Save Energy By Turning Back Time - Hang Your Laundry Out to Dry Like Your Grandparents Did

The other day I was doing a post on my site about one of the Case Study Houses, the Greenbelt by Ralph Rapson (CSH#4). It's an interesting house; very simple but intriguing in the way it incorporates a green space between its public and private functional areas. It's the kind of house I go for.

I'm fascinated by an original illustration of the Greenbelt, seen here on the cover of Architecture magazine (March '05):

The image is an interesting snapshot of the naive optimism of the era. There's a commuter helicopter hovering over the house. Clearly, even as suburbia was being born, the problems of sprawl and disconnectedness were apparent. I suppose that at the time the solutions looked obvious. I also like the Jeep in the driveway, just ready and waiting for weekend fun. Even then we were fascinated with SUVs as fashion statements, expensive toys, symbolic of a new lifestyle halfway between city life and country pursuits remembered from childhood days on the farm. When you have new found wealth and freedom on Saturday you need a vehicle that can take you, say, to the nearby mountains for skiing, or on an adventurous day trip into the desert, or just up to the cabin in the woods.

But the image that gets me the most is that of the lady of the house hanging out the family's laundry to dry on a clothesline in the yard. I cannot remember the last time I saw that, but it was a long time ago. I do specifically remember from my childhood in the seventies that both my grandparents dried their clothes on a line, and so did most of their neighbors.

Those days seem to be very long gone. It's even more ironic to me to see a suburban family drying clothes on a line. I live in the burbs of Detroit, and I can say without doubt that if I did that it wouldn't be long before the neighbors started whispering and I got a call from the homeowners association. The bylaws of most subdivisions wouldn't stand for it for a minute.

Laundry is on the mind because our washer went out recently, for good this time, and we ended up buying a new washer and dryer. We bought the most efficient we could, and I've noticed a huge difference already, especially in the dryer. We're using much less water in the wash and our clothes dry much, much faster in the new dryer. But I still can't help thinking how much energy we could save by simply hanging clothes out on a breezy day.

And then just tonight I was surfing around the Web and out of the blue I stumbled on this very recent Seattle Times article: A Hip, Modern Clothesline Can Turn Your Laundry Green. According to the story a clothes dryer is responsible for up to 1,440 pounds of carbon dioxide annually, and can account for as much as ten percent of your home's energy consumption. That's a lot. If you could just dry half your clothes outside over the course of the year you'd make a meaningful difference. It's something to think about.

Of course, the Seattle Times article ends with "Before you let the family's laundry all hang out, check with your condo or homeowners association. Some associations ban hanging clothes outdoors." That's something to think about too. If we want to change our habits we need to change the rules too. That's the real challenge, and it doesn't stop with just laundry.