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Dear Editor;
Thanks to Eileen Fitzsimons for her lovely letter last week ("Mom's Clothesline"). Some nostalgic memories like doing washing on Mondays, not to mention ironing clothes, brought a smile. I wanted to follow up, though, to encourage everyone who can to consider line drying of clothes not a quaint custom of yesteryear, but a positive practice in the 21st century.
The benefits of this practice are many, from the practical (energy savings, longer-lasting clothes, whiter whites, and no shrinkage) to the personal (exercise, fresh air, and laundry that smells great naturally). The Natural Resources Defense Council points out that clothes dryers are major energy consumers, and Americans spend $9 billion a year on the power required to use them. According to the NRDC, a clothes dryer "can consume as much electricity as an efficient new clothes washer, refrigerator and dishwasher combined." (http://www.nrdc.org/energy/files/efficient-clothes-dryers-IB.pdf). This energy use has an environmental impact. A 2019 New York Times article (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/02/climate/nyt-climate-newsletter-laundry.html) states that "...the most efficient drying method requires almost no energy; just enough to haul your basket to a rack or a clothesline. Air drying avoids the machine altogether and could save millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year."
A clothes dryer is great for some items (down jackets and to fluff line-dried bath towels, for example), but the clothesline has many advantages. Whatever your reasons - personal, financial, or environmental - you might find a clothesline or rack is as wonderful today as it was for your mother and grandmother.
Mary Wepking
Dodgeville