National Hanging Out (your laundry) Day

Woops, I missed it. National hanging out (your laundry) day was on Tuesday.

National Hanging Out Day  was created to demonstrate how it is possible to save money and energy by using a clothesline. I have blogged about it before and always find this day a little bit inspiring.

Organizers of this event, Project Laundry list the top ten reasons for hanging laundry -- such as clothes lasting longer; the fresh scent; energy saving, environment preserving and pollution reducing reasons; using the sun as a bleaching agent; and of course saving money.

They have a calculator to enable folks to find out exactly how much money they can save but they estimate on average we can save more than $25 a month off the electricity bill simply by hanging laundry. 

Some say it is just a short Zen moment in their week when they take the laundry outside to dry. They feel a bit more in touch with nature.

Maybe your catalyst to hang out is the fact that there are no ENERGY STAR dryers on the market. Or the fact (from Project Laundry’s website) that in the US, six to ten percent of residential energy use goes toward running clothes dryers. Or maybe this one will inspire you: the average American uses more energy running a clothes dryer than the average African uses in a year for all their energy needs.

Project Laundry estimates that 8% of households line-dry their laundry 5 months a year. They calculated that if the rest of us jump on the clothesline ban wagon doing it for ten months a year, we could avoid 12 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere, a year!

Since some communities prohibit clotheslines mainly for aesthetic reasons, Project Laundry is encouraging the National Hanging Out Day as a time to protest such laws, pushing for "Right to Dry" legislation.

Get outside, save energy and money, burn off a few calories hanging that laundry to dry.

Tread Lighter hanging laundry,

-Phyllis, Green Expert