Funny story: A friend from school studied in Spain for two years. She line dried her laundry all the time since they didn't have access to a dryer. One day she hung a pair of jeans up and ran it out. After they dried a huge wind came up and the jeans literally flew for three blocks and ended up in the top of a tree. She eventually got them back thanks to a little help.

Clothes drying the way nature intended! And to think that some communities have banned this practice... shame on them.

I love line drying my laundry for many reasons. I like the smell, the crispness, the stain removing that the sun does, the energy savings, the fact that it forces me outside when I might otherwise be doing something inside the house. I have even started line drying my towels and then put the in the dryer to fluff for just a few minutes to get rid of that "crunchy" effect.

Have always, always line dried. I much prefer it, and there's something lovely about line dried clothes. On wet days I try not to do laundry, but if I do I dry on a small rack inside. The house I live in now is the first without a hills hoist, which took some getting used to, but now have my system all worked out!

I've made a lot of indoor line-drying space and use it frequently.

I never owned a dryer, I've always line dried: it is ecological, cheap, healthy and funny. In some italian historical city centres it is also folkloristic. The problem is only in some winter months, when sun is lacking. Then I hang my stuff at evening inside on a drying rack, near a radiator or near the fireplace, and in the morning all is dry.

I have lines in my basement and line dry all my clothes. I haven't used my dryer in months. I'd love to get an outdoor clothesline installed.

I caught a Morrocan washing line on a trip a few years ago, it was really beautiful: http://annabelvita.com/moroccan-summer

My Hubs and I live in a very inefficient place,but since rent is so low it evens out price wise, but living in Austin ,TX we have had weather in the 100s for over 2 months now. I have decided to line dry our cloths to see if it would bring down our energy bill. We have a huge balcony which worked out great, and it is hidden by a tree so people can't even see our clothes. So far, I have loved it! It takes about 2 hours for anything even jeans to dry because of the heat. Also, everything is a little bit more stiff,but I have a lot less ironing to do. Give it a try, I love it and find it very relaxing now!

That "crunchy" and stiffness you guys are feeling is soap. Literally, soap. Store bought detergents don't rinse out all the way. To combat that, use vinegar as a fabric softener and use HE detergent. Or make your own!

I live in an apartment and can't line dry outside, but do set up a good old wooden rack in my 2nd bedroom in front of a big window. I machine dry my sheets and towels (not enough room to hang them) but a lot of my clothes go on the rack.

Grew up with line drying, can't imagine not doing it. Sure I do use the dryer, I can't stand crunchy towels, but I dry many thing in 'plein aire'. I have a wall mounted foldable, a floor standing foldable (which was my Mom's when she was in college in the mid50s!) and a collapsible umbrella type for outside that I can bring inside when it get too windy.

DovieAnn, I don't think the crunchiness is soap. It might be if too much is used or if the washing machine is not performing well, but mostly it's due to the fabric fibers aligning with gravity when they dry. Or at least that's what my old physics professor said it was.

I don't own a dryer..small space and no outlet for it...but I'm thankful. I've only ever line dried (or woodstove dried) and the towels are just fine..if they are a little rough, its great for exfoliating!! Dryers are just unnecessary for most of us.

Technically, I could line dry (at least for 8 months in a year) but I don't. Although I hate the energy consumption and that it's not Earth-friendly, I love the convenience and the fact that I don't need to iron. ANYTHING.

But the main reason why I stick to a dryer is my 2 dogs who shed 365 days a year. I would never get the all the dog hair off my clothes as efficiently as a dryer does. Anybody who sees what a huge pile of dog hair I remove from the lint trap after each cycle understands.

line drying is the best, so is making your own pasta, however lack of personal time in this 21st century life can make these tasks impractical.

the dryers are not heard of on the other side of the world, or maybe I should correct myself some ppl try to get Americanized and pay so much money to get one. Majority of the apt have balconies and ppl dry their clothes in the open air, and if they do not have balcony or a terrace, they hang ropes from one bldg to the other (see photo#3). It is a common practice.

