And now, for my favorite topic: LAUNDRY
Figure 1: My frozen urchin of a clothespin bag.
I hate most housework but I love love love doing the laundry.
I love making my laundry soap, I love folding laundry, and I especially love hanging laundry. If it's free, it's me, so using the sun for power makes me bubble like cheap champagne.
But in the winter? I confess to seeing a pic a long while back of a woman hanging laundry in a huge snow drift. Impressive eco chops, no? So I dutifully bought a pair of good winter boots at a thrift store and got ready to climb the drifts in search of free energy.
Figure 2: Not only do my clothes suffer from constant stain drippage, they also get subjected to polar temperatures.
The main problem with outdoor laundry isn't that it's cold, or that navigating snow drifts is difficult, or that my neighbor's damn ugly bug-eyed dog keeps shitting in my lawn and the pristine blanket of white snow just makes that fact all the more clear.
It's that you need a perfect combination of windy + sunny in order to get your clothing at all dry and that's not easy to get in Minnesota.
So, First thing. Weather Is A Factor, Just Like In Summer Drying. I can't believe I just typed that. But for all our anencephalic or Martian readers, expect to become even more intimately connected with your local forecast than before. Otherwise you are looking at frozen jeans and shirts stacked like arctic pancakes in your brittle plastic basket, which will thaw upon returning indoors.
Second thing? You'll need something to set your basket on, lest it get encrusted with snow. I usually keep a chair in my yard for this purpose anyway, as I hate bending over and what not. Right now it's frozen in position. NIIIIICE.
Figure 2: Helpful chair that prevents bending over. Which both saves your back and your neighbor's eyes if you have an unsightly ass. In the case of my neighbor, I don't give a shit. Stare all you want, pervo. Just keep your shitting bug-eyed dog outta my yard.
Finally, consider Domestic Blowback. Not to be waved off is The Husband's potent dislike of line-dried clothing, which he generally grumbles about in balmier weather as being too crunchy and coarse. This rachets up to a fierce hatred when his socks are brittle and icy. If you're dealing with hostile locals, consider using the dryer for their duds and save the Laura Ingalls Method for your clothing.
(As much propaganda as I've deluged him with, he's not buying my argument that stiff bath towels are better for skin exfoliation, which they are. Hello, the coarse mitt used to scrub your bod after you heat up in the sauan in a traditional Turkish bath? An air-dried towel works similarly. Jeez. I can't help knowing everything about everything. It's a curse.)
For crappy winter weather (also known as "most of the time) I use an indoor drying rack. I keep mine in my gacky furnace room, where it is warm and there's space to hog up that nobody else wants to occupy.
There endeth the reading. Go forth and launder sustainably!
your freakin crazy. crazy, I say.
Posted by: Your friend, remember me? | 07 January 2008 at 07:55 PM
you're freakin crazy. crazy, i say.
Posted by: Your friend, remember me? | 07 January 2008 at 07:56 PM
Well, you don't have to repeat yourself. I heard you the first time!
Besides, I'd like to know where YOUR indoor drying rack is, Young Lady. And your retractable clothesline, which you can put up across your yard and take down as needed. Get with it, sister!
Posted by: Carrie | 09 January 2008 at 02:12 PM
I do have an indoor drying rack--in fact--we have THREE! So there, missy. And we bought the most energy-efficent dryer on the market at the time--so there again.
Posted by: Holly Keller | 09 January 2008 at 08:53 PM
Whoa - THREE! The High Trinity of Laundry!
However, you didn't mention the outdoor line. Is that because you were busy hollering at the Husband to quit run to the hardware store...?
Posted by: Carrie | 09 January 2008 at 09:04 PM
Thanks for the recipe for laundry soap, tomorrow I'm getting the ingredients and trying it out.
The striped pants are adorable.
Posted by: Rosa | 15 January 2008 at 02:44 AM
Let me know how it works for you!
The pants? 3.99 at Goodwill.
Sa-weet. They are my favorite lounging/binging pants.
Posted by: Carrie | 15 January 2008 at 10:15 AM
I've only just discovered your blog and I love Love love what you write. Spent ages on here this afternoon....
I'm in freezing cold Canada and your washing pic is v familiar!
Have linked to your site from mine :)
Posted by: Geekware | 16 January 2008 at 01:45 AM
Thanks for visiting and the link. The feeling's mutual and I love your recycled designs!
Posted by: Carrie | 16 January 2008 at 01:42 PM
So maybe this is a dumb question but...do you avoid having brittle clothes in winter simply by not putting them on the line when it's below freezing? Just wondering how you avoid stiff clothes.
Man, are YOU hardcore or what?!
Posted by: Melanie | 29 June 2008 at 09:12 PM
The key issue is wind. The wind helps the drying out. I don't outdoor dry very often in the winter, because the conditions aren't often prime.
Like if it's snowing or not windy enough, why trudge out there?
The clothes "melt" a little when you bring them in, if that makes sense. So you're not wearing brittle boards for pants or anything.
Posted by: Carrie | 30 June 2008 at 09:56 AM