Welcome to How I Save Money . Today I will be showing you a really simple way to save money on your laundry costs this summer. Why not take advantage of the hot weather and air dry your laundry?
Now I know the majority of people will say they live in apartments or neighborhoods where you are not allowed to hang lines. That is okay. I am air drying my laundry inside of my apartment and it is working out great.
Get a Drying Rack
The first thing you would need to do is to get a drying rack of some sort. I got a great one from WalMart for $10 and I set it up in the spare room. It costs me $1 to wash and $1 to dry so for every load of drying I can save it will take me ten sets of laundry to recoup the cost of the dryer rack. I have had the rack for one week now and I have already used it twice, meaning I am now into the rack for $8.
Sort Clothes and Use Rack
Each time I do a load of laundry I go through the clothes and see if there is anything that is small enough to hang on the rack. I will put items like towels and sheets in the dryer and put smaller items pillow cases on the drying rack. This tactic worked last week when I did two washes, but then was able to put enough on the drying rack to cut the dryer load down to one, saving $1.
Watch the Money Roll In
Now that I am able to save money on my laundry I can snowball the money I save every week into an account that pays off my debt every month. I have had a good run with the laundry rack so far and I think it is a really good investment.
The thing is to use the drying rack in a well ventilated area. If you can use it in a room that you keep the windows open then your clothes have a better chance of drying well and will not have a musty odor.
You can also leave the clothes in a closed room that has a fan blowing, so the air will circulate.
This is a cracking money saving tip. I have 2 washing screens that I use and often put them out on the balcony. The clothes dry really quickly and you get a fabby smell on the washing of fresh air.
I used to use the dryer 2 days a week and I have saved a fortune on the electric bills!
Key is to be organised and sort the washing and then get it out whilst the weather is fab!
Canny Squirrel
I have no idea why I was not doing this before since I grew up air drying. I guess living in an apartment spoiled me.
Well, I got this one licked…I pretty much air dry most of my clothes all the time…I always hang dry my shirts and pants and sometimes things like rugs, towels, and bedding (but don’t wash that stuff as often) so the dryer really only gets used for like 10-20% of my laundry (that’s just a random approximation and not an accurate figure)
There’s drying cabinets (at least where I live in Finland) that can be used with just the fan running with no heat. Running without heat saves money and using the cabinet saves space (you do have to pay rent for the space used to dry clothes if you do it inside)
Thanks for sharing such an amazing list I will use this tip for my laundry business and needs