This will save you money and it won't cost you a cent!
A family of five goes through a lot of laundry. I know because I am the one that does it!
A few years ago I was happily ( ok... Who am I kidding after what seems like a billion loads of laundry I STILL find laundry a chore) ....
Anyway....
For years I washed clothes and just threw them in the dryer to dry. Easy right?
1 or 2 loads a day, every day.
And when the power bill came in we would complain that it was too expensive. Sure we turned off lights and made sure everything was off and yet our bill was always higher than we would like.
Then my husband was home during the day and made an observation ..... That the dryer was on a couple of hours a day!
" You do realize that it is an electrical element that dries the clothes...right? What if we start air drying the clothes and see if that makes a difference on the power bill?"
Great.. I thought.... More work for me!! Sigh....
Three kids,a husband,two cats, and a house aren't enough?.. Now you want me to hang up laundry too!
I honestly thought it was going to be awful. You know, like going back to the Middle Ages awful.
But he put up a clothes line outside and we bought a wooden clothes dryer for inside when the weather was bad and we ( yes he started to help hanging up the clothes when he was around) religiously air dried our clothes.
And do you know what?
That's right...our power bills went down right away.
At the time my hubby figured we were saving .25 cents every time we hung up our laundry.
I know it doesn't sound like much, but
.25 cents a load x 2 loads a day x 30 days a month = $15 a month
And that was a few years ago. It would be even more now.
If you save $15 a month times 10 things , that's a pile of cash.
I figured something else out too. By using the sun, wind and air to dry our clothes, I wasn't using any resources , so I was doing something positive for the environment.
Also I learned that it really only takes a few minutes to hang up laundry and the kids liked to help too. I figured that in a small way I was teaching them something valuable. It was a job that they could help with. I taught them how to fold their own clothes early on. And also when they came home from their friends houses and asked why we didn't have nice soft towels like they did, I could proudly say I was doing my little part and saving the planet. It's a great little way to show your little kids you are conscious of our fragile planet. When they are in school they will be proud to add " air drying our clothes" to the list when their teachers ask them what their family does at home to help the environment.
I figured something else out too. By using the sun, wind and air to dry our clothes, I wasn't using any resources , so I was doing something positive for the environment.
Also I learned that it really only takes a few minutes to hang up laundry and the kids liked to help too. I figured that in a small way I was teaching them something valuable. It was a job that they could help with. I taught them how to fold their own clothes early on. And also when they came home from their friends houses and asked why we didn't have nice soft towels like they did, I could proudly say I was doing my little part and saving the planet. It's a great little way to show your little kids you are conscious of our fragile planet. When they are in school they will be proud to add " air drying our clothes" to the list when their teachers ask them what their family does at home to help the environment.
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