I recently started hanging laundry to dry after many, many years of using our natural gas dryer. My motivation started on a forum I frequent regarding herbalism.  It is part of the website of a woman named Susun Weed, who is a quite well-known herbalist.  Although the forum extensively discusses alternative health issues, people chat about everything.  One of the threads discussed the energy efficiency of hanging laundry versus using the dryer.  Since I work at home (I'm a "Virtual Assistant", which is basically an administrative assistant who does everything over the Internet) I am always looking for diversions to take me away from work for a few minutes.  I used to hang out our laundry many, many years ago but it was just easier to pop it in the dryer.  Although we have a pretty good sized back yard, I don't like the idea of a permanant laundry line strung across the lawn.

But those were the days I worked outside of the home, and I didn't want to spend my precious at-home time on tasks that could be done a lot faster using machines.  Now, I make any excuse to get away from my computer and hanging laundry was starting to look like just the thing.

I bought a 50 ft length of laundry line and a bag of clothes pins, and stretched the line from the house to the edge of our metal shed.  I found the process of hanging the laundry a relatively mindless task that I actually found quite relaxing.  It required enough attention to clip the clothes to the line, but not so much that I couldn't enjoy listening to the birds and experiencing the refreshing breeze that passes through the blooming orange tree.  It's almost like a feast for the senses, especially after a few hours tapping away at the keyboard.  It gives me the break I need, yet I feel like I'm accomplishing something useful and perhaps even important (insofar as I'm doing something that needs to be done, and doing it in an environmentally sensitive manner.)  This makes me feel like I'm doing my part in reducing polllution caused by electric energy production, and at the same time saving money on the electric bill

The only down side is that my line hung laundry is a bit "crisp".  I can live with it, but hubby is used to fluffy soft clothes and towels.  I don't really want to use fabric softeners, but I am thinking if I toss his stuff in the dryer on airfluff for a few minutes after pulling it off the line, it should soften it a bit.