by Karen Travis

Created on: September 18, 2009

There is nothing like the smell of freshly laundered line-dried sheets, pillow cases and blankets! What a way to snuggle down for a good night's rest! Fresh smelling curtains hanging in the livingroom bring a soothing aroma to the senses. The list could go on and on! Scientists have agreed that scents pleasing to the senses have a vast psychological and physical impact to our lives. They help to relieve stresses that accumulate in our bodies and minds by inducing a calming effect. Calming the "stresses" in our everyday lives help to maintain our bodies' natural health.

Let us not forget the "chore" of hanging clothes out on the line also has its advantages to our physical health. You burn more calories hanging clothes out than you do when you throw them in a dryer.

Line drying versus electric or gas drying has environmental and economical advantages as well. To start with, we reduce the amount of energy consumed which in turn, reduces our costs. In addition, we save 'wear-and-tear' on our dryers which allows us to maintain them for a longer period, not having to replace them, which also saves us money. Reductions have a domino effect both in our environment and our wallets. We conserve energy and we make less junk to fill our landfills. The dollar savings add up in our monthly power bill and replacement costs, and it has the potential of saving our state monies in their operations of landfills.

To be fair, there are exceptions that should be addressed. Towels and wash cloths are not the best candidates for line-drying. Unfortunately, they become stiff and rough feeling when line-dried. They are better dried in the dryer. Clothing which tend to fade with excessive sun exposure are also not good candidates for line-drying. You may however hang them up to dry in your house where they can catch a nice breeze from an opened window, thus allowing for the "fresh breeze" scent to permeate the clothing.

The time you spend on ironing your clothes may or may not change, however, with linens, the time is noticeably reduced. Once again this saves time, energy, and money. A lot would depend on your routine. Are you like some who leave their clothes in the dryer, or are you the type of person who takes them out immediately once the dryer has stopped?

Regardless of your lifestyle, there are advantages in both means. Line-drying clearly has more advantages overall than using a drying machine.

.

Learn more about this author, Karen Travis.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.