Tips for Hang Drying Clothing

Tip: Hang Dry Clothing

When the weather is warm, dry your clothes outside. You save both water and energy by hang drying your clothing. It also decreases the wear that dryers inflict on your clothing. You can even hang some clothing inside when the weather is bad if you set up drying rack in your laundry room.

Request: Tips for Hang Drying Clothing

I need advice on hanging laundry on a clothes line so that they smell nice and don't have funky spots where they were hung and aren't stiff and scratchy! Help Please (my dryer is broken and can't get a new one). Thank you!

Cindy from Fowlerville, MI

Answers:

RE: Tips for Hang Drying Clothing

We also hang our shirts on hangers and hang them on the shower curtain rod to dry.helps put moisture in the air and leaves a nice scent from the fabric softener (09/10/2006)

RE: Tips for Hang Drying Clothing

During nice weather I hang almost all my laundry out to dry. There is almost no way to avoid stiff clothes. I do use liquid fabric softener in the wash and that helps some. Once you put on the clothes though, they will soften up in a few minutes and you won't even notice that they were stiff to begin the day.

I have a couple of ways to avoid clothes pin marks. If I'm going to tuck in a shirt or wear it under a jumper, I hang the shirt upside down. That way the "ears" are at the bottom where they won't show. If it's a shirt I'll wear untucked, I turn the shirt inside out and hang it by the shoulder seam right by the top of the sleeve. When I take it down and turn it right side out, I usually can't see the clothes pin mark at all. In fact, it's good to hang most things inside out because if your clothes line is in the sun, your clothes will fade some. At least this way the fade is on the inside. Also, just the act of turning things right side out again will soften them a little.

I like to wear knit shirts but don't like clothes pin marks on them either. Although the inside-out-by-the-shoulders works well, I have even better luck hanging them inside out on plastic coat hangers on the line. They always look fine with no marks when I turn them right side out again.

Good luck--line drying is a great way to save money and not waste resources. (09/12/2006)

By Katie A.

RE: Tips for Hang Drying Clothing

The air and sun make them smell nice. The wind will make them soft. They won't get spots if the line is clean and you're careful how you clip the clothespins. And the sun will whiten whites, too. I hang out my laundry whenever possible. Even in freezing weather. They freeze-dry and that helps whiten also. You may find you never need a dryer again. Let Mother Nature do the work. (09/12/2006)

By pam2cats

RE: Tips for Hang Drying Clothing

I drip dry quite a few of my clothes and the children's nicer things. I have a dryer and appreciate it but don't use it for everything. I think it can be hard on clothes and can shrink and fade. I just hang a lot on hangers from a rod in my laundry room or from the shower curtain rod in the bathroom. All my tops get dried this way and they come out nicely too. I use liquid fabric softener in the washer or even vinegar in the rinse. I am not an ironer at all and feel my drip dried clothes look fine without ironing. (09/13/2006)

By Debbie52

RE: Tips for Hang Drying Clothing

The hardest thing I've found to line-dry are jeans. If you wash them separately with a little extra fabric softener, and hang them from the BACK of the belt using 3 clothespins, you might get acceptable results.

Do be careful to not overlap materials. Some more delicate things can fade in the sun, and you might want to dry them on a hanger on your shower bar.

Try to keep a large basket near the back door so that you can do an emergency snatch-grab in the event of sudden rainshowers. : ) (09/13/2006)

By Doggy

RE: Tips for Hang Drying Clothing

Shake them out really well before you hang them. That really helps with softening. I put nearly all clothing on coat hangers, that way I can just hang them in the closet when they are dry. Smooth out the button plackets and pockets while they are still wet. Shake, shake, shake and fabric softener doesn't hurt either. Susan from ThriftyFun (09/13/2006)

By ThriftyFun

RE: Tips for Hang Drying Clothing

Don't ask me how or why this works but if you hang your clothes on the line and spray them down with a hose they will dry very soft. i found this out by accident with a lawn sprinkler. towels and sheets were extra soft. I've also had this happen when laundry was left out and rained on. (09/14/2006)

By Carla

RE: Tips for Hang Drying Clothing

My Mom always said "Hang tops from the bottom and bottoms from the top" (09/14/2006)

By PICO

Drying Pajamas

I don't dry my pajamas in the dryer because I don't want them to shrink. Instead I dry them on separate hangers. They only get a little wrinkled, not bad at all. Once you get into them they won't be as wrinkled but they do smell clean though (01/06/2007)

By Alicia

RE: Tips for Hang Drying Clothing

Should we hang Polo shirts by:

• The bottom
• The shoulder seam
• Or by a clothes hanger

The biggest complaint I have is of the material stretching at the collar. (04/20/2007)

By Mike

Help!

