I find it isn't that many things that get dirtied hanging outside (and I line-dry for a family of four and frequent guests). One has to allow for a percentage of error in any sort of household endeavor, including line-drying.

If you are truly trying to limit energy usage, hand-wash that one item that has a splash of something on it! An otherwise clean sheet does not need to be run through the washer again, it needs a squirt of dishsoap and a good hand scrubbing on the area and then off to the line it goes again.

I get a lot of spider webs but they brush off easily enough, my backyard is full of spiders and bugs. Also, my cat will occassionally pull something off the line but usually only after its dried. (He likes to lay on the clean towels)

we got bugs all in ours =(

I hand my clothes to dry inside. Just put the clothes pin at the bottom of a hanger, and pin the clothes under the hanger, or on the hanger(depending on what the clothing article is)

We bring ours in after it's dried on the line and give it a few tumbles in the dryer to soften it. Last week there was a roach in the lint trap. ugh!

How well does line drying work in humid areas?

My grandma lives in Florida and has been line drying her clothing since before I was born. It isn't a problem, especially if you can get them up on a bright sunny afternoon.

I line dry inside- bonus, it makes my room smell AWESOME. I just anchored two small rope cleats into studs on opposite (hidden behind curtains) sides of the room, then stretch a piece of clothesline rope from the dollar store across the length of the space and hang from there.

@ cloneboy: as long as you hang your laundry early in the morning while humid weather is on (june-august) you should be fine. I installed a thick wooden courtain rod in the laundry room so I can do all the laundry on Monday nights while I check my emails and do my paperwork, and early on Tuesday morning out goes everything to dry while I work in the garden, when I come back inside for dinner the clothes come in, or earlier if it storms, but by 2pm it's pretty dry and what isn't dry goes back to the rod in the laundry room, where I also had a tiny (30") ceiling fan installed.
The way I see it, $50 off our monthly energy bill far outweights a little bird poo, sometimes we get spiders, ladybugs, even dragonfly eggs, but it's all good. The Mama (Earth) dries our laundry for free, so no complains there.

I've been hanging indoors since I was a wee hygebeorht. It helps to live in dry Colorado, but in the summer, those with AC tend to have drier indoor environments anyway.

I just hang clothing on hangers, and hang the hangers either on a screwed-in shower rod, on the lip of molding over a large doorway, or on a rolling clothes rack. I once had a large closet that I'd hang everything in, well-spaced of course.

Drying on hangers really streamlines laundry, because all I have to do to put it away is collect the hung clothes and transfer them to the closet. Plus, no bird poop!

wow nice to see so many line drying their clothes...i live in a small apartmetn with limited space...so i use ikea's cloth stand for drying...(we are just tow so it works for us)

Besides rain delays, the only problem we've experienced using the line is that it means we can't grill while the clothes are up. Our outdoor space is wee small.

We've hung a hammock on one end of the line supports. It's a little like being in a sheet fort, but very relaxing and the evaporation is cooling. I'm going to miss hanging clothes out in winter.

I live in Australia, and it always seems so crazy to read on AT how in the US, even in places with mild winters, line-drying is treated as some sort of 'lifestyle choice'. America is also the only culture I've come across where a clothes dryer is seen as an absolute basic necessity, as basic as a refrigerator (dishwashers too). Sure, here in Australia there aren't many places where it snows or doesn't get any sun through the winter, but even across Europe dryers are seen as useful but optional, definitely not taken for granted.

I line dry my clothes indoors, 99% of the time. Blouses go on hangers and in the closet, everything else draped on wooden racks. I've saved SO MUCH $$ on electricity this way. When I was a kid everyone hung out their clothes. I don't like the bugs and all the coming & going though of dealing with outside laundry. My racks are in my guest bedroom/study. If I didn't have any other space I'd hang them in the kitchen. I agree with RosieGreenie. I was worried when I started doing this a few years ago that it would take forever, but most things dry overnight.

RosieGreene I live in Europe, and I totally agree. I must add that an upside is that hanging up the laundry can be a Zen task, a way to relax for a moment. It makes me spend a few minutes in the sun. Plus, when my toddler helps, it´s fun, she takes it so seriously !

My grandma's trick for hanging undies is to cover them with a pillowcase or shirt. Seem to dry just as well, though it might take an extra hour.

My main gripe with line drying is that it turns towels into sandpaper. Maybe that only happens in places with hard water, but ever since I was a kid I hated it. I would intentionally put the towels out on the line if it looked like it was going to rain, because the rain water would soften them up.

I line dry all the time- outdoors in summer, indoors in winter. I use a rack, hangers and a retractable line. I do have a dryer and will tumble towels and t shirts on air to soften them after drying, but it is a nicety, not a necessity. When my children were in diapers I used cloth diapers exclusively and when my dryer broke, I did not replace it for 3 years, and then only because my husband felt that I needed one- not because I did.
As far as fading I have not noticed it- but my clothes do last a lot longer because they do not have to endure the wear and tear of a dryer. And if I am in a modest mood, then my underwear goes on a drying rack, but usually I do not care. :)

I live in an apartment w/o a washer and dryer. I do have a portable washer, though. I hang all of my clothes to dry inside. I don't have a place to hang them outside. The only problem I have is that it takes two or three days for my clothes to dry. When I have fallen behind on my laundry, this can be an issue.

