None of this is news to anyone who has to pay to wash their clothes.
but it may be interesting to those who have an in home laundry.
Six weeks ago, the gas heat guys rerouted some pipes in my basement and ever since my gas dryer hasn't worked. sure it goes round but it doesn't dry anything in fact it just made things mildew faster. (i think it needs a moisture sensor but that means a service call and i am not ready to pay for that yet)
Quite quickly i got familiar with the local laundromat , read: coin eating machines. So I took everything the 1st time. I washed and dried absolutely everything i owned that needed doing. Essentially for $40 dollars, I got myself to ground ZERO. Everything was cleaned and dried and in it's place.
My washer still works, but i don't like hauling wet laundry across town. The last time I still spent $12 just on drying. So I started drying in house.
Now I keeping track of what I am using or wearing, and where the heck I am gonna hang it? and so forth.(it's winter here and i haven't had to string any lines inside, yet- but i am going to.)
I started with small white loads - I don't use paper towels, I use dish towels..and I have stockpiled a lot of them. i use them for everything even washing floors..i have a LOT of pets.
Doing a small white load every couple of days and hanging them on an accordion clothes rack worked swell. the last load is dry when i go to do the next load. I make sure I run a rinse with vinegar to make sure all the soaps are out.
I am now doing weekly medium loads of dark colors, t-shirts, polo shirts, jeans etc.. i run a rinse with a smidgen of fabric softener (if i run out i put in a drier sheet) then I hang those items on hangers in a doorway. They aren't as pillowy soft and fluffy as they would be from a dryer - but they sure cost me less.
I started running larger linen and towel loads. The towels i can also hang on hangers such as over the bathtub. the sheets were tricky, with only a couple I draped them around hangers and let them hang in the kitchen. they dried surprisingly quickly - but they are all cotton and the washer gives good spin.
I had been putting things aside to go to the laundromat, but i think I will give them all a try and see if I can get out of using the laundromat altogether.
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Conclusions:
I learned that if I do smaller loads more frequently
I can stockpile fewer clothes and fewer linens.
Besides handling large loads would take hours of time I just don't have.
I use less soap and less bleach, but more vinegar which is cheaper.
I run an extra rinse with vinegar to make certain all the soap is gone.
If it's pet staining, urine or mildewy, I run a prewash cycle with it.
I do use a fabric softener on occasion for my clothing but it's in a squirt bottle and i only use a smidgen.
I am not paying for the gas for the dryer
I am only inconvenience a little because i have to hang everything up damp before moving it into the closet.
Granted it is just me and my pets, but I think if you try to go a week without your dryer, you may start looking at how much laundry you are making and how much you can save and how much clothing you can do without.
