It dawned sunny, dry, and windy today and I didn't let the high of 32 degrees prevent me from hanging two loads of laundry outside to dry. I figured I needed to experiment and see if the whole idea of sublimation was true. Sublimation is the process where clothing hung on a clothesline in below freezing weather will go from wet to dry by releasing frozen water vapor. Would my clothing dry after four hours outdoors on what would typically be a great day for drying if it wasn't for the fact that it was the end of December and below freezing? According to the process of sublimation, it should.
Now that the experiment is over, I can say that the extremely light weight clothing, the stuff that practically feels dry when you remove it from the washing maching, did dry. So did the men's cotton business shirts. The rest of it was wet and frozen stiff. It was actually kind of cool. I could remove the clothespins from the clothing and the clothing didn't fall off of the line because it was frozen in place. Hating to remove the board stiff clothing and rehang it indoors, I decided to leave it out overnight and hope that it would dry in the early part of the day tomorrow. We are supposed to reach 41 degrees and it will all dry in the morning. Because of the promising weather, dare I try and get a few more loads hung out after that?
You may wonder why I put myself through hanging my laundry outside and dealing with the possibility of it freezing and such. Why not just hang it inside you may think. Well, I really don't enjoy hanging my clothes up inside the house. It feels so much more like work. I guess that it just suits me better to be outside, feeling the sun and wind and watching my dog explore the yard. Plus you can't beat how clothes smell when they come in off of the line. It is especially good in the cold weather when the clothing hung outdoors brings the fresh smell of winter indoors.
All of the posts that discuss my experiences with outdoor line drying can be found by clicking here.
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