I wanted to share my laundry tips! This post might be rather long, but I hope its useful to someone!

I hang clothes outside when it’s clear and at least 60 degrees or breezy.

This time of year, though, I dry them inside. I had Hubby install one-inch iron pipe (salvaged, it had previously supplied water to my kitchen sink) between the side walls of my laundry room (he even thought to paint it white so it didn’t look like an old plumbing pipe and kind of was camoflauged against the white ceiling. It is a few inches from the ceiling so that clothes hanging on this drying bar, as I call it, are above the washer and chest freezer, parallel to and about two feet from the wall behind the washer and freezer.

And you know all those plastic shirt hangers and clippy hangers on which clothes are hung in stores? If the clerk asks if you want the hanger, say YES! I keep my clippy and shirt hangers on the drying bar, ready to receive wet laundry. (Located in my laundry/mud room, it also makes a great place to hang coats, using doubled or tripled hangers if needed, when we have a lot of company!)

I hang the lightest-weight (aka, quickest drying) clothes closest to the front, removing them when they’re completely dry and redistributing the remaining damp pieces to allow for more air circulation.

To access the washer or freezer, I just push aside the hanging clothes, do what I need to do and then reposition them.

In addition, I have put white spring-tension curtain rods in several doorways in my house — about one inch from the top inside of of the doorway. This is great for light-weight things such as cotton shirts, T-shirts and non-cotton socks, and allows items hanging on my drying bar to have more air circulation, thus drying more quickly.

By trial and error, I’ve discovered the best way to hang sheets and towels … A bath towel can be folded lengthwise and secured at the top by two clippy hangers; the towel will be hung vertically (Long items like this hang in between the freezer and the washer). Sheets can be folded in half lengthwise (so they are short enough to hang above the freezer and washer) and then folded accordion style with as many clippy hangers as necessary to take up the width of the sheet; the sheet will be hung horizontally above the washer and deep freeze.

I’ve also discovered that if you run out of clippy hangers, girl-style underwear (that is, with out legs) can be hung on a shirt-type hanger. Just put each “arm” of the hanger through a leg hole and let the crotch hang. Underwear hung this way, however, takes a little longer to dry (because of the folds in the fabric) than when hung on clippy hangers.

Drying clothes inside like this is great in the colder months because it puts extra moisture the air, reducing static and sinus/lung issues that crop up when heat in the house dries things out. (Having an old crock pot running 24/7 with water in it also helps; I cook about three quarts of water daily out of mine!) So, it’s good for your health, good for the environment and good for your wallet!

In the winter months, I can usually get a load dried in 24 hours, except for Hubby’s thick, long underwear shirts; if we need them quickly, I hang them first with clippy hangers secured to the hem (so the arms hang downward), then, when they’re partially dry in the armpits, put them rightside up on a shirt hanger. If I need to wash two loads in a day, I also use my wooden drying racks (along with the spring-tension curtain rods) for items that dry more quickly.

The drying bar and spring-tension rods also are lifesavers in rainy weather. Granted, things don’t dry as quickly as they do in the winter months, but they will dry; if needed, a fan aimed at the drying bar will hasten the process. On days that it might rain, I put my laundry on clippy hangers and carry them out to the clothesline, where I have positioned clothespins at 6- or 12-inch intervals, and put one hanger between each clothespin. That way, at the first sign of a sprinkle, I can quickly gather my already-hangered and partially dried clothes, carry them inside and hang them on the drying bar to finish drying.

When I dressed for an office job every day, though, I would toss my good clothes in the dryer for a few minutes just to eliminate the wrinkles and lint — then hang them immediately.

We’ve been doing this for over four years. Three years ago, when I lost my office job, we completely discontinued use of the dryer to cut down on expenses (a little lint can be taken off with a lint brush, and hair/fur comes off easily with cheap duct tape! And by the way, that colored lint that collects in your dryer … that’s your clothes!) Although he took a little convincing, Hubby is very happy with this my drying bar idea!