The Christine Challenge

I was talking so some who reads my blog (I'm always shocked when someone says, "I read your blog!"  I guess I still think it's just my mom!) and she said she couldn't believe that I hang dry my laundry...which I don't.  I think I did a blog post about hanging it to dry outside in the summer, but I didn't even do that last summer.  I got that great outdoor clothes dryer from my mom LAST Christmas and I never got it up.  So I was feeling guilty.  I know that the electric dryer is a huge drain on electricity (it has the highest wattage in the house, but I think I've read before that the refrigerator is actually you're biggest energy drain.  Makes sense--it runs all the time.) and I really felt good about drying the clothes outside when I did it, but now, it's just not really an option.  In this same conversation, a third person (we were waiting for Girl Scouts to be over) pointed out that another mom friend of ours line dries all of her clothes...inside.  FASCINATING!  She has 4 kids, like me.  She has a smaller house, like me.  She has a few part-time jobs, is on the preschool board and is president of the PTO, unlike me.  If she can do it, why can't I?! 
I was at her house for a play date (her kids are the same ages as mine) and I asked her about her methods.  I asked how many loads of laundry she does a day (average of 2, which I usually average 3, but that's because of diapers), what she does put in the drier (towels, tees, onesies) and how it works for her.  It sounded manageable.  So, I'm going to do THE CHRISTINE CHALLENGE for a month and see how I do. 

On the way home from the playdate we stopped and bought two more drying racks (we already have one in the basement).  Yesterday Evan and I put them together (I got the on that just clicked the two parts together, Evan had directions and required a hammer...coincidence?) and started hanging up clothes.  I was starting to make rules for The Christine Challenge, but decided having rules was going to set me up for failure.  If my rule is "Hang dry the clothes and use the dryer less" I'm going to have a better chance of success than if I say "Towels can go in the dryer, jeans and heavy sweatshirts can't, blah blah blah)  I was using a 1800-5000 Watt dryer (that's from energy.gov.  I'm not sure where mine falls, but it's old and not energy efficient) an average of 3 hours a day.  If I cut that even in half, I'm still conserving energy, and electric costs. 

Yesterday I did 3 loads of laundry.  I hug up the lights and the darks and there the towels in the dryer.  I decided that I'll hang them if I can, but they take up a lot of room that I'd rather use for my clothes.  Plus, they're rough when they're line dried.  I still have everything hanging up, so I'm not sure if I'll have to toss anything in the dryer to fluff it up (when I dried outside some items got "crispy") but if I do, that's ok.  It's only a few minutes and only some items.  I think the more I do it, the easier it will get.  It IS a little more work, but only a little more.  That's why it's a challenge.  (And cue, Eye of the Tiger.)