I need some help, I am new to hanging my clothes . Here is the problem: the clothes always smell funny when I bring them in from being hung. I use liquid fabric softener but it doesn't seem to help. Could it be the washer? Please help I'm desperate! We have to hang the clothes due to the small dryer size in this house. We live in a Japanese style house in Okinawa. Help! (06/14/2007)

By Dawn

RE: Tips for Hang Drying Clothing

I think we've really regressed if we start hanging every thing we wear and/or use. Let us remember that in winter some of us live in extremely cold and snowy, sleet, environments and it really isn't feasible to hang our fabrics. Hang them inside you say? Well, fine except many live in apartments, studios, etc. Try to find a place where they will dry without having to be ironed. Sheets? Where do you propose we hang those. If they have to be ironed, what good is it doing to not use the dryer to save energy? Makes sense, all right?

By Blizzard

Editor's Note:It often works well to put clothing in the dryer for a little while, then shake out and hang. That way they have lost most of the wrinkles. It's true it isn't practical for everyone but for many it is. (02/29/2008)

RE: Tips for Hang Drying Clothing

I love hanging clothes outside. I got some fresh air myself, and the clothes ended up smelling great. I absolutely love sheets that are dried on the line -- smells like summer all night long. :) If your clothes are smelling "sour", then something is not right. Are you hanging them immediately after they finish washing? They could be souring in the machine. As soon as they finish washing, take them out and hang them on the line. Do not "bunch" them or double them over the line, as this will leave spots that don't dry as quickly, and could smell sour. Always use clothespins. Take the items and pin them corner to corner, if they are towels or washcloths, or shirts. Heavy pants and jeans, you may need to hang on their own. Also socks pretty much have to be hung singly, but underwear can be pinned each one to the next. The one thing I don't really like to line dry is towels, as they just don't get as soft, but that's just my opinion. And they are perfectly fine dried on the line, it's just a matter of preference for me not to dry them on the line if at all possible -- but I have used many a towel dried on the line anyway! (03/03/2008)

By bailegirl

RE: Tips for Hang Drying Clothing

We have hard water from a well and no matter what we've done the clothes always come out with a funky smell, especially the towels. Once you use them they transfer the smell onto your skin if you try to use them again. Find a nice perfume or put dryer sheets/potpourri in you drawers. That's the only thing I have found that helps. Good luck! (05/29/2008)

By Julie

RE: Tips for Hang Drying Clothing

If you go to Phancypages, you'll see a whole article I wrote on pegging out clothes, but even after all the years of outside drying, I'm learning a lot from you folks, so thank you for that.

In Australia, dryers are far more uncommon than clotheslines, which go under the name, usually, of Hill's hoists or clothes hoists.

We're really blessed at the moment, in that, where we rent has both an undercover set of parallel lines and an umbrella-shaped rotating hoist. It's full-on Winter at the moment, so the washing is all undercover.

We do use inside racks, but it's only if it's really urgent. My dd insists on sleeping in a sleeping bag on her bed (go figure!), and she's staying at her brother's during the school holidays that are on now, so I've finally washed her sleeping bag, gave it an extra spin and have it hanging over some exercise equipment in the lounge room, which is the only room in the house we can afford to heat. It's dried nicely, and has no pong to it.

I don't use fabric softener, for many reasons - a mix of laziness, frugality, suspicion of yet more chemicals in our systems and waste down our drains, and I don't think we really need it. But of course it's a personal matter.

Anyways, try Phancypages, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised how interesting it is. I'm not the webmistress, Nita Holstine is, and has been for years.

Dominus tecum (07/10/2008)

ByLeonie in (brr!) Southern Australia