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Ok, so as you may have guessed from my other posts. i have been really trying to knuckle down and try to keep the bills at bay. Here in Maryland our BG&E bill is about to go up 50% this month. So I have been looking into ways to save $. One of the things I am considering is hanging clothes out. Not a fan of lined dried clothes, but I am willing to make the sacrafice. The problem is, we are a budget driven family in a neighborhood of families who are well off. So nobody has a clothesline around here,. we are also the first house on the street and our property is like being in a fishbowl. We don't have trees or anything just open yard. So there is no discreet place to put one. As soon as I mentioned it to dh he said no! but there has to be a way to hang my clothes and not be that family in the neighborhood. Any ideas?
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My Mom has a friend who hangs her clohtes to dry right in their basement laundry room - she has big back doors that go ouy to her yard and she opens those for a breeze and has lines hung right there in the house.
I hang out clothes as much as I can but have never thought about it from the social aspect of it. I'd try to hang them dry inside - or get one of the collapseable lines and put it in the most hidden place you can if you are concerned. It's sad that people could/would react negatively, but I can see it happening. I love the fresh smell and the money savings; so I would miss it.
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Do you have a porch or patio you could put a line up on? Also the garage. Otherwise you will have to hang them inside or just bite the bullet and use the dryer.
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I have a spot in our basement that I just hang the "heavy" items in the basement. Like, jeans and sweatshirts. Then, my other items dry much faster and I don't have to hang stuff outside.
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We're not allowed to have a clothesline in our neighborhood but I just dry mine, all year around, inside. I have a line in the basement and also area in my closet to dry things on hangers. I've been doing this since forever since drying causes the most fading of clothing. I do throw things in the dryer for about 10 minutes and then hang them up. They aren't crunchy, aren't wrinkled etc
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You could put a clothes line in your shower. Depending on how many baths you have, you may be able to fit a few rows in each.
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I have a clothes rack that I put on my patio to hang things I don't want people to see on my clothes line (ex. my underwear). I also use it indoors for days that oudoors hanging is impossible.
Maybe if the neighboors see you installing a clothes line they will do the same. You may not be the only one wishing for one and not doing it.
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I do a couple of things....
I put up one of those clotheslines that you can take down (they sort of fold out into a square and each side has about 6 ropes to hang clothes on), the nice thing about this is that you can take the pole out of the ground (like in the winter or whenever you aren't using it) because it fits into a little cup on the ground that has a cover. They cost about $25, the only thing is that you put the little cup in the ground with a little cement (I think that cost me about $3 and I just mixed a batch up when we made some paving stones).
I don't like the "crispy" feel of sheets and stuff when I hang stuff out, so I dry it and then "fluff" it in the dryer for about 10 minutes and it's great! (I don't hang out underwear because of creapy neighbors) but it's great for bedding, towels, everyday clothes, etc.
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Originally Posted by Oregano
We're not allowed to have a clothesline in our neighborhood but I just dry mine, all year around, inside. I have a line in the basement and also area in my closet to dry things on hangers. I've been doing this since forever since drying causes the most fading of clothing. I do throw things in the dryer for about 10 minutes and then hang them up. They aren't crunchy, aren't wrinkled etc
We do have two small windows in the basement, no doors. Does your clothes get that basementy smell to them?
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Originally Posted by mommy&wifeisme
We do have two small windows in the basement, no doors. Does your clothes get that basementy smell to them?
Nope...