Sable Monroe

Why Did Americans Stop Hanging Their Clothes Outside?

I run my air conditioner all summer.

I’m not sitting inside my house sweating like I’m being punished just to save a few dollars on my electric bill. I like being comfortable. If it’s hot outside, my AC is running.

But my dryer?

That bitch can rest.

If you have outdoor space, you don’t have an HOA breathing down your neck, and the weather is decent, I genuinely do not understand why more Americans aren’t hanging their clothes outside.

Maybe this is one of those things where I’m still very Jamaican.

Growing up, hanging clothes outside wasn’t some quirky environmental statement. It wasn’t cottagecore. Nobody was trying to reconnect with nature. The sun was out. The breeze was blowing. You had wet clothes.

What the hell else were you supposed to do?

There are four people living in my house: me, my two adult children, and my basement tenant. Four people produce a lot of laundry. Towels. Jeans. Sheets. Blankets. Regular clothes.

Now I live in Baltimore City, and on beautiful summer days, I can look around and barely see anybody with clothes hanging outside. No drying racks. No clotheslines. Nothing.

Meanwhile, everybody has an electric dryer inside eating electricity to produce hot air while an enormous ball of fire is sitting in the sky doing the same job for free.

Make it make sense.

And anybody with an electric dryer knows that the heavy stuff can be ridiculous. Sometimes one cycle doesn’t even dry everything. Now you’re running the damn thing twice because two towels and a pair of jeans have apparently decided they would like to remain moist until Christmas.

Once I started seriously using my outdoor drying rack and clothesline instead of the dryer, I noticed the difference in my electric bill. We’re not talking about saving three dollars and seventeen cents so I can congratulate myself for being environmentally responsible.

I’m talking about real money.

My electric bill dropped by roughly $150 at one point.

Now, I’m not claiming every penny of that reduction came exclusively from the dryer. Electric bills fluctuate for all kinds of reasons. But eliminating an appliance that generates a tremendous amount of heat and runs repeatedly in a four-person household clearly mattered.

And the best part?

I didn’t sacrifice anything I actually care about.

I’m still running my air conditioner.

That’s my philosophy about saving money. I don’t particularly enjoy deprivation for the sake of saying I saved money. I’d rather look at the things I’m paying for and ask myself:

Does paying for this actually improve my life?

Air conditioning in a Baltimore summer?

Absolutely.

Paying an electric dryer to do something the sun will happily do for free?

Not so much.

And I’m not retiring my clothesline the second Labor Day passes either. If it’s 40 degrees outside, sunny, dry and breezy, those clothes can still go outside. They may take longer, but I’m not in a relationship with my laundry. It doesn’t need my undivided attention.

Even during the colder months, there’s a middle ground. Clothes can partially dry on an indoor rack and then go into the dryer to finish. Heavy towels and jeans don’t necessarily need an entire drying cycle if air has already done most of the work.

You don’t have to become somebody’s great-grandmother standing outside in the snow wrestling frozen bloomers off a clothesline to save money.

Just stop treating the dryer like it’s the only option.

Obviously, this doesn’t work for everybody. Plenty of people live in apartments without outdoor space. Some neighborhoods and HOAs restrict clotheslines. Some people have mobility limitations, allergies, demanding schedules, or other perfectly legitimate reasons why a dryer makes more sense.

But if you’ve got a backyard, a balcony where it’s permitted, a patio, or some other private outdoor space?

Baby, the sun is right there.

And line-dried clothes smell good. Not dryer-sheet good. Not fragrance-bead good. They smell like outside. Fresh air and sunshine have a smell that detergent companies have spent decades trying to put inside a bottle.

My daughter has gotten into line drying too. And I love that.

Maybe some habits don’t need to disappear just because you’ve moved somewhere where everybody does things differently.

Sometimes the old way isn’t outdated.

Sometimes the old way is just cheaper.

And BGE already gets enough of my damn money.

They don’t need the dryer money too. 😂