Thursday

Loads of Laundry


Thanks to a challenge from my sister-in-law, one of my Earth Day resolutions was to stop machine drying Leif's diapers (yes, he's 3 and still needs them...).  Jodi promised to make me a really great clothes line to replace the really lousy and long one we'd had in the back yard for too long.  He chose the wood, made some cuts and thanks to his busy schedule, it's still sitting in a pile by the shop.  Faced with a full drying rack and a load of wet but clean diapers, I did what I had to do and strung up a new line.  The location is not great - it's closer to the road than it is to the house, but for now it works and has kept me from having to use that energy sucking, heat producing dryer.  

A few interesting laundry links:

 Can you believe that line drying is banned in many places around the country? 
Thanks to Project Laundry List, you can calculate your energy savings here.
And have you tried making your own laundry powder yet?  My latest batches have been made with Dr. Bronners bars and I'm in love.

8 comments:

  1. AnonymousJune 03, 2010

    A girl's gotta do , what a girl's gotta do. Way to go. :)
    You will be surprised at how much money you will save not using the dryer. B.

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  2. I love the sight of a full clothes line, and a line full of diapers is the absolute best. Something about the regularity and symmetry of it maybe, because it's all one kind of item, soothes my OCD-riddled soul.

    Also, I never feel like diapers get totally clean when they're dried in the dryer, because they don't get bleached by the sun. I'm afraid of what these bad boys are going to look like in the winter when there IS no sun to bleach them. Ew.

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  3. I just got my gas and electric bill for last month ( I only ran my dryer about 5 times last month) and I saved $75 on the dryer ALONE! Another chunk of savings came from using most of our energy at LOW PEAK times (8 PM - 10 AM.) WOW!

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  4. Kristen - you think they need the sun now, just wait until he's weaned :) I'm so thankful that Leif now makes all of his #2s on the toilet.

    B. and Courtney - for once I'm actually looking forward to our next electric bill. It's becoming a little game and I'm in it to win it!

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  5. AnonymousJune 08, 2010

    Hey, I may be of some help on the peeing front.
    Tell him he can go off the porch or on a tree in the back yard.......then he will be able to go 'on demand' hee hee . B.

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  6. Hi Alyssa! It was so wonderful to see you back in town at story hour the other morning. I can attest to the lower electric bills bypassing the dryer - I took about 25% off our monthly bill when I switched. Izzie changes about 50 times a day, so this definitely helps curb our output.

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  7. This image is cute. So good for you to switch. I hated using the dryer since forever but I don't like getting a rough feel in clothes - my trick is to put the 'almost dry' clothes from being outside into the dryer for just 5 or 10 minutes. That usually does the trick and removes fluff and softens the clothes.
    Now we should talk about potty training your boy. Just get him off the diaper completely, prepare for a few messes - so remove some rugs at home. 1 week and he'll be 'a big kid now'. ;)

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  8. Robin - it was great to see you and Izzie too. We're glad to be back and I loved the way Mrs. Otis ran the story hour.

    Ella and B. - I know. Now that we've finished our move we have no more excuses for putting off the final step. Diaper free we will be!

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