Saving the Environment and my Wallet.

When we were looking at houses one of our many stipulations was that we would not move into a house that put restrictions on how we can live. Many housing developments don't allow owners to have laundry lines or even fences because it would detract from the beauty of the neighborhood. I wasn't having it. I don't care that a laundry line is unattractive, I care that I can hang my clothes outside and spare my dryer for a day or two.

I can't be worried about how it looks, I will be worried about how it functions. I started hanging my clothes up a few weeks ago. It took us a while to get the new lines put up. We bought a clothing tree and installed it in our backyard (the previous owners had one but it was rusted and falling over). Now I am determined not to use my dryer for as long as humanly possible. I check the weather first thing in the am to determine if it is a laundry day.

If the skies are clear and sunny I am washing and hanging everything I can. My lines are big enough for 4 loads of laundry, so far I have done up to 3 in one day. Summer clothes are smaller and take up less space. My plan is to be hanging things out well into the fall. When the fall comes it might get trickier because fall usually brings more rainy days, but that only means I have to take greater advantage of sunny days.

I like hanging my clothes out. It's fun and a bit relaxing. I can be out in the sun and for the most part the kids want nothing to do with it so they run away. Sometimes I'll get a helper, they like to hand me the clothespins (or try to pin them to me).

I would love to say that my motivation for this is purely environmental. I do like to be environmentally conscious. The real motivation is the electric bill. We moved into a bigger house with central AC. The first two bills we got were shocking to me. So if I can save a few pennies hanging my clothes outside I will. Every month I study that bill. I look at our usage. I am constantly trying to find ways to bring our usage down, and this should be a big one.

Other things That I do to help...

In addition to hanging out my wash, I also wash everything in cold water. I started doing that several months ago and there was no change in the cleanliness of my clothes. The change came in the form of my electric bill. I was weird about trying this one since we always washed everything in warm water growing up. Conventional wisdom says that heat breaks up the dirt better. Then a few years back Tide came out with their cold water formula detergent. It made me think about what difference could warm versus cold water could make. I didn't go out and buy the special detergent. I already use a specially concentrated and environmentally friendly brand. So switched the setting on the washer and waited to see if there was a difference. There wasn't. So now all my clothes are washed in cold water.

Also, back in November we made a switch from paper napkins to cloth ones. I went out to Bed, Bath and Beyond and found an inexpensive set of napkins (12 for $10). I bought two sets so that we would have enough. Since November we bought one package of paper napkins (to accommodate parties and moving). Before we switched we were buying napkins regularly. My kids are messy, and so they need napkins for all three meals. The cloth ones stay out and get used over and over again. I usually change them out once a day or every other day depending on how gross they get. What's fun is that BBB has these 12 packs in seasonal colors. We started in the fall with the browns and golds and this summer we picked up the spring pack which is all bright colors. They are not the formal dining linens so the clean easily and I throw them in with my daily wash.

So there you have it two more things that I do that are not only environmentally friendly and friendly on the wallet.