When I heard a while back that a ban was being lifted allowing people to once again let their clothes hang outside to dry, I thought “why in the world was it imposed in the first place?” Apparently, some geniuses believed that hanging clothing on your property is unsightly and brings down the value of the area . I think that associations with the slums we see so often in movies, where people hanging their unmentionables out on their balconies to dry because they were too poor to afford drying them at a buck seventy-five a load, has tainted our outlook on reality just a tad. While it may be true, not everyone can afford little luxuries like a dryer, so why the hell not? After all, you ARE paying for the place, n’est pas?
As usual, artists have had to lead the way by creating economic and eye-catching ways to get your laundry done while boosting the profile of a property’s value. Christo and friends have been doing the dirty with monuments and landmarks for a while now.
All kidding aside, we don’t have to stare at the world’s largest pair of knickers to look at the huge amount of energy a dryer consumes while turned on. You’re looking at about five kilowatts of power, that’s about fifty one-hundred-watt light bulbs worth of energy. Not to mention, the dryer is constantly sucking energy when not in use in order for it to be ready to start up at the push of a button. One thing you can do is unplug it when not in use. The same thing goes for computers, monitors and televisions. If you hook these up to a surge protector, you can flip the ‘off’ switch to spare you unplugging all those cords.
Hanging your clothes inside during dry weather will also add some nice humidity to your bone-dry living area. Your nasal passages will thank you, trust me.
A big bonus is that line-dried clothes actually end up with little to no wrinkles because the fabric stretches naturally on the clothesline, thus reducing or eliminating another energy-vampire, ironing your clothes! Overdrying will also diminish the lifespan of your clothes by wearing out the elasticity of the material. I found a great site for all sorts of tips, laundry being just one of many. Pass on your tips for making a living space greener and I’ll post them here, or if you’ve got something you can demonstrate on video, I can be there to capture it. Cheers!
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Tags: Art, Budget, Christo, Clothesline, DIY, Dryer, Fabric, George Panayotou, Housekeeping, Laundry, Line Drying, Recession, Reichstag, Screw You Recession
How can I follow just your part of the blog? I really like your style and the artist’s edge to your articles. I tried the RSS thing but it is for the site not just your stuff. PLEASE help me figure this out, I always send your links to my friends!
Also, Christo always looks like he’s drying his laundry LOL!!
Don’t do laundry 2x a week - try to stretch it out as long as possible and you’ll be able to save those precious loonies and quarters. Oh, and people who wash/dry ’small’ loads: get a grip - that is such a waste of water and electricity! Be practical people!!!
Bye George, you’re great!!
Well, Karen the RSS feed is for the site as a whole, so you get the whole package. I post my blog around 3pm from Tues-Thurs, so if you mark that in your calendar, you can get your thrice weekly dose of George-goodness. Stick around and thanks for your comment, there’s lots to see around here and I’m sure you’ll find more than what you bargained for!