Do you hang your clothes up to dry or do you just throw them into the dryer straight from the washer? If you do the latter you may be wasting a lot of money.
We just received our gas and electric bill. We heat with gas and our dryer is electric. We have a three bedroom split level and a lot of laundry. (Doesn’t everybody?) Your house may be smaller or larger and there may be more in your family so of course your usage may be different. But still, you will save a lot of money if you choose to hang dry your clothes. You also save money in not wearing out your clothes as fast. You will find clothes don’t fade or wear as bad when hang dried.
Last month’s bill had about a week and a half of hang drying clothes on it and it was $270. Less than we thought it would be as it had been very cold. This month’s bill was a shocker though - $167! More than a hundred dollars cheaper! We had a very cold month so that wasn’t it. I’m home more so you think that would drive it up even more.
What was done differently? I only used the dryer to fluff the clothes once they were dry on the line.
Now I know February is short a day or so, but wow what a savings a few extra minutes equals to!
I know what you are thinking. You are thinking I don’t have time or space to do that. I bet you do.
Let’s first tackle the time. I don’t have a lot of spare time either, but for this kind of savings I’m making time. And it really doesn’t take that long. Being that’s it winter and I don’t have an outside clothes line up yet I am hanging mine in the laundry room. It’s easy and cheap to string a few lines across the ceiling and get some plastic hangers. I hang shirts and use clothes pins to fasten clothes, towels, etc to hangers and hang up to dry overnight. I can usually hang two to three loads up at a time. Then the next day I take a load down, toss it in the dryer with a dryer cloth for about five minutes and they are soft and wrinkle free. Just like they were when they were dried in the dryer. And you don’t even need to set them on the hot setting either. I can be fluffing one load while I’m hanging another to dry or folding a load I just fluffed. I’m figuring it may be taking me about two minutes of extra time per load. So not a lot of time.
Now as far as space – I bet if you think about it you have more hanging space than you think. A laundry room, basement, bathroom. Don’t want to stretch a clothes line? Then get a portable clothes rack or two and hang them to dry there. There are lots of different racks out there. Check the Internet, stores and see what works best for you. And don’t forget the clothes pins. I recommend the wooden spring type. Don’t get the plastic ones – they break too easily. The old wooden ones are the best and they are really cheap.
Think you can’t dry sheets on hangers because they are too big? All you need are about three hangers and six wooden clothes pins. Just hang each end on a hanger, gather up the middle and hang on a third hanger. Don’t worry about “pockets” They will dry without any problem.
Still don’t want to hang inside? It doesn’t have to be warm and sunny outside to dry clothes. It can be cold, just as long as it’s dry obviously. Yes, they may dry stiff, but that’s where just a few minutes in the dryer will soften them up.
So start saving money today. Besides if you haven’t noticed – frugal is “in” now.
Rather than look at the bottom dollar look at the total KW used for the month compared to last month. If you have a gas drier check the total Ccf (hundred cubic feet). Energy companies adjust their rates. It's a good idea to track your total readings to make sure you don't have a lazy meter reader.
ReplyDeleteThat is true, you need to look at what you are actually using and chart it from month to month. I just know I mainly look at the dollar amount as many do and yes rates can change. The back of the bill has what you used for the last 12 months to give you a general idea of how much you are using. All the more reason to try and cut costs!
ReplyDeleteWe stopped using our dryer two years ago. We purchased laundry racks that we can use year round. Outside when it is nice, inside when the weather doesn't cooperate with clothes drying. It easily has saved us 10% of our energy cost. AND the bonus is that our socks and underware now last because the heat is not ruining the elastic. Saving us even more money ;-)
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