Line Drying: An Irish Side-Effect

It is no secret that I hate doing laundry.  It’s also no secret that the only thing I hate worse than doing laundry is having to line dry laundry.  In fact, I hate it so much that I grew beans up my drying rack to prevent me from having to hang laundry on it.

So, with all that said, my Vacation to Ireland has had a very strange side effect.

When I got home, I started hanging clothes out to dry.

What changed?  Well, the last time I was in Ireland (which was *cough* 17 years ago) I noticed that most people I met had a tumble dryer, but choose, instead, to line dry whenever possible.  Of course I figured that was SO 1900s and that surely by now everyone has figured out the wonder that is the clothes dryer.  I mean, nobody likes crunchy clothes from the line do they?

So we return to Ireland only to discover that everyone still hangs out the wash whenever possible.  These are cousins with 3 kids and full time jobs who live in a climate much less conducive to the line than mine, so I’m giving it a go.

About half way through, I did start using my friend Amy’s method, which is to tumble dry for about 20 minutes to knock out the wrinkles, and then hang it out.  This seems to be the best of both worlds, as the things I did this with look better and feel softer.  Alternatively, if you catch the clothes just before they finish drying on the line, you can throw them in the dryer to finish up.

Everyone got in on the act of helping today, just after I snapped this picture, Eric strung me up a better line and Lucas helped me hang.  We finally see that if we pinch pennies in all aspects of life, we just might make it back to Ireland before 17 years go by again!

So does anyone have any encouragement or line drying success stories to share with me??

Happily shared on the Clever Chicks Blog Hop!