An Unexpected Harbinger of Spring - The Laundry Line

As the winter fades from view and the days grow longer, I turn my thoughts to the laundry line that my husband and I installed at our house in Dorset late last summer.  Our main reason was to do our part to save energy in our household and fight global warming but unexpected things happened along the way.

Faded memories and a bit of nostalgia caught me by surprise as I hung my first load.  Don’t all of us of a certain age remember our mother’s laundry line? At that time, it was the 60’s, moms were still doing all of the laundry and our line hung in the backyard of our house in Brooklyn.  My mom would be out there in the bright sunshine hanging her laundry and chatting with the Grandmother next door, who had just arrived from China and didn’t speak a word of English, but somehow they were able to communicate with each other. Also, the memory of helping to fold the dry sheets - me on one end, my brother on the opposite end, making him bend and walk towards me several times since he was the younger one. And, the sound and clean air scent of linens flapping in the breeze brought back a flash of playing hide and seek between psychedelic patterned sheets.

By hanging our clothes outside rather than popping them in the dryer we have saved quite a bit of money on our electric bill.  According to Project Laundry List found at laundrylist.org, an average household can save $25 on their electric bill each month. Besides saving money they list many benefits that make hanging your clothes on a line worth the effort – clothes last longer (think about where lint comes from); sunlight bleaches and disinfects; clothes and bed linens smell better scented with the real fresh outdoors and not a chemical brew resembling it from a dryer sheet; each one of us in their small way is conserving energy and helping to save the planet; and the pleasure of being able to do a usually tedious household chore outside surrounded by singing birds.

Well, I have to go now bring in the sheets before dark, make the bed, fluff the pillows and jump in – surrounded by the fresh air smell of the outdoors. Heaven.

 

I HAVE SEEN THE LIGHT - It's a compact fluorescent bulb.

I have a confession to make. The environment is one of my top priorities and I am actively involved in helping my friends, family and community to become more aware of the problems of global warming. I am also an interior decorator who works really hard to make sure the interiors I design are color coordinated in every way. I tried compact fluorescent bulbs a few years ago and was put off by the blue light it cast in my interiors and the slow start time after flicking the switch. I secretly never used them in my own home nor would I recommend them to my clients.

Well, folks, I should not have discounted American ingenuity because compact fluorescent bulbs have come a long way since 1980 when they were first introduced. There has been a gradual replacement from magnetic ballasts to electronic ballasts, which has removed the flickering and slow start problems of the earlier bulbs. CFL’s now come in a variety of color options – Warm white or soft white is nearest in traditional light to incandescent bulbs and the ones that I choose now for all my interiors; white or bright white is whiter than incandescent but still on the warm side; cool white is a pure white tone; and daylight is slightly bluish white. Choose a bulb that has the same lumen rating, for example, a 60 watt incandescent bulb = 800 lumens.

This is a simple way for all of us to do our part in combating global warming and it begins at home. Here is a quote from the Energy Star website, “If every American home replaced just one light bulb with a “compact fluorescent” we would save enough energy to light more than 2.5 million homes for a year and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of nearly 800,000 cars.”

If each and every one of us rethinks our lifestyle choices in small ways, we could become part of the solution. Check out Environmental Defense Fund website (Environmentaldefense.org) where you can join the “Make the Switch” campaign called “The One Million Bulb Swap Out” and encourage your friends to do the same.

Now, I have to get back to switching the rest of my bulbs. I must find the tall ladder for that ceiling fixture.