Oh, The Laundry!

Well, I must admit, we don’t have a very “common” method of laundry drying in our house. But, that’s okay. We really all march to the beat of our own drum in this house. Also, this is something that just “happened” and we discovered all kinds of greatness in it!

I know a lot of people hang laundry out on a clothesline to dry on nice weather days in the Spring, Summer and Fall. That has been common practice here too and that was how we did it growing up.

When I rented my own place at age 17, my first big investment was a washing machine and a year later I got the matching dryer. That was a huge deal for me at that age. And I did not grow up with a dryer so I was really “living the high life!”

When Dan and I were expecting Draven the summer of 2010, my mind was busy that whole pregnancy with all kinds of ideas. One thing that I did know for sure was that I wanted to use cloth diapers. So, I buried myself in the research of the latest and greatest on the diaper front. The diapers that I decided to go with needed to be hung out to dry. Everything about these diapers seemed like a great idea. And it was. But, I did know that I was going to need an organized/dedicated place to hang these diapers to dry during the winter months. I did some more research and ordered an indoor clothes drying rack.

On a side note, my wash machine decided to take a dump just a couple months before Draven was born. So, we purchased a new one. That brought nice peace of mind since I knew the machine would soon be working overtime for diapers aside from the laundry from a family of four. And I was set with my new drying rack for winter (and rainy weather days in the nice season).

Low and behold, a few months after we bought a new washer, the dryer started squealing. It had done that a different time about a year previous and I called in the family handyman (Dan’s uncle Mark) to come “fix it up”.

I had full intentions to have Mark come take a look at the dryer again. By this time it was summer, we were hanging out laundry and I really had no need to bother anyone about the dryer. Then, came fall and winter and no dryer. So, we really put that handy indoor drying rack to use! Not only for the intended diapers but for all of the clothes in the house. Several years have gone by and we often talk about that being one of the best things ever!

When the dryer gave out and we went to hanging out clothes completely our electric bill went down an average of $15 per month. When winter rolled around we got about half way through and realized that we had NOT had to start the humidifier and vaporizer! Drying all of our laundry indoors was keeping the perfect about of moisture in air. We were having less dry skin, waking us with fewer scratchy dry throats, not to mention saving energy and money from not running the humidifier or dryer for that matter!

For me its hard to go wrong when we are saving money, energy and the environment! Its a win-win!

Worried about having company over and looking like a backwoods redneck, you say?! Well, no problems there! This awesome rack folds up so quickly and easily for great convenient storage. We probably have not fooled anyone by putting it away when company arrives, but we do try!