure vegan all the time (I do eat vegetarian always), and strive to do the best I can at pursuing a vegan lifestyle. Please feel free to come along on this flawed but beautiful journey. Along the way, we'll advocate for a better world for animals, reduce our impact on the Earth, travel, go thrifting, empower ourselves financially, learn, dream, inspire, listen to music, and celebrate one of life's greatest passions - food.
