After years of watching enviously while my neighbor hung her laundry out to dry, I made a trip to our friendly neighborhood Ace Hardware and bought my own umbrella-style clothes drier. Mr Ether graciously installed it for me, and I hung up my first load of laundry this afternoon.Not only has my neighbor had a clothes line, but last week I noticed that she has a special apron that she wears, with big pockets to keep the clothes pins right at her fingertips. My jealousy knew no bounds! So yesterday, while I waited for the first load of wash to finish cycling, I sewed a clothes pin apron. You'd better believe it, bub. It's like a carpenters' apron, only girly. My own design. You can see it hanging there to the right of the tie-dye.
Woo hoo. Some people really know how to have a good time!
In case you didn't know, automatic clothes driers are the most energy wasteful appliance in the house. And while other appliances -- washing machines, refrigerators, etc. -- have been engineered in recent years to be more energy efficient, there is really nothing that can be done to improve driers.
Fortunately, we have those stalwart alternatives -- solar and wind power -- that do an excellent job, cost nothing (except the price of a clothes line apparatus and some clothes pins) and leave your garments smelling fresh as a daisy.
I know that some communities have "covenants" that forbid things like clothes lines and compost bins. If you live in one of those places, this is your chance to practice nonviolent resistance. Become an outlaw! Put up a clothes line! What can they do -- foreclose on your mortgage? Put you in the stocks? Send you to Gitmo?
(You can also go here to buy a folding drying rack, which doesn't hold as much, but it works.)
Today, a clothes line. Tomorrow, backyard chickens!
