I live in Tennessee where TVA, our electric supplier, has raised our electric bills 30% in one month. I have started really trying to be more frugal. I purchased a indoor clothes line and strung it up in my basement. I bought it off ebay for $25.00, and it will hold 2 loads of laundry. It usually dries in less than one day. With a family of five, I do at least 1 load per day, I know this will help with my electric bill.
Not everyone has a basement, so why not use one in a room in your home where you don't actually live, like a spare bedroom. You could put the clothes line in the closet and retract the line when not in use. My retractable line is the diameter of a paper plate and maybe 5 inches wide. Very small.
In one week I was able to hang 7 loads of laundry on my line. Some loads were jeans which would have required more than one run on the dryer. I never waited more than 14-16 hours of dry time. Also, I forgot to add, my basement isn't heated or cooled. Hope this helps someone.
We use three folding drying racks which hold 1 load of laundry. Drying our clothes on drying racks has increased our house humidity during the winter so we don't have the expense of using a humidifier.
My mother dried the clothes in the basement in the winter and out doors in the warm weather. Now I live in sunny Colorado. We have an area intended for passive solar heating of the house. The narrow cathedral ceiling reached above where it can be seen from the living space. We build a small balcony off the master bedroom with a clothes line. They hang in this warm area, un seen from the dining room below!
When we bought our house it had a "garport", a carport with a garage door. I was working out of town and my husband put up 2 clothes lines, one is a plastic laundry line, the other is a chain. I can hang clothes in all weathers. Just make sure it's well anchored in case it gets super breezy.
I live in a small space and have an indoor clothes line in our hall. I screwed some "j" hooks on both sides of the wall and then zigzagged a couple of bungee cords through the hooks. I even have a couple of tension rods in the hall to give me more hanging room. I wash our clothes during non peak electric usage and when the wash is done I put the washer on the spin cycle 2 or more times to spin out as much water as possible so the clothes will be dry in the morning. Sometimes I will even use the tension rod (shower curtain rod) in the bathroom to dry clothes.
I have 2 retractable lines in my garage. I can hang 2 loads. I do one load a day, every 3rd day I do two. I hang on my husband's side of the garage while he's at work and it's dry by the time he comes home. If I have 2 loads, I hang on my side and park outside or hang it while I'm out running errands. Garage is unheated, but warmer than outside in the winter.
When I got married in 1973 this was the way most people lived. It was quite common to have a washing machine, but no dryer. I got a dryer when my first child was born in 1980. I have a gas dryer now, but I still try to conserve. I tumble dry the clothes for 10-15 minutes to remove wrinkles, then put the clothes on hangers to finish drying.
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