I love living in a place where I can hang my laundry up to dry in my backyard. I love almost all things old-fashioned, and it's calming to look out my window at clean laundry hanging on the line.
If you know anything about hanging laundry to dry on the line, you will know that it gives your laundry a fresh smell. You know, that airy, breezy smell that all the fabric softeners and detergents try to mimic?
Ah, yes, but apparently this is a bit of fiction. A major falsehood. Because let me tell you, my line-dried laundry does not smell like that. No, sir.
I can only describe it as smelling like a man that has been doing yard work for hours in the hot sun. And that is certainly not what you want your sheets to smell like when you climb into bed at night.
So where did this myth of the fresh laundry smell start? And who is perpetuating it?
Or, gulp, is it just that my backyard air is that polluted?
I confess, the mixture of air smells in our neighborhood may not make for the best concoction. Maybe it's the smoke of the many wood-burning fireplaces. Or the horses, goats, and other livestock. Or the fact that random neighborhood cats love to pee right under the laundry line. Or maybe it's a perfect mixture of all these icky things.
After researching this issue (I'm not the only one apparently!), I found that some say their clothes smell after being only washed on the cold cycle (our washer only has cold water access). I will be asking our landlord if we can get hot water access before the baby comes since we will be cloth diapering, and we'll see if it changes anything...
*sigh* Not all the old-fashioned ways of doing things are what I romanticize them to be.
Yah, people love to romanticize sheets smelling like sunshine, but really they should tell you that it makes your jeans as stiff as a board. With our hard water when we fold the clothes after its dried on the line it practically crunches.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is you are on well water? We are also (which is a good thing), but since well water doesn't contain chlorine in it, it doesn't kill the bacteria in your laundry when you wash it, allowing mildew and bacteria to grow while its wet. The longer its wet, the longer it has to do its multiplying (making stink). Since hanging it on the clothes line takes longer to dry, it can help that smell right along.
Our solution to this problem is to add a tiny splash of bleach to the water as the washer is filling. Make sure it has a lot of water before you begin to add your clothes. I ruined one of my favorite shirts by not waiting long enough.
For your landlord to add hot water it would be quite expensive because it would probably require ripping up walls to plumb hot water from one place to the washer. If they are unwilling to do that, a cheap solution to fill your washer with hot water is to get a hose that will attach to your kitchen faucet, and run it into your washer when doing laundry. Its a pain, but we had to do it before when our washers hot water line was clogged up. We used the hose for my Moms aquarium gravel cleaning thing, its made for hooking to the faucet.
Kimberly
We actually have city water, which surprised me when I first moved here. So we do have the chlorine in our water, but I think bacteria might still be multiplying because we only have cold water and the washer is outside (so I have to clean dirt and leaves--not to mention spiders--out of it before doing a load each time).
DeleteI'm really hoping it won't be expensive to add the hot water line, because the washer is right outside the kitchen sink (so I know the hot water line is right there). We're even willing to pay half of it if that's what it takes. But if it doesn't work out, you have a good idea about the hot water hose to the washer. And this would be easy since the kitchen sink opens right over the washer.
*kitchen sink window opens right over the washer
DeleteI love hanging my clothing out to dry as well, and seeing it blow in the wind. I've never had a problem of them smelling funny. And I only use cold water too. I pray you will be able to get hot water access easily. :)
ReplyDeleteIsn't it funny how many old fashioned ways are not as romantic and picturesque as we tend to think. I learned that lesson well when I was milking my parents cow daily... ;)