The day after I fixed my furnace, I made another investment. I purchased a folding clothes drying rack off of Amazon.com (full disclosure: I just signed up for Amazon's affiliates program so I'll get money if you buy things by clicking on Amazon.com links from now on). I'm not sure what put me in the mood to make this investment and to change my default clothes-drying behavior. Perhaps because it's winter now, and it's mostly cold outside — that got me on an insulation kick where I used rope caulk to seal up my windows (maybe I'll write that story up later, though I don't think there's much to tell). And if I was willing to make that investment, then why not an investment in clothes drying which has an insanely high ROI?
Mr. Money Mustache wrote this up a year and a half ago. With a ballpark estimate of 1000% ROI, this is an incredibly worthwhile investment opportunity. I don't know enough to improve upon the 50-cents-per-load estimate on running a traditional electric clothes drying machine, so let's let that ROI estimate stand. What I can tell you about is how my new drying rack has changed my laundry habits over the past three weeks. Spoiler alert: I like what I'm seeing.
I'll admit that my laundry habits are pretty abysmal. I'm guilty of your typical college or adolescent behaviors: using the floor as a laundry basket, leaving clothes in the washer or dryer for hours, leaving clean clothes in a laundry basket for days (sometimes folded and sometimes not). But, while I can't say a drying rack addresses all of my bad laundry habits, it's a serious force pushing in the right direction.
How is air drying different? First, I have to do smaller washes. The drying rack only holds about half a "normal" load of laundry. In the picture above you can see maybe four t-shirts, four pairs of boxers, and some socks (and there are probably one or two things you can't see). It means I can't spend three hours on a weekend powering through my entire wardrobe. Maybe that's a bad thing, but it also means I get to avoid the laundry folding fest that I've come to dislike. The task of "doing laundry" now entails a series of five steps, each of which takes no more than five minutes at a time: collect dirty clothes, engage wash cycle, hang up washed clothes, fold dry clothes, put away folded clothes. Small loads means homogeneous loads that are quicker and more fun to get through.
Clothes that are already hanging don't wrinkle if you neglect to fold them as soon as they're done. They are a lot less fluffy than when they come out of a dryer — at first. This leads us to a fun new activity: beating up your clothes to fluff them up! You can flap them around in the air for a bit, though I much prefer beating them against a couch or my leg. It was an unexpected activity that I now can look forward to whenever my clothes are dry.
There's also the savings from having your clothes wear out more slowly. Dryers put a good deal of wear on clothing because of the high heat (and all that lint coming off the clothes probably doesn't help). Even estimating a modest reduction in clothing depreciation and conservative wardrobe turnover, this alone can save somewhere between $10 and $100 per year — nothing to sneeze at.
Last, I'm quite happy with the model of drying rack I purchased. It feels sturdy, both when it's standing assembled and during assembly and disassembly. Assembly and disassembly are quick and easy. It folds up small so it can be stored away when it isn't being used. And it's got a small footprint while still providing a bunch of hanging spots; the other drying racks I looked at took up way too much space.
In conclusion, I highly recommend you try air drying your laundry. For less than $25 it's worth a shot, and you just may find you enjoy it more than the status quo.
Use hangars to hang up t-shirts, shirts, pants, towels, etc. to dry and keep the rack for the small stuff -bigger loads possible + you don't have to fold the things on hangars: just transfer them to a closet as is once they're dry :)
ReplyDeleteGood advice! Sounds like that will cut down on wrinkles too. Thanks.
DeleteHanging your clothes to dry is the default way of drying them in Japan. I love it and it's great to see your embracing it as well! It's certainly easier on your clothes then to send them through the dryer and of course it's way cheaper!
ReplyDeleteGlad I can improve upon the inefficient default American way of drying clothes :D
DeleteHanging clothes on a rack is the way we dry ours most of the year, but in the winter, we do it on the central heating radiators which is a fair bit quicker. When the radiators are full we use the rack but we position it in front of the largest radiator which seems to help the process along.
ReplyDeleteThere are even more frugal ways of drying clothes though...
When I was a student, I used the ultimate time, cost and space-saving method of washing them in the sink, wringing them out and drying them by putting them on straight away just before I cycled the 8 miles to university campus. When I arrived they were pretty much dry, and in drying they kept me cool - that only worked when the weather was warm though!
That's awesome. If I had a radiator near my washer/dryer I'd definitely use that first. Hahaha drying your clothes by wearing them and biking, that sounds awesome -- not to mention ridiculously Mustachian.
DeleteHow long would you say drying takes now? I have an indoor clothesline in my house and have been avoiding using it because of time concerns. And where does the water go? I'm sure some makes its way to the floor, so are you concerned about mold?
ReplyDeleteIn my experience in Japan it takes about one to two days to dry a load outside. We will bring our clothes indoor if the weather looks bad. In that case it can take a few extra hours for them to be bone dry. In general I think most washers get a lot of the water out so I personally have never had a problem with dripping and the floor getting moldy. That being said it's probably a good idea to keep an eye on things as ymmv.
DeleteI'll give you my most recent data point. I filled the entire rack with t-shirts and socks when I left the house today at around 1pm. I came back at 7pm. My clothes are somewhere in between very-slightly-damp and dry-enough-to-fold-and-put-away. I'm convinced if there was a heating vent near the drying rack they'd be long done by now. I am going to leave them drying until tomorrow morning by which time they'll definitely be completely dry.
DeleteWater dripping has not been a problem for me. The washer's spin cycle gets them pretty dry by time they're done, so there is no dripping to speak of.
Hope that helps!
Yeah, a drying rack goes a long way to save money. Just keep in mind that you don't quite save money if you now have to run the washing machine only half full and thus increase cost of washing by 100%.
ReplyDeleteAs to the drying time: for me it's several hours in the winter (and the water will humidify my apartment), but it can be 2 days to not happening in humid summer weather when I will grudgingly pay for the dryer.
You should make your own laundry soap to go along with it. Between line drying (I strung a bunch of clothesline above the washer/dryer) and making our own laundry soap (which works great with cold water) we're cutting down substantially on laundry costs. Check out my blog for the recipe we use.
ReplyDelete