I have been hanging clothes on the clothes line to dry, the dining room light has not been on during the day and we SAVED a BUNDLE! :lol: SAVINGS: $23.86 this month on electricity! Wasn't sure what the savings would be but it is quite significant.
I've been on the kiddos about leaving lights on. Since our previous houses have been military housing, they've gotten spoiled (and so have I) about being diligent. Now that we're in our own house and we get all the bills.....gotta keep them off unless we're in the room. I've threatened to remove the light bulbs in kids' rooms who leave them on too often :lol: We're not allowed to have a clothes line due to deed restrictions (can we say picky home owners association rules). I'm actually more scared about our next water bill. Since we just got new sod, we've had to water ALOT. I need to call the water company and turn in how much has been used on irrigation so they'll adjust it (a bit). $23 will buy you 1/2 a tank of gas (maybe). Rhonda
We've done that! My dd kept leaving her light during the day while she was downstairs. Plus, she'd turn it on when she went to bed & play for hours instead of trying to sleep. We warned her about it & then ended up taking the bulb out because she just wouldn't leave the light off. Katie, It's great that you saved that saved that much. We just got our clothes line up last week. I hung clothes to dry for 2 days & then it started raining again. I can hardly wait for another dry day.
This sounds silly but I actually enjoy hanging the clothes out on the line because I know I am saving $$ and resources. It only takes about 45 minutes for everything to dry and it is FREE! Ds found the old clothes line thingie and hung it up for me and it didn't cost a dime. I got a thrilling rush when I opened up the utility bill and saw how much we saved. dthd-doing the happy dance! It was fun too because it was a challenge to see how much I could save by diligently being conscious of our electric usage. I read the electric meter about every other day to see if we were on track. dthd! :lol:
i wrote 4 companie today to complement them (and ask for coupons)...... we switched to the new kind of light bulbs. we have really been using coupons and found out safeway doubles up to a dollar.
That's awesome, Katie! I keep bugging DH to put up a clothesline for me. We live in an older neighborhood with no pesky covenants like the last one we lived in. I don't mind the dryer so much in the winter, as it helps heat the house. But in the summer, it just makes the a/c work harder, and in our heat, the clothes would probably dry more quickly outdoors anyway! I'll have to show him how much you saved, and I bet he'll get on board!
We will have to use the dryer in the winter as it is tooooo cold here for a clothes line. We don't have a/c, we really don't need it as our house stays really cool on its own. I always run around in a sweat shirt to stay warm. It was a warm one today outside about 86 and our house was 71 inside. If I use the oven it will get about 73 degrees, not bad at all. Hopefully your dh will be inspired by our savings. :love:
I have to ask...is it an "American " thing to not have clothes lines ??? Ive never heard of people not having clothes lines! In Oz, we lived in Victoria, so we got a mixture of seasons, and still used the line, but when it was too wet, we used a clothes horse ( I think you call then drying racks), and would put it near the heater...clothes would dry quickly. In the 12 years I lived in our old house, we used the dryer 5 times.I sold it for the price we paid for it 12 years before !!! Dryers just use soooo much power and cost so much to run, I cant understand why people dont have clothes lines.....please enlighten me ! As for living here....well it rains about 2 -3 days a year, so its clothes lines EVERY day here !!!!!
Well, sort of. My mom used hers all the time when I was growing up, but I don't know anyone who has a clothes line now...seriously. Mostly, it's due to neighborhoods with "covenants" or rules that prohibit putting one up. It's considered to be an eyesore. That's why I said I was thankful to live in an older neighborhood that doesn't have such rules. In a way, I understand wanting to have a nice-looking neighborhood, but IMO, it's too much of an intrusion to say that a private property owner can or cannot have a clothes line (or a basketball goal or other things they commonly prohibit.)
dont you have fences either so that people cant see into your back yard ??? What about retractable lines (one end is attached to a wall, and it pulls out to hook on a pole) In this day and age of going "green", I thought that everyone would have lines (or clothes horses for inside)
Really, sgilli! I don't get that either. I am SO happy that we will be moving to a place without neighbors and hardly without covenants at all so we can pretty much do whatever we want.
Believe it or not, many of the newer neighborhoods around here do not allow backyard fences, either! Crazy, isn't it? I totally agree: in this time of economic difficulty, we could all benefit from exploring ways of saving energy. I told DH about Katie's energy savings and his eyes lit up! :lol: I think I'll be getting my clothesline soon!
Sorry- Im totally taken aback by this !!! What about privacy? What if you have a pool in your back yard- do they get fenced? What about those who have pets? What if your neighbours yard is messy? What if you want to mow the lawn in the nude - just a thought !!?
For those of you that live with HOA's ( like I do...and HATE IT!!) that do not allow clothesline, I have the solution! I bought a rolling clothes rack from Wal-Mart ( it was $9.88 at the time) and I hang dry my clothes on hangers , on the clothes rack and place the clothes rack in the garage. My garage stays pretty warm here in the summer ( its get to 115 here outside) so my clothes dry REALLY fast. In the winter I just roll it in the house because the garage is too cold and the heater in the house helps dry the clothes. I have done this for over 3 years now and it works great!
I think living with HOA's (home owner associations) and not living with hoa's all depends. It's like I have straight hair and wish I had curly hair. My friends who have curly hair want my straight hair. Getting to my point . I wish we had an hoa here or at least our city enforcing the laws they "already" have on the books. Things are a mess here! People have weeds 5 ft tall, even those on the city council. So I wish there was some rules being enforced here. :roll: Thats all I had to say. :lol: My clothes line is behind my 6 ft fence and nobody can see it unless they come into my back yard. When we did put up the line we didn't want our clothes visible from the road.
Also, for those of you with HOA's, can you use a drying rack and put it out on a deck or patio? I know you can't put a lot out on it, but it may help keep dryer costs down a bit. We live in the country, and I would be LOST without my clothesline. Right now I have all the bedding on the line. My dryer is 20 years old, but probably only has the wear of one year. For the winter, dh strung some line in one corner of the basement, so with that and 3 drying racks, I rarely use the dryer in the winter either. It really does save your clothes. carol
I LOVE the rolling clothes rack idea for when winter kicks in here. That is a wonderful idea! Actually I am going to see if they have one when I go there this week. Thank you for the great idea! :love:
