Saturday, January 3, 2015

January Laundry

As I mentioned in the previous post, our mornings here have been clear and cold -- not cold by east coast or midwest standards, but cold for us.  I have been noticing that anytime we have cooler weather (even if it is sunny outside), the marine air makes the day's laundry much more difficult to dry, and when it does come in it develops a slight musty odor in the closet within a few days. This is probably from the clothes not being completely dry at the time they were brought in -- even though they felt dry (but cold) in my hands. 

It's hard to measure the dryness of clothes in 55 degree, 70 percent humid weather -- unlike summer when it's easy because it's 100 degrees with no humidity and everything has no choice but to turn to a crisp after a few hours in the sun (including me).  In hot weather, if your clothes are cool they are also inevitably damp.  In cold weather, all the wash is cold, making it harder to tell if it's actually dry as well.
Moist...
My solution has been to use the inside dryer to "finish off" the line-dried clothes, and to place smaller items like socks and t-shirts in front of the pellet stove, which puts out a very dry heat.  This serves a double purpose of not only drying the clothes nicely but also adding some humidity indoors, which we lack anytime the pellet stove runs.


or extra-crispy?

It's a strange dichotomy -- too humid outdoors, too dry indoors, but I'm sure anyone who lives in a coastal climate in winter can relate.  Sometimes it can take awhile to fashion some new techniques to accommodate a new climate.  In this case, we are entering our third year here, there are still some things I am figuring out.  

4 comments:

  1. I've started hanging our small loads from the country house, on the line to dry. However, I still wind up putting certain things like jeans & towels in the dryer for about 10 minutes to 'finish' them off. I know it's cheating but 10 min. vs an hour makes it worth it for us.

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    1. I agree with feeling like you're cheating for using the dryer, I do too! But I once read a blog post by a family who lived in a northern state who hung their laundry out for several days to get dry (weather permitting) in winter. That seemed a bit extreme and hard on the clothes to me. 10 minutes in the dryer may be cheating but it's much more practical, in my opinion!

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  2. Hey sometimes it's all about finding your own system! This makes sense to me!

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    1. Yes, that is true. It just amazes me that even after all this time in some ways we are still learning our way around the climate, soils, etc. here. But at least the laundry category is figured out now!

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