Cooking Goddess
Chef Extraordinaire
There was a lively discussion about how we dry our clothes (go figure 
) that I wanted to join, but oddly enough chose not to since it was OT. 
And there are days that I'm the Queen of Off Topic. 
:
I grew up in a house that had a gas dryer as soon as they were a common appliance. Before that, Mom (and I) hung clothes in the back yard in nice weather, in the basement when it rained or snowed. Our first three years of marriage were spent in apartments, so the in-building washer and dryer were used. Once we got our own house, though, and our own yard, up went lines...along with a washer/dryer set, housewarming gifts from my folks.
Mom had a habit of shrinking anything polyester, so I made sure I rescued my clothes from the hamper before she started the family wash. Once I moved out, I realized that the problem with clothes dryers and shrinking/elastic becoming cracked were more of an issue because Mom had a gas dryer, while all I've ever used once married were electric. Our undies tend to just plain ol' wear out, rather than have the elastic die before the rest of the piece is worn. I also tend to "dry to fabric content", while Mom was pretty much a "full heat ahead" sort of person. Anything with elastic is dried on low, or hung to dry.
I miss the smell of line-dried clothes. Our first house had perfectly spaced trees for stringing lines. The summer of 1988 was hot-hot (104 in Cleveland on June 25th!) but dry, so I could dry one load completely in the time it took to wash the next one. All I dried in the machine was Himself's no-iron dress shirts and towels. The second house had virtually no grassy area in the back yard - just enough to run one line long enough for hanging sheets and pillowcases. This place? Between the slope in our yard and a heavily wooded back yard, with just enough grass to keep the trees a decent distance from the house, I haven't hung anything in 18 years. Like RP mentioned elsewhere, I just figure the price of machine drying clothes into the electric bill budget. At least I can dry clothes at my convenience, not the whims of the weather.
I still hang our tops (t-shirts, sweatshirts) and jeans. No real place in the basement, since the ceiling is low and there is fiberglass insulation between the joists. Instead, I have a rolling clothes rack in the kitchen, and a smaller one in the guest room. I fluff the shirts in the dryer on "air" for about 10 minutes, then put them on hangers. I swear some of our knit shirts are over a dozen years old and still look newish.
) that I wanted to join, but oddly enough chose not to since it was OT. And there are days that I'm the Queen of Off Topic. :I grew up in a house that had a gas dryer as soon as they were a common appliance. Before that, Mom (and I) hung clothes in the back yard in nice weather, in the basement when it rained or snowed. Our first three years of marriage were spent in apartments, so the in-building washer and dryer were used. Once we got our own house, though, and our own yard, up went lines...along with a washer/dryer set, housewarming gifts from my folks.
Mom had a habit of shrinking anything polyester, so I made sure I rescued my clothes from the hamper before she started the family wash. Once I moved out, I realized that the problem with clothes dryers and shrinking/elastic becoming cracked were more of an issue because Mom had a gas dryer, while all I've ever used once married were electric. Our undies tend to just plain ol' wear out, rather than have the elastic die before the rest of the piece is worn. I also tend to "dry to fabric content", while Mom was pretty much a "full heat ahead" sort of person.
Anything with elastic is dried on low, or hung to dry.I miss the smell of line-dried clothes. Our first house had perfectly spaced trees for stringing lines. The summer of 1988 was hot-hot (104 in Cleveland on June 25th!) but dry, so I could dry one load completely in the time it took to wash the next one. All I dried in the machine was Himself's no-iron dress shirts and towels. The second house had virtually no grassy area in the back yard - just enough to run one line long enough for hanging sheets and pillowcases. This place? Between the slope in our yard and a heavily wooded back yard, with just enough grass to keep the trees a decent distance from the house, I haven't hung anything in 18 years. Like RP mentioned elsewhere, I just figure the price of machine drying clothes into the electric bill budget. At least I can dry clothes at my convenience, not the whims of the weather.
I still hang our tops (t-shirts, sweatshirts) and jeans. No real place in the basement, since the ceiling is low and there is fiberglass insulation between the joists. Instead, I have a rolling clothes rack in the kitchen, and a smaller one in the guest room. I fluff the shirts in the dryer on "air" for about 10 minutes, then put them on hangers. I swear some of our knit shirts are over a dozen years old and still look newish.
E. coli is natural. 
