Drying Clothes Without a Dryer

I seriously think one of the things my family likes best about living where we do now is that we finally have a clothes dryer. It isn't our dryer. It belongs to our landlord who so graciously provided it with the house we are renting. The dryer is well loved by my kids because the lint catcher removes dog hair from their clothes and our family can finally give the appearance of being normal because we don't have our laundry flying from a line in the backyard.

I, on the other hand, dislike how it heats up the house on hot summer days and increases our electric bill, especially when the air will do it for free. How it takes me away from the enjoyment of line drying- being outside, feeling the wind and hearing the birds, clipping my clothes to the line, and the biggest reward of all- the smell of fresh line-dried clothing. I missed all that with the humming of the mechanical dryer going round and round, wasting resources with each spin. I felt disconnected from the natural course of things. Maybe line drying is in my roots. My mother recently made a post about my grandmother line drying her clothing, and that resonated with me, pulling me back to a habit I had adopted and recently given up due to my move.

So, yesterday, despite it being too late in the day to line dry outdoors, and despite not having a line to dry on, I dragged out my drying racks and hung my clothing to dry indoors. It took two racks to dry one load, but today I will do a second and place the racks outside. I look forward to the sun on my face, and the smell of the wind in my clothes once again. A little dog hair on clothing and looking abnormal to the neighbors never hurt anyone.