Search This Blog

Monday, January 31, 2011

AIRING MY DIRTY LAUNDRY

Why is there a permanent press setting on most irons?
~ Kay Mosure~

Sorry if the title of this post made you think you were about to learn a titillating little secret about me.  Nope.  Just a little post about laundry.   Well, here's a secret.  I don't own a clothes dryer.  Haven't for about four years. I might have purchased one, except for the fact that there's no room for one in my little cottage and I'd rather wear dirty clothes than go down in the "silence of the lambs" basement.

  Everyone knows how thrifty it is to hang your laundry outside in the warm weather, but most resort to the dryer come winter.  I hang them on a little contraption called a drying rack (and the upstairs banister) in my pantry.  When my husband and I bought our first home, it came with an electric clothes dryer.  The first time we tried it, we looked at the electric meter spinning off it's axis (located conveniently   over the dryer) and unplugged it.  How did we survive with a house bulging at the seams with boys?  We ran clothes lines in our basement.  During the winter the air is so dry that it only took a day for them to dry.  Plus it added moisture to the air.

My friend  asked me what do I do when I have visitors.  I have a simple solution.  I shut the door.  If they are good enough friends to go poking about behind my closed doors, they are good enough friends to see my laundry.  As for the banister, everyone has too creaky of knees to venture up my little ship's ladder of a staircase, and besides all that is upstairs is bedrooms and they don't need to be there anyhow.

I couldn't even venture a guess at how much money we've saved by not running a dryer.  For a while we did abandon our thrifty ways and use one.  But you know what?  I kinda missed my hard towels.  I tell you, you don't need a loofah  or to exfoliate when you dry your towels inside!

PS:  Did you ever notice that brownies and bar cookies taste 100% better when you cut  and place them in a canister (preferable with a Currier and Ives scene) inside the refrigerator?

5 comments:

  1. I have one of those racks, Jane - but I'm afraid I don't use it nearly often enough. I'm too hooked on my dryer. I do use the rack in the summer to dry clothes outside and you can't beat the fresh smell. (We live in a townhome with no clotheslines.)

    And yes, brownies and bars are way better when kept in the refrig!! (-:

    ReplyDelete
  2. You are my kind of woman! Sheets dried out of doors have the most heavenly smell that no drier sheet can compare and the smell is a natural sleep aid. You can save me that kind of money any time!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love it! We use ours, but when I am rushed, on goes the dryer. In the spring, summer, and fall, I can plan better! I love brownies anyway they are served! LOL

    ReplyDelete
  4. I tried to use ours but we had so much laundry it would never dry-we haven't got a basement here! We are now in a blizzard warning! I might have to find a way after this heat bill though to do this. Stay warm and dry.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Good point about shutting the door where your clothes are drying. This is why I HATE HATE HATE "open concept" houses. If your kitchen has a few dirty dishes your whole house looks dirty. It's nice to just close the door and not have to think about things sometimes. It's annoying to have to clean 5 rooms when you have some unexpected guests-

    ReplyDelete