So, how does everyone deal with pollen? My husband is allergic so it makes line drying outside out of the picture.

In my case, it is all hung inside. There is a small ledge on the trim arond the doors is this old house that neatly catches the tip of tubular plastic hangers. I can hang sheets on two hangers by the corners or even on one with a little shifting. In the winter it adds humidity to the house. Not too bad in the summer as the AC takes care of the moisture. In case of a rush, the electric fan gets pointed at the laundry.

I hang it inside. Everything comes out stiff and creased and I hate it. Tumble dryers are the best.

Choosing not to buy a dryer was an easy way to guarantee I use less energy in my daily life. If I had one, I would definitely use it, at least part of the time. I've been hanging my laundry (inside and out, depending on the season) for over 2 years, both in Arizona and in Portland, Oregon. Obviously in the winter, it takes longer, but it's not burdensome. The only problem I've had was very recently: I had a set of sheets out on the line in my backyard, and they were stolen! All I could think was that maybe a homeless person needed them. I may be a bit more careful and watchful from now on, but it hasn't deterred me.

I visited a friend in London for a spell and it seemed that everybody were using driers, so is that the exception rather than the norm for Europe?

Had a Hispanic family moved in next door and they used everything to "line" dry their clothes; dresses and shirts on fences, undies on tree branches. Then they left them there for days to be rinsed and re-rinsed by the rain. I used to wonder if any bugs took up resident.

Now that I live in a condo where line drying outside is a huge no-no, I use a drying rack and totally love it.

Oh, and the "lifestyle choice" comment, maybe I'm wrong but it seems to be a lifestyle choice in urban/uppity suburban areas. Growing in Indiana it was the norm to line dry in my neighborhood and in the surrounding rural areas (97% of the United States is rural).

It wasn't until I moved to cities and orbited planned communities that line drying is an issue in terms of housing value. I don't get it but there you go.

We bought one of those spider/umbrella type clothlines for the back yard - I grew up with those in Germany. Unfortunately it seems that in Massachusetts it is either too humid to dry fast enough or the sun is beating down merciless and bleaches the part of the fabric, where it hangs on the line. We ended up with a lot of clothing that has a line of faded color right across - and we are talking high quality clothing. I think I need to make a UV-free cover.

I come from a relatively poor American Mid/Western background, and I didn't know anyone who routinely line-dried their clothes. I now live in northern England, and I don't know anyone except my well-to-do in-laws who use a dryer! In wet weather we hang stuff around the house, and plan not to do major amounts of laundry if company is coming. Otherwise it all goes on one of the umbrella-style clotheslines outside. We do occasionally get bird poop and insects, but a good shake gets rid of the latter, and if something gets poop on it it just goes back into the laundry pile for the next load.

Maybe it's our water but I don't have much of a problem with towels being scratchy. I don't like super-soft towels anyway, it seems like they don't actually absorb much water.

To avoid clothes from getting bleached in the sun, I hang them inside-out.

I wonder if the "low class" reputation for clothes lines came from the dryer manufacturers. But I admit I'm not crazy about seeing stained t-shirts and underwear on display. :p

Ansela, my American husband and all his family, and my American friends seem to find line drying a bit of a novelty, untill they spend a spell in rainy Ireland where we mostly line dry our clothes. You see, American energy costs are less than half what it costs here (and white collar salaries are about 50% more). Using a tumble dryer can double an already steep Electricity bill.

Only laundries tumble dry regularly, you can't take home wet clothes. And yes Zenisie, the tumble dry usage you're discribing in London is unusual (unless they all go to the laundry??)

Anyone I know who has a tumble dryer uses it only occasionally. It was a big difference (one of many) I noticed between my husbands lifestyle and mine. I wonder if we move back to the States will I end up using the tumble dryer.... in California!!

"low class" reputation???? Our town was considered upper middle class, well, for Indiana.

It just occurred to me, RosieGreen, that you based the whole American culture on AT commentators? Wow, that's narrow. But not surprising. If I got a dime every time a foreigner tells me, "I've been to New York City and Los Angeles so I KNOW what all Americans are like." I'll be a friggin millionaire.

Actually, I've been thinking about this. I've noticed in a lot of New, up market developments (in Ireland), regarding the apartments, the 'rules' are that Laundry is not allowed to be hung on balconies. Bit of a cultural shift taking place.

The 50% salary remark refered to paying the bills. As for where my friends and family are in America (forgive me for saying the States, I didn't know it's insulting), I thought it was a bit of a cross section, but I could be wrong,..

