Cheap or Frugal?
Posted by Mrs Money | August 15th, 2009 
Here’s this week’s Cheap or Frugal? Question:
Is it cheap or frugal to air dry ALL of your laundry year-round, even in winter? Of course, in inclement weather it would be done indoors, on drying racks or on a line somewhere in the house.
It’s definitely frugal, but not fun! I don’t think we have the space to air dry inside during the winter, our house is tiny. I confess I love the convenience of appliances like washers and dryers.
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Mrs Money Reply:
August 17th, 2009 at 9:33 pm
We hang dry in the basement in the winter. It is a pain, but at least I don’t have to look at it!
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I have a drying rack that i set up in my kitchen year round.
The only clothes that aren’t air dried are socks and jeans. And i machine dry the towels and sheets, too.
Luckily, i live on my own, so i dont have to worry about people messing them up.
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I live in SF so there’s no such thing as a “winter”, but we do get rain and fog a lot. But I don’t think it’s cheap, frugal only if you have a dryer. My boyfriend’s family don’t have dryers and just air dry all their clothes. I did this when I didn’t have a dryer too. Not that convenient, but not that inconvenient either.
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I live in northern Michigan and we have COLD winters. For two years I did not have an electric/gas dryer, but I was fortunate enough to have a covered porch where I could hang the clothes out to dry. We did not have enough room in the house to dry them there. The trick in winter is to plan ahead. Jeans can take up to three days. When they are no longer frozen and stiff, that is when they are dry. I kind of miss it, but having a dryer in-house is awful nice, too.
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