Here in Australia line-drying is the norm. A lot of us also have lines under cover when necessary. I do still use the dryer when it's pouring rain, or something isn't washed that's needed the next day (teenagers). And I prefer line-dried crunchy towels to dryer-dried ones!

I love line drying. We do some, but not as much as I would like. We have a double line stretched between the house and the garage, and it holds 1-2 loads of laundry. We have three kids (one in cloth diapers) though, and while they love playing outside while we're hanging and folding, I don't know how we would ever keep up with the laundry if we had to hang it all.

I wish I could line dry more often. I live in a foggy neighborhood of San Francisco, so sunny days for line drying are few. It's a bummer since the yard in the place we're renting already has the drying line up!

My condo rules forbid any hanging of laundry, towels, planters, bird feeders. They even forbid welcome mats and anything that detracts from the uniform look of each unit. I air dry in my bathroom and it works just fine. I wish I could ask my building if I could install a laundry line on the roof deck but that would probably not sit well with the designers on the condo board.

This comment will come from Europe, Finland to be more accurate. Why I line dry is mainly because I don't live in a humid climate. Especially at wintertime the air dries out because of the heating and the drying laundry brings in the much needed humidity. The clothes will be dry in a few hours. On summer I line dry outside, especially linen, I love the smell. But I do understand people in humid climates that use dryers, it's not nice to wait few days for the laundry to dry.

I have a retractable clothes line on the outdoor patio, one in the garage, and I use several clothing racks in my office to line-dry clothes. If I use a machine to dry everything, I have to replace my clothing too often.

It's all fun and games and quaint photos until someone hangs up an entire line of still-dirty drawers by your balcony.

My mother used clothes lines all the time when we were kids in fact the whole neighbourhood did. You can't beat the fresh smell of clothes dried in the sun/wind not to mention the beauty of seeing them flap about.

I always line dry either outside or inside. Dryer sheets are highly toxic and the skin absorbs them all. Think about it. Line drying is best on every level.

I hand wash almost all my clothes in the kitchen sink and dry them either on the line in the backyard or else on my laundry rack. There are many benefits and very few drawbacks!

hard to line dry in nyc, but always jealous of those that are able to, especially when we go abroad. though i'm not sure i'd do it in venice, especially in the summer!

I live in Germany, do have a dryer, but also line dry. E.g. heavy towls or bath mats are in the dryer for ca. 10 minutes to soften and shed the cat's hair, then I hang them on a rack. I take a lot of clothes out of the dryer after 15 minutes when they are wrinkle free and put them on hangers or on the rack in front of an open window.

In summer it's so hot and dry that my sheets can dry in less than an hour on the clothesline.

I don't understand people who use the dryer first and linedry after. That makes no sense. Linedry first, and then put into the dryer to fluff, soften, dewrinkle and trap animal hair.

We bought a whirligig for the backyard last year, using it every single wash day. Clothes come out wonderfully, but the big win is bed linens. The freshness and smell cannot be beat.

Family did this when I was a kid, wish I could do it now, but in apt,so can't. I may wash up to 12 pcs occasionally (usually undies) and hang them on the shower rod. They dry overnight; all is well. but nothing replaces that outdoor freshness.

Wouldn't risk my clothes over that filthy canal water!

I have grown up with hand washed and line dried clothes. We own a washing machine now, but still line dry the clothes. You simply cannot beat the crispness. A little sunshine is essential.. even for the clothes.

Aqua1959: you'll see the benefits after years of hand washing your laundry, nice things like the condition of the skin of your hands, or rheumatisms, arthritis...
I'm also wondering if you wash your laudry in a river or canal to save on the water bill, like it was done in the past.
I don't care how wonderful my clothes can look after a hand washing, I want to save my hands and my menthal health (using the time spent to hand wash laudry in a better way).
Line-drying is something I've always done in Italy, until I've found out that you don't need to iron if you use a tumble-dryer... Plus, there are places when it takes ages to clothes to dry and if you have a small house maybe you don't want your laundry all spread around....

