Retire your dryer!
Our goal is to convince 350 people in the Valley, by October 24, to “Retire their Dryer” and air-dry their clothes on lines or racks – outside or inside.
Sign up your commitment to energy free, air drying right here !
Reasons to put up a clothesline:
- Fresh air. It is wonderful to step outside and just be there for a few minutes while hanging clothes. Check up on the birds, the garden, or your neighbors, inhale the air and enjoy the day.
- Fresh air. Air-dried sheets and towels smell wonderful. They will remind you of outside and fresh air when you use them.
- Save money. More and more people are seeing their dryers as an unnecessary extravagance. They use a huge amount of energy. Watch your electric bill take a substantial dip. Zero Energy Drying is IN. (Use the “proceeds” for dinner out and a movie.)
- Help save the planet! Reduce your “footprint” of energy use. Retiring your Dryer can be huge. 350 “retirings” in the Valley will be a very significant reduction in carbon emissions.
Need Help? Contact Green Northampton, david.starr@comcast.net, for help in installing your clothesline.
Click here for a list of Frequently Asked Questions about airdrying laundry and about this project!
Green America says:
“Firing” your clothes dryer would likely achieve that first year’s ten percent reduction all by itself, because in many households, the dryer is the third-most energy-hungry appliance, after the refrigerator and washer. Air-drying your clothes can reduce the average household’s carbon footprint by a whopping 2,400 pounds a year.” (For complete article go to http://greenamericatoday.org/pubs/realgreen/articles/dryer.cfm )
Living in a condominium? Many condominium associations have by-laws forbidding outside drying of clothes. Now is the time to write your Association a letter recommending a change in the by-laws. Encourage your condo assoc. to set an example and be ahead of the curve.
Resources: Check your local hardware store!
Sponsors: This project is endorsed and supported by The Northampton Committee to Stop the War; Green Northampton; AFSC (Western Mass); The Northampton 350.org Committee; and many enthusiastic individuals who are currently drying their clothes in the breeze!!!
For more information, contact:
- Susan Lantz 586-3544; susan@sblantz.com
- Molly Hale 585-0791 hellomolly@comcast.net
Stayed tuned: At some point we’ll have a group photo op to put on the 350.org page. We welcome any ideas, thoughts, comments you might have. Feel free to get the word out anyway that works for you.
Last week I just put up a clothesline in our cellar for the winter, for drying sheets and bedding. I already have a wooden rack and hang laundry in the back pantry. My strategy is to heat them in the dryer just for a few minutes until they are hot and then hang them so they are practically wrinkle free and you save energy by ironing very minimally. During the summer I lIke having the laundry in the fresh air on the line from the window of our back pantry.
I’ve used my dryer about 5 times in the last year. It’s very easy to give up; just need to be creative about space to hang your clothing. And, by the way, if you don’t put your clothes in the dryer at all, but give them a good snap before you hang them up, very few wrinkles and ironing needed. Also, if you want creases in trousers/pants, fold them while wet with the creases and hang on a hanger — touch up only needed. Perhaps we all need a “lesson” from a “gramma” who grew up without a dryer!
Way to go Molly & Susan. If there is an effort to help install laundry lines for folks who need help putting them up, count me in. Lilly
Small efforts often lead to more efforts and sometimes greater efforts. And pretty soon, each of us is a part of the solution in our own way. And best of all, most of the time it’s fun.
In the course of planning this climate action I have experienced the power of taking action – like a pebble falling in water, the ripples never stop reaching out.