Energy-Efficient Drying {Green in 365: Laundry Room}

This is Day 197 of the Green in 365 series!

By Hilary Kimes Bernstein of Accidentally Green

When it comes to laundry, the way you choose to dry your clothes can save – or waste – a lot of energy.

Fortunately, there are plenty of environmentally friendly ways to dry your laundry.

Photo by africa

Air Drying

The most affordable and green way to dry your clothes is by using a clothesline. Wet laundry dries pretty quickly when it’s hung outside, and even though you don’t spy so many clotheslines around anymore, it was the only way clothes were dried in the past.

Since pioneers had no other options, line drying was done year-round – in the Little House series, Laura Ingalls Wilder writes that her family’s clothes were freeze dried in the winter. (You may want to try your own freeze drying this winter.)

If you’re short on outdoor space or simply don’t have much room to hang a large clothesline, you can get creative. Use an indoor clothesline in your laundry room. Use your shower curtain rod. Or, place a drying rack in your bathtub when your tub’s not in use.

Dryer Balls

If you must use a dryer, wool dryer balls are an easy way to reduce drying time – and save energy. While it’s very easy to make your own, I’ve personally found that commercial dryer balls are much heavier – and they drastically cut back on drying time. (They’re a lot noisier, too.)

The thing I love about wool dryer balls is that they naturally reduce wrinkles and soften your laundry – so fabric softeners are completely unnecessary.

Dryer Maintenance

When you use a dryer, there are some basic maintenance tips that should help to reduce energy and drying times – it all comes down to cleaning.

• After every load, clean out your dryer’s lint trap.
• Every season, wash your dryer’s lint trap with gentle soap and warm water.
• And once a year, clean out your dryer’s vent and exhaust duct with a cleaning brush. This helps to remove all lint – which cuts down on drying times and helps prevent potential fires.

How do you typically dry your laundry? Have any other green drying tips to share?

Find all the Green in 365 posts.

Hilary Kimes Bernstein is a Christ follower, wife, mama, and writer who blogs about making healthy decisions that honor God and happen to help the environment at Accidentally Green. She’s recently released her first eBook, First Bites: How To Instill Healthy Eating Habits During Your Baby’s First Year.

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