Ok a few thoughts and frugal tips on laundry.
Let’s talk about detergent for a minute, shall we? (Like you have a choice). I only buy Tide. There are a lot of reasons for this. My mom always bought Tide, for one thing. I know, not the most valid reason, but I digress. We are also a household of sensitive skinned people, and Tide agrees with all of us. Now, if you were to walk into your local grocery store and pick up Tide off the shelf, no sale, it can be a bit pricey. As for me, I never buy Tide unless it is on sale, and then I stock up. The neat thing about Tide is that you can use about half of what the directions say on the bottle and your clothes will still come out clean.
Now for a very uncomfortable subject….drying. Before your un screaming, hear me out. I have not used my dryer for at least a month now. I try my best to hang all my clothes out on the line. Hubby has installed two clothes lines for me under our carport and I can fit either 2 loads of laundry from a regular washer (which we had, but no more), or one load from our new front loader. Living in