Hang (Air) Drying Cloths #
I’ve found that hang drying cloths over using a cloths dryer has some pretty neat advantages:
Less Work #
IF you hang dry your cloths in a place where they can stay indefinitely, then hang drying leads to this laundry workflow:
- Wash cloths
- Hang dry - this must happen now because cloths are wet!
- Easily find what you want to wear (since everything is hanging up) and wear it.
I find this easier than my previous workflow, which was:
- Wash cloths
- Transfer to dryer
- Put in laundry bin to fold later
- Never actually fold later and dig through the bin to find stuff when I need to wear it. This is especially annoying with socks. And it leads to wrinkly cloths.
Even if I did fold the cloths, I find that hanging cloths up is easier physically easier than folding them and putting them away.
Longer Lasting Cloths #
Cloths seem to wear out less quickly for me using this technique. Unfortunately I have no evidence of this and am a biased source, so this may not actually be true. I’d be surprised if cloths wore out more quickly though!
Cheaper #
If we assume the average cloths dryer using 3000W and drys cloths in 2 hrs,
then to do one load of laundry takes 6kWh. In Seattle, this would cost
$0.11/kWh * 6kWh = $0.66 per load of laundry. So not much, but something!
An Old Apartment’s System #
I (use to) hang my cloths above my 4-poster bed, which I find is a pretty efficient use of space:
One thing to be careful of is the weight of the cloths on the structure you’re using, which can be significant!
Using Hangers #
A good system I use as of 2022 is to put wet shirts on hangers, which I then hang on a clothesline. When doing this it’s important to tie regularly spaced knots in the rope for the hangers to rest against (like this: https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/vf4upz/this_man_tying_knots/) to make sure the clothes don’t bunch up (reducing airflow).
Categories: Lifestyle Optimizations