Clothesline Challenge 2009 Update

Just wanted to pop in and let you know we are a go for line drying! Shinerman fixed the clothesline by adding some braces to each post. We've already done quite a few loads. It's a good thing, we were running out of clothes! I stopped by Gift of Green's blog and there are a bunch of folks signed up for the Clothesline Challenge. You should sign up, c'mon, you know you want to - no pressure :)

Clothesline Challenge 2009

The new clothesline challenge for this summer has begun!

We began drying our clothes outside last spring; read about the ghetto-fabness and then the sweet clothesline that followed. We've cut our electric bill by about 2o% and we no longer have to run the clothes over and over in the dryer to get them dry - so annoying.

But, with all this rain the last few weeks - the clothesline is out of commission. Not because of the rain itself, but the ground is so soaked that one of the poles started leaning like the Tower of Pisa. Shinerman pulled it out and said there was a big 'ol puddle under it. Now we have to wait until it stops raining and the ground dries to fix it. In the meantime, I think we're going to work the shower curtain and hanger action. But I did put some clothes in the dryer tonight...sigh, the eco-guilt cometh :)

But YOU should take the plunge. Gift of Green has several levels for your choosing. We are trying for Super Star, but that was before the clothesline crisis.

Sooo, Earth Day?

I've been pretty stoked about Earth Day this year. What would we do, I wondered. Last year I took the day off and the littlest man and I went to the Arboretum. Maybe we could do something more giving this year, clean up litter maybe?

But, alas, work had to take over the day this year. Too much to do and too many other days taken off; plus, I had to go to the Dr about a weird rash on my back - boo. Adding to that, I really was beginning to feel very blah about the whole thing. Taking just one day to do something green? We're pretty Green all year-round.

A list of green stuff we do everyday of the year:

• No paper towels - ever.
• 100% recycled toilet paper; except once when we had people over, it was late at night and we were about to run out - bad combo
• We haven't bought plastic baggies in a year and a half
• Only using natural cleaners, mostly baking soda and vinegar
• Making our own homemade laundry detergent
• Making our own hand soap - verdict is still out on that one so no post, yet
• Buying almost all organic food
• Line dry clothes year round, we've used the dryer only a handful of times since we started a year ago
• Composting everything we can
• Recycling everything we can

This list isn't exhaustive and also isn't meant to be a 'nanana-booboo' either. Perhaps I'm trying to assuage my guilt over not doing anything today to celebrate.

So, what did you do for Earth Day? Or what do you do everyday that makes you feel better for not doing anything today?

Too many clothespins!

We have a really cute tote bag with a front pocket that we use for our clothespins. But since we dry so many clothes on the line we needed more clothespins. Of course then the darn things didn't fit into the pocket anymore and the bag is just sort of hanging from the hanger hook.

A solution has presented itself - a clothespin bag made out of a kids button-down shirt. It's genius! I get a new bag and make use out of one the littlest man's out-grown shirts.

Now I just have to borrow a sewing machine...or perhaps one of my friends who sew could do it for me? hmmm, indeed...

Clothesline Challenge Update

We've done really well with the clothesline. Back when we first started, I thought we had left some clothes at my mother-in-laws or perhaps just a random location. Where were they? I found them in the dryer about 2 months later.

We've only had to use the dryer once since we started using the line. It was raining EVERY FREAKING DAY and the littlst man had NO clothes. So, into the dryer they went - don't judge.

I am worried about this winter. We don't get crazy cold winters here, but to me it's still very cold. I also don't know how long they will take to dry. I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Laundry Detergent Update

I had a comment from Joy asking if you can use the laundry detergent in the new HE machines. That what Shinerman and I have and it works just fine, not had any problems. One piece of advise: Keep the door to the place where you put the detergent in open. You'll probably need to smush (very technical scientific term, yes?) the detergent when the water starts flowing. My first load had about a third of the detergent caked in the cup after the wash was done. The clothes came out fine and we didn't rewash them.

Another thing I did was buy one of those Downy balls. I'm not sure our machine really understands that I want to use the fabric softener cup, and we haven't been able to figure out how to make it work since we bought the machine. I put some lemon essential oil in my white vinegar bottle and use the vinegar as fabric softener.

I put the lemon in there because, apparently, I don't enjoy the smell of the outdoors. When I get the clothes off the line, all I smell is "little outdoor boy" smell - not pleasant. But I'm please to say that not only are my line-dried clothes softer, but they also smell like lemon - yummy.

Full disclosure - the towels are still crunchy. Not as crunchy, but still crunchy nonetheless. We've learned to deal with it, so can you!


Happy laundry day to you!!

Clothesline Challenge 2008 Progress

So I joined Gift of Green's Clothesline Challenge of 2008 (a couple of days ago actually) and I thought I'd go ahead and give a progress report. We signed up for Advanced, which means we'll try to line dry 90% of our clothes. So far so good, we've done two loads of laundry and both were "line-dried", although some of them ended up drying in the house. Refer to the picture below to see why not everything can go outside.

See, we don't actually have a clothesline, yet, so we just lay everything out on the deck and patio furniture. However, Shinerman is working on a clothesline. A very fancy one with two lines and pulleys. He's very excited. I've included a picture of our progress on that project below. It should be done this weekend. I hope it happens soon because yesterday most of the littlest man's clothes ended up on the ground in the backyard.

Getto-Fabulous AND eco-friendly

Shinerman decided that, although we don't have a clothes line yet, he would dry the clothes outside today. I came home to see clothes strewn around the deck and patio furniture. He was very proud of himself. And they did dry a lot faster than I thought they would, so they weren't out there for too long – not that the neighbors would care – they're pretty ghetto-fab themselves! BTW – I think that the guy a few streets down is building a chicken coop!! I'm not that ballsy, but maybe we'll get some fresh eggs out of the deal.

Speaking of fresh eggs, when we went to get our co-op delivery Saturday, the host had fresh eggs! For FREE!! Have you ever seen a blue egg? I had not, but I can't wait to eat it…yummy! This is our second co-op delivery. It's all organic produce, you don't get to choose what you get, but it's been pretty good so far. I had cauliflower for the first time last week. It was ok, the littlest man and Shinerman both loved it. I didn't, but liked it enough to eat it again. Last time I roasted it like I do our broccoli, not sure what I'll do this time. I'm really hoping that all this produce will force me to up my veggie intake. The co-op also does dry goods, so I will try that out and let you know how that goes. We have one more delivery on our trial membership. I think we'll keep it up. I really wish I could get more local food, but all the CSAs were full and the Denton farmers market doesn't start until June. June! Ugh…

We are thinking about getting a deep freezer. We'll have to get rid of the beer fridge, though – I know I know!!! But this way we could buy a bunch of local beef and also freeze the bounty that this summer will bring so we could have it for the winter without having the eco-guilt from BPA-lined canned/fresh flown in from who-knows-where. We'll have to see.