My mother almost always used a clothes line when I was growing up, however, we had so much pollen and dust that I was always fighting allergies. Even now, I prefer a higher utility bill to taking decongestants daily. I'd consider having a rack inside my house to dry clothing, but I haven't bought one (yet) :)

Growing up in Brooklyn we had a clothes line that we used all the time. They would dry and smell sunny, warm, and a little salty like the beach. I live in Manhattan now and I wouldn't hang a sock out my window. My sils get so black with soot any clean clothes wouldn't be so clean after.

I always thought I would like to line dry my laundry until very recently. My husband contracted a superbug and was very sick. I have had to chlorine bleach everything in my home and much of our home is ruined because of it. On load number two of my trying to combat this disaster the dryer broke and I had to wait three weeks for a new washer and dryer to arrive. That was three weeks of my trying to line dry things around the house because we can't do it outside. Don't ask me how either but dryer racks are scarce around here and I couldn't find any locally without needing to order online. I had to time washing of sheets and comforters to hang them in the bathroom, the towels were jokingly called towel boards and jeans were a stiff nightmare. this girl appreciates her new dryer more than words can say.

When I got married 3 years ago, I moved to Vienna, Austria to be with my husband. Gave up the microwave, the clothes dryer, the air con, and the car. Lived that way for 3 years. Now that we have a 2nd apartment in Philadelphia -- in the process of moving back -- I can't tell you how much of a joy it is to have a dryer again: Clothes on demand, instead of waiting for an indeterminate amount of time for things to finish drying. Soft clothes. Removal of hairs and furry bits that get stuck to clothes (like from wool blankets). Fewer wrinkles. Most importantly, I noticed that a lot of my clothes started to fall apart by stretching over in no-dryer-land… I now believe that the heat of the dryer contracts the fibers so the clothes last longer. Maybe not for ALL clothes, but definitely for the tshirts and things I wear on a regular basis. So good to be home!

maybe off subject but I live near the Amish in PA and I always love seeing their laundry lines. There's some cool pictures at http://amishphoto.com/images/19_laundry_lines/laundry_lines_01.htm

I'm currently using an ikea drying rack but that's mostly because I have my automated kitty litter cleaner in the space where my dryer should go.

Not having to scoop vs. waiting almost 12-18 hours for my clothes to dry?

I'll pick not having to deal with poo any day!

I live in North Brooklyn where most apartment buildings have HUGE rusty towers in the backyards with pulleys running up it- 2 per floor- 1 for each apartment in the building. These towers used to be used to run laundry lines from each apartment- but no one uses them anymore and the lines have mostly been taken down.
I once tried to restring the line and dry my clothes outdoors- but the neighborhood I live in is very industrial and busy- with LOTS of dust in the air. When I brought them in I had to wash them all over again.
It's a nice thought though

I line dry most of our clothes inside. Our clothes last forever. The colors stay vibrant.

I've never owned a dryer and have only ever used them when travelling and maybe four times in the last 15 years - when it was winter and I was desperate (I have a laundrette around the corner from me). These days I have an internal rack that stands in the bath-tub. With the winter heating going, it works a treat.

As for the "crunchy" effect on towels, a couple of suggestions:
a) You only need to use half the recommended dosage of detergent
b) Before hanging, give each towel a good shake. Do the same when taking down from the line. It fluffs them up nicely.

Bejeweled, I turn all my clothes inside out (except socks and undies) before I line dry then. It means that the insides fade but the outsides stay good.

I've lived in Italy for a while and used my room to dry my clothes. Once an italian friend visited me and was totally horrified by the sight of humid clothes in my clothes. In Italy it is considered highly unhealthy to have any source of humidity in the house. Therefore they hang their clothes outside perforce.

(Maybe it stems from the times when there was no heating in the houses, so the humidity would only increase the cold dampness that was already in the rooms?

Sorry. I meant room, not clothes in the fourth line of my last post.

I loathe using a dryer. Makes my electricity bill sky high... but my apartment block doesn't care for the aesthetic of drying on the balcony... boo to them! :(

@jlw0001, I loved the pics, tks :)

Habits are just different from place to place
In Portugal we have dryers but don’t “abuse” their usage, maybe during winter for sheets and towels
The rest of the time just use the rack and don’t even think “I could be saving time with the dryer”
I guess that in our short winter we just miss the in feeling of sundried clothes