The sun is warm, a breeze is blowing – a perfect morning to hang laundry. Sometimes timing is everything, and nature has a good way of teaching that. They’re calling for high winds and rain today, so I almost put off the laundry for another day, but I decided to run a load through the wash last night anyways. And while the wind is beginning to pick up now, the rain isn’t expected until later this afternoon or evening. When I saw the blue skies out my window this morning and felt how warm it was outside, I had to take advantage of the fine weather. Now everything is dry and gathered in, and the weather can turn nasty if it wants. Our garden will welcome the rain.
In an effort to be more environmentally conscious, this year I challenged myself to hang laundry on the line as much as possible. Since about late April, I’ve only run the dryer a few times, mostly to finish drying a load that got hung up in the late afternoon and wasn’t quite dry by nightfall. Considering we’ve had more laundry this year due to the birth of our daughter in March, I’d say that’s pretty good. We probably average about five to six loads a week for our family of four, about half of which is cloth diapers. While any type of diaper has an environmental impact, cloth has much less impact throughout its life cycle than disposables. We do use disposables at night and occasionally at other times, and we put out about one small grocery bag full per week in the trash. Most of the cloth diapers are now serving their fourth baby – this is my third, and I lent the diapers out to a friend for a couple years when I didn’t know if I’d have any more children. When I tell women I use cloth diapers that I wash myself, most people stare at me in disbelief and say, “I could never do that.” However, it’s really not that much extra work, and I actually enjoy washing diapers and hanging them on the line. I shake out any chunks into the toilet, then wash the diapers in cold water with a mild detergent on the heavy duty cycle, which includes a soaking pre wash. I usually add in other light coloured items to make up a full load. Any stains are sun bleached during the drying process, and the diapers come off the line fresh and clean. I get fresh air and exercise during the process, my baby watches me contentedly from her seat on the deck, and I get a sense of serenity as I watch the white cloths fluttering in the breeze. The water we use is unchlorinated, as it comes directly from our deep well, and it gets recycled into our lawn via the septic system. When the cloth diapers start to get holes and fall apart, they are added to the rag bin. The ones that are all cotton with no Velcro could even be composted once they become too worn to be useful even as rags. Less waste, less impact, more benefit.
As winter approaches, I’ll probably start using my dryer more, but I will take advantage of as many of the clear days above freezing as possible to hang the laundry. I do have indoor drying racks, and drying clothes indoors in the winter adds much-needed humidity to the air. Clothes can even be freeze-dried on the line, but hanging laundry in subzero temperatures is uncomfortably hard on the fingers. I do what I can. I challenge you to hang laundry on the line more often, too.
Morning Sky 