4. Hanging out with your clothes
I will air dry my laundry as much as possible and wash my clothes in cold water whenever possible.
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
Dryers have a significant carbon footprint, and are usually one of the top three energy-hungry appliance (after refrigerators and washing machines) in your home. An average household can reduce their carbon footprint by 2,400 pounds per year by air drying their clothes. Because clothes dryers represent around 5.8% of residential electricity use, you will also save money by energy-free air drying.
Dryer usage is hard on most fabrics due to friction and heat. Air-drying is better for fabrics helping to keep their color, shape and texture intact longer. The material in your dryer lint filter is evidence that your clothes are breaking down in the dryer. Air drying helps your clothes last longer so you can spend less money and time replacing items, which further reduces your carbon footprint.
Inside air drying can also increase your home’s humidity which is especially positive in the winter months, and is usually welcome in the Southern California area year-round.
Washing your clothes in cold water most of the time will also save money and reduce emissions. Up to 90% of the washing machine’s energy use goes toward heating the water. You can save up to 864 pounds of emissions per year by washing four out of five loads in cold water.
Let’s air dry our laundry, wash in cold water and help ourselves and the environment every week!
TAKE ACTION!
Identify where in your house and potentially outside you can set up a system to hang wet clothes. If you are lucky enough to have a laundry room and it has space for air drying, that’s a good place to start. If you don’t have a dedicated laundry room, you can identify another part of your home such as a bathroom, bedroom or even the garage to set up some portable or retractable clothes drying racks/hangers.
Figure out what type of drying implements will work in your situation.
This site provides lots of suggestions about what is available and how to actually hang up wet clothes for the best drying results
Other sites that list drying implement options: Best Clotheslines of 2021, Urban Clotheslines and Dryway (upscale option for customizing a laundry room).
Install or set up the portable drying clothesline in the room you have chosen to use for this purpose and / or set up an outdoor option.
Remember that sometimes the use of a little dryer time is okay, if, for example, you want to soften your towels just before they are fully air dried. Air dry your delicates, polyester and polyester blend clothing, and washable wools. These are more prone to dryer heat damage and air dry quickly.
Wash your clothes in cold water whenever possible. Today’s detergents are formulated to clean clothes in all temperatures and using cold saves the energy (and money) it takes to heat up water.
Wash your clothes and start air drying your way to a more earth-friendly and money-saving way of life.
ADDITIONAL MOTIVATION THOUGHTS
Most of the year, we have the potential to hang clothes outside to dry and there are additional benefits to this option. Drying outside makes clothes smell fresher, encourages you to do outside and increases your daily steps/exercise, reduces hard-to-remove smells, and the sun helps to whiten and disinfect laundry.
Air drying can help reduce clothing wrinkles.
