by Peggy Nuckles

Created on: July 29, 2008   Last Updated: September 05, 2010

I must be honest about this. I am a foaming-at-the-mouth environmentalist and I do line dry my clothes. I love watching them billow in the hot summer wind. I often sit on my porch watching the dust and leaves blow over my damp flapping garments.

When they are finally dry, about one to two days after being hung out, I take my basket to gather in my laundry. I remove the clothes pins, inspect the tiny holes that have worn in the fabric between the pins and the line, shake out the spiders and small bugs that have found refuge there and gather them into my arms to smell the sunshine. The towels are rough but I love the way they scratch across my back after a shower.

I feel happy and environmentally superior as I walk back to the house with my clothes and the small critters I couldn't shake loose. Once again, I've done my part to save the planet and Mother Earth has paid me back by drying my clothes for free. I have found that the less stuff I own, the more cheaply I can live. When I don't have to pay for a dryer or the electricity to run one, I don't have to work as much.

Many times when I am tempted to buy something, I ask myself, would you rather have that thing or would you like to have extra time off from work. Since I am an agency nurse, I do have the option of working only enough hours to buy the things I want. I usually want the time off more than I want anything else.

"Why then," you ask, "are you writing on the electric side of the debate."

I'm glad you asked that. I think that electric drying does have its advantages; many advantages, now that I think of it. There are even some environmental considerations for firing up the old dryer.

I've just finished hanging out a line full of shirts. After I finish this article I am going to sort them into two piles: those that look so bad I'd only wear them out in the chicken pen and those I'll have to iron before going to meet all of my friends at our next environmental meeting. (Sure there are people at the meeting who don't iron their clothes but they smell bad so I sit with the ironers.)

Slaving over that hot iron uses up as much energy as four one hundred watt light bulbs plus it heats up the house - a lot. Fortunately, I'm such an environmental nut job that I don't have an air conditioner.

So, basically I iron my shirt, put it on and go sit down and sweat until evening falls. While I'm sitting there I usually think nice thoughts about the old days when I had an electric dryer.

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