Do You Line Dry Your Laundry?

Line drying: so simple, so frugal, so green.

And yet, kind of a pain. In green blogger circles, you sometimes here this confession: I no longer line dry. We all have a finite amount of time in the day, and it could definitely be argued that the time and effort you spend line drying might be better spent participating in writing letters or making phone calls to your representatives regarding your concerns about climate change.

I have many frugal friends who rarely touch a dryer. My friend Heidi even considers hanging her laundry somewhat therapeutic or meditative or something. Even though I've fallen off the line drying wagon I still always line dry certain types of loads:

• small loads
• stinky diapers/ training pants
• hand-me-downs/ second-hand clothes

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Easy Homemade Starch for Ironing (and DIY Alternative to Dry Cleaning)

Do you take clothes to the cleaners? My husband used to take his dress shirts and pants to a dry cleaner. Once I entered the green path, I learned that there are many reasons to avoid conventional dry cleaners:

• the chemicals involved  (PERC) are pretty nasty
• dry cleaned clothing off-gasses some of those nasty chemicals into the air you breathe
• dry cleaning generates an enormous amount of waste from single-use plastic bags and hangers (although the hangers at least can usually be returned and reused)

As is often the case, first I found a greener alternative, and then figured out a DIY solution because the greener alternative was so darn expensive. In addition, it's not entirely clear that all of the "greener" dry cleaners are actually all that eco-friendly.

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10 Steps to Greener Laundry

1. Do less laundry.

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Do Less Laundry

Today's edition of Lazy and Cheap Ways to Be Green is about laundry. With today's labor saving appliances, laundry is a whole lot less work than it used to be. But I still find folding and putting away laundry to be a chore, so I like to minimize the amount of wash I do. By doing less laundry, you save time, energy, water,  money, and prolong the life of your washables. All it takes is a willingness to lower your standards of cleanliness.

How to Do Less Laundry

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I Love Line Drying

I've been meaning to line dry for a long time.  Now I'm finally doing it! -- thanks to my engineer husband (and a very inexpensive nylon line).  When my first was in cloth diapers, I frequently dried the diapers on a rack, but drying them like this on a line is way more awesome.  In a matter of weeks, I have gone from a reluctant foot-dragging I'll-get-around-to-it-someday line dryer to a true believer.

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The Smell of Clean

What should clean laundry smell like?

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Washing Cloth Diapers

Most of the time my washing routine looks like this:

1. Toss dirty diaper in the diaper pail. I use a dry pail, no soaking diapers.  Covers only get washed if they smell horrendous or have poop on them.
2. After 3-4 days, or when I notice we are down to one or two prefolds, dump diapers into washing machine.  This is the most unpleasant part of the entire routine.  Since I have a front loader, I can't just "dump" the diapers in really, so I use a latex glove to help them along into the washer.
3. Usually, no rinse, because I usually have little to no poop on my diapers thanks to infant potty training.  If there is a lot of poop in a particular load, I might do a cold rinse first.  For more on how to handle poop with cloth diapers, read this post.
4. Wash on normal cycle: wash warm, rinse cold.  I use Charlie's Soap Powder.  I used to wash in hot, but Green Baby Guide inspired me to switch to warm (they wash in cold, but I haven't made it there yet, for psychological reasons).
5. Usually, no extra rinse either.  No pre-rinse, no post-rinse, just a normal wash cycle.
6. Dry in the dryer or line dry.  I always line dry covers and synthetic inserts.

Notes:

• I make zero attempt to remove stains.
• When the diapers seem really stinky, sometimes I add baking soda to the wash (with detergent) and vinegar to the rinse (put it in the "fabric softener" dispenser), and then do an extra rinse afterwards.  I also occasionally wash with no detergent on super hot to try to get out any residue.  When I say occasionally, I mean every 2 to 6 months. 

Additional Resources

• Eco-novice's Cloth Diapering 101 Series
• Real Diaper Association's Cloth Diaper Laundry Guide
• Jillian's Drawers: New to Cloth (look at "7. Washing Instructions")

Would you like more ideas and tips about Going Green Gradually? Sign up for my free email subscription to get each of my posts delivered to your inbox (I usually post one or two times a week). You can also follow me on Facebook, Google Plus, Pinterest, Twitter, or with your favorite RSS Reader. I hope to see you again soon!

Photo credit: Kurt Thomas Hunt

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Nothing But Soap: Review and Giveaway

I am pleased to introduce you to Nothing But Soap: all-natural, vegan, naturally scented, and handmade products by Amber Perks.  Amber makes

• Laundry soap (lavender, tangerine, tea tree or unscented)
• Reusable dryer bags (in 3 varieties)
• Dishwasher soap (lemon lime)
• Lemon cleaning scrub
• Carpet deodorizer (lavender mint, lavender rosemary, cinnamon clove, or dust mite and germ fighting with essential oils)
• All-purpose cleaner

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Green Cleaning - Laundry

Possibly the hardest part of switching to greener cleaners is deciding which ones to buy.  Once you have a tried-and-true cleaning favorite, it's hard to bother to switch to something new, even if you've read about the problems with conventional cleaners.  Luckily, I've done all that annoying research plus trial-and-error stuff for you.  In my Green Cleaning series, I introduce you to all of my favorite green cleaners.  There are definitely others out there that work.  These are just the ones that I've tried that have worked for me.  


My Laundry Cleaners

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Outdoor Clothes (Lazy, Cheap and Green)

Here's another Lazy and Cheap Way to Be Green:

Keep a set of "outdoor clothes" for each child.  Put these clothes on your child before they play in the mud outside, remove them when they come inside, and keep them by the door for the next outdoor adventure.  My kids have outdoor pants and outdoor jackets (when it's cold).  Wash the clothes when absolutely necessary. 

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What Do You Do with the POOP???

A big barrier in switching from disposables to cloth diapers is poop. I mean, as parents, we’ve all washed our share of pee, right? Pee on clothes, pee on sheets, pee on the floor because the diaper shifted a little too far to the side. But poo is another matter. We’ve all washed poo too, mostly out of clothes after a pooplosion. Most people do not relish the idea of dealing with poop anymore than they have to. Although all disposable diapers include instructions telling you to remove the poop from the diaper before throwing it in the trash (because that stuff belongs in the sewage system, not in the landfill where it may contaminate ground water), nobody does. At least no one I’ve ever met. So, just in case you are thinking about using cloth diapers, let’s discuss some of your options when it comes to poop.  (These methods all assume a dry pail, which is what I use.)

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