One Way I Save Money & Energy

When I took a year long leave from work for our third baby I wanted to do everything I could to save money. One spot in our budget I knew we could work on was our utilities. Adding another member of our family and staying home most days vs being at work and daycare should have made our bill go up but I'm happy to report it has stayed the same or gone down sone months! Here's one way I made that happen.

After some research I discovered the clothes dryer is one of the biggest energy users in our homes. The high energy usage is attributed to heating the air, running the drum and circulating the heated air through the drum. 

Running your clothes dryer for less time or not at all is a big money saver and as an added bonus, it's better for the environment and it helps your clothes last longer. The best way to achieve this is to line dry clothes outside or use a shelf or drying rack to hang clothes. I personally do all three!

Line Drying

I am lucky enough to live in a house that already had a clothesline. I absolutely love using it. Laundry always comes inside smelling like the outdoors which is great since I ditched synthetic fragrances in my laundry. Bringing clothes out to the line is a great way to get outside for some fresh air. I either get a few free quiet minutes or the boys join me in their sun hats and run around outside when they otherwise would've stayed in. I somehow feel closer to my Grandma who used her clothes line as often as possible on the farm.

Line drying also keeps your whites whiter which is perfect for the 100% cotton sheets I bought recently on my quest to have a cleaner and healthier bedroom. I am loving hanging these on the line every Sunday when I do laundry! 

Another fun fact about the sun and laundry; if you have a breastfed baby. When your baby has an inevitable blowout you can rinse out the clothing, set it out in the sunlight ☀️ and the stain will magically disappear. Its such a great mom hack and saved me a lot of time and clothes from the trash. I sometimes let clothes sit for a couple days if it was rainy or I was busy, it still works as long as you rinse right away and rinse again before putting outside.

If I didn't have a line built in I would likely use something like this retractable line under our deck or across two trees. I'm hoping to take the boys camping next summer and this will be a must for wet swim suits and towels! 

My last tip for line drying is to put your towels in the dryer for a few minutes before hanging outside to avoid that crunchy feeling that usually happens. Try line drying whenever you can, you won't regret it!

Shelf

If you already have a wire rack in your laundry room then you have a way to dry clothes! Just hang wet clothes from a hanger on the bottom and be sure to check the weight limit on your shelf. I keep beach towels on the top of mine and and have space to hang about 10 T-shirts. Mine is similar to this 24 inch shelf and I wish I had space for one more! 

Drying Rack

This drying rack is amazing! I use it so much I don't bother folding it flat but it's a nice feature if you don't have a great spot for it and need to put it away at times. This is the best for small kids clothes that I don't want to hang up to dry and sweaters can be laid flat on top that you don't want stretched out by a hanger. 

This whole rack can easily be taken outside as well. I do that on some summer days when I have a ton of laundry going.  Clothes dry faster and you get that fresh outdoors smell too!

Between all 3 of these choices I can usually skip the dryer or I combine 2-3 loads into one drying cycle. When I use the dryer I start at a lower heat since this reduces the energy usage and is easier on your clothes. I am also sure to shake out the clothes a bit so they aren't clumped together and I use these dryer balls every time both of which reduce drying time.

Using the dryer less is a win-win. I feel better about lowering our energy costs and reducing my energy usage along with decreasing the rate at which we need to replace all of our clothes. Hope you found some useful information in this blog post!