• Home
  • About
    • Contributors
    • Disclosure Policy
  • Green Your Life
  • Contact
  • Advertising

Live Renewed

Live with Compassion. Care for Creation. Impact your World!

  • Green Living
  • Family & Children
  • Impact Your World
  • Simple Living
  • Renew Your Life

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

July 16, 2013 By Hilary Kimes Bernstein
Thank you for supporting this site with purchases made through links in this post.

Ready to remove toxic cleaners from your home? Find out how!

Green in 365 at Live Renewed.com

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.

Energy-Efficient Drying

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 BernsteinHilary 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.



__________________________________________

If you’d like to learn more about living green and living frugally I’d love to have you as a Live Renewed reader! You can subscribe, either by email or in a reader, to get the latest posts, ideas and inspiration for living frugally green. You can also connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest!

Please visit our Sponsors:

Wild Mint Shop – A conscious movemint.

Diaper HQ – Your cloth diaper headquarters.

List PlanIt – Lists to put your world in order.

Jenuinely Pure – 100% natural and pure products for the body, face, home and baby.

Mighty Nest – Every product sold on Mighty Nest is free of harmful chemicals and handpicked for durability and design.

5 CommentsFiled Under: Green in 365 Tagged With: cleaning, green in 365, green living, home, laundry

Simple Steps – Hang Your Laundry Out Question of the Day – Natural Laundry cleaning wood floors with teaGreen in 365: The Dining Room – Clean Wood Floors with Tea Green and Natural Laundry Detergent Reviews

Comments

  1. Carol Samsel says

    July 17, 2013 at 2:09 pm

    I also double spin the loads of heavy laundry..such as jeans, towels etc.. before putting them into the dryer. Using less electricity to spin a little more water out than to heat up the dryer longer… especially when you are total electric like we are.

    Reply
  2. Andrea says

    July 17, 2013 at 11:45 pm

    We live in PR and we have gorgeous weather year ’round! I just put up a clothesline last month and I’m LOVING it! I love to see clothes and cloth diapers hanging out on the line. It’s not very popular to do so here, and I’m sure our neighbors think we’re a bit odd, but it’s ok 🙂

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. How Was My July? — Accidentally Green says:
    August 1, 2013 at 12:13 am

    […] Energy-Efficient Drying on Live Renewed. […]

    Reply
  2. My Favorite Guest Posts from 2013 - Accidentally Green says:
    December 30, 2013 at 12:02 am

    […] Energy-Efficient Drying on Live […]

    Reply
  3. Fabric Softener Alternatives {Safe and Simple Monday} - Accidentally Green says:
    March 24, 2014 at 12:02 am

    […] eliminate static cling, start line drying your laundry. Or, if you’re committed to the quick convenience of your dryer, start separating synthetic […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

My Book: Get started with a green and healthier life today!

Green Your Life is Now Available!

FREE Green Cleaning Guide!

Get your Free Green Cleaning Guide!

Popular Posts!

An Intentional Summer Plan and Routine for Kids
How to Completely Clear Off Your Kitchen Counters

Join me on Facebook!

FREE Green Cleaning Guide!

Get your Free Green Cleaning Guide!

Join me on Pinterest!

Copyright © 2021 Live Renewed · Custom Design by Simply Designs

Copyright © 2021 Live Renewed · Graphic Design By: Creative Kristi Designs · Log in

Privacy Policy
Ready to remove toxic cleaners from your home?
Get your FREE Guide to 5 Non-Toxic Cleaners and get started with green and natural cleaning today!
Your information will *never* be shared or sold to a 3rd party.