A Good Day to Dry!

Since today is the first day of summer and the longest day of the year and my favorite day of the year, I thought I'd send a green message to everyone. I'm a real advocate of hanging out laundry. Unfortunately in the US, it's frowned upon and in 300,000 home owner's associations (60 million people), it's not allowed. We have a perception that the poor hang out their clothes. A great pleasure of mine is to wriggle into bed under freshly sun-dried sheets. That smell! Ahhhh! And what a silly thing to try to duplicate that smell with a dryer sheet.
I have to hand it to these Brits, everyone seems to hang their laundry out, no matter what their economic level. Their colorful apparel and linens go splendidly with their gardens! And more often than not, there is not much room, but hang they do!


This lovely summery photo and the colorful one following it is from a woman who lives in Australia. I've been reading her blog, pea soup and loved these photos. (She gave me persmission to use them, thanks!). She's a fellow knitter, gardener and clothes hanger outer.


Thanks Suse for this bright addition.




Thanks Ann for your lovely photo of your laundry hanging out in California.


These following photos are of wash I've seen drying in the sun (or sometimes getting rinsed in the rain) the past few months.



Here are a couple of websites if you'd like more info on the "Right to Dry".
laundrylist.org or if you'd like to purchase any kind of clothesline under the sun, clotheslineshop.com


"A home looks like a home when there's a clothesline with clothes billowing out back in the breeze."


A clothes dryer is the second biggest electricity using appliance with the fridge being number one.


In 2005 there were 88 million dryers in the US. If all American line-dried for 6 months, it'd save 3.3% of the country's total residential output of carbon dioxide.


A typical family dryer uses 900 KWH of energy a year creating 840 kg of air pollution.