Phoniex Arizona, Sacremento California, Long Island, Boston, Rochester New York state, Philidelphia, St. Paul Minnesota, Denver Colorado, and Florida

I would love to line-dry outside, but allergies are a big problem in my family. Since no one likes to be constantly sneezing or smell like the neighbor's dog, we hang our laundry in the basement. It's a perfect solution, saves money, and helps our clothing last longer.

We line dry all of our diapers and about half of our laundry inside our apartment. Six loads on the weekend is just too much to manage without the dryer. If we had a washer in our apartment we could probably manage it but it is too far away to manage during the week.

"On the contrary, it is usually things that are not seen as a basic necessity that are taken for granted."

Ansela I'm afraid I'm not quite sure what you mean by this. Surely if you live in a developed country, you're likely to take for granted the things that you believe to be basic necessities? Like having a home to live in, food to eat when you're hungry, access to healthcare. Of course many take for granted things that are not basic necessities, like a TV, a fridge, etc. Perhaps saying "basic necessity" was not accurate since it seems that in America a dryer is treated along the same lines as these latter things, as something that you get a weird look for when you say you don't have by choice. But I still don't understand your idea that most people don't take basic necessities for granted.

"It just occurred to me, RosieGreen, that you based the whole American culture [sic] on AT commentators? Wow, that's narrow."

Well, no I don't, I base my *impression* of American culture on what I see from the American entertainment media that saturates most other Western cultures, including mine. Plus, I read a lot of lifestyle/cooking blogs, and a lot of cultural commentary blogs, most of which are American. I understand that these sources may not provide a completely exhaustive cross-section of every aspect and level of US culture, but that's no reason to bristle at my outsider's perspective and then just dismiss all that I say.

It is most definitely a noticeable phenomenom that the average American owns, and considers it a basic standard to own, a clothes dryer, and that this is not the same in most other Western cultures - even in rainy Ireland as Maurs pointed out. It's not an attack on you or your culture to comment on this as an outsider. This isn't an argument about whose country is less privileged or takes less for granted, it is a discussion. Telling me that I'm narrow for having the audacity to comment on a culture that I'm not exhaustively familiar is just unnecessarily defensive and shuts down an otherwise interesting conversation.

Just to chime in....I am an American living in Australia. When I moved to AU and started looking for a place to live, one of the first things I noticed was that there seemed to be fewer clothes dryers and more clotheslines. From my experience in America (Florida, Tennessee, California, New York) I indeed took it for granted that most houses and apartment complex laundry rooms would come equipped with them. So, I totally get where RosieGreenie is coming from.

Anyway, I've easily adapted to line-drying and have never been the victim of a bird poop episode.

(I also tell people I'm from "The States" all the time. I see no problem with it).

Some crazy near xenophobic sounding comments up there!

Well, I am an AMERICAN but I live in Germany. For my first 38 years of life I lived in either California (17 years), the mid-Atlantic (13 years), or New England (8 years). I have been in Germany for less than 2 years, so I feel qualified to comment on Europe vs. America in terms of laundry. Most people here where I live do not have dryers, and when they do, use them seldom. Electricity is expensive! And it rains here a lot. I mean really alot, as in at least as much as Seattle a lot. And it's cold and damp all winter. People hang everything indoors. Sheets get hung in the kitchen or bathroom (or cellar or utility room if you have one), clothes on portable dryer stands wherever they fit. Washing machines are much smaller, so we do smaller loads of laundry. And most German beds are literally doubles--there are two side-by-side mattresses on any two-person bed--so sheets and bedding tend to be no larger than twin sized. I have friends in Belgium, Holland, and Italy, and all seem to have similar laundry set-ups.

Anyway, too bad it is a lifestyle choice in the STATES. Like giant refrigerators. And giant cars. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing many Germans wouldn't love more than the status and luxury of a huge fridge, dryer, and giant car...but it's just too expensive to do here.

Our greatest line-drying setup, though, had to be in Boston, where we always had covered porches or balconies. That was great! No bird poop problems, and faster and more convenient than indoor drying. Then the only problem is when your neighbor has a barbeque when all your clothes are out there.

Another expat here - American living in New Zealand. Definitely agree with Kelliptical, RosieGreenie, Suavehouse, and Maurs - in my experience, dryers were/are the norm in the US and optional elsewhere I've lived (the UK, Australia, and New Zealand). I'm not sure if Ansela is trolling or serious, but I certainly have no problem with "the States" (I say it myself). Think about it - you can't say "America" without possibly offending everyone else in North and South America, you can't say the United States (as there is also the United States of Mexico), so unless you say USA everytime, you can't win. The States works for me!

As for the post - I miss my dryer sometimes, but not enough to get one (I did have one here in NZ, but sold it when we moved to our current house). It rains all the time, so I probably only line-dry half of the time and dry inside on racks the other half.

The "lower class" tag on line drying - yep, I'd heard/thought that too - I don't know why or where I picked that up, but it would have seemed "quaint" to line-dry growing up. (I realise now how narrrow-minded and ridiculous that is.) Now that green is all the rage, it does seem to be picking up, and that's a very good thing, regardless of the cause!

Apologies - it's United Mexican States, not United States of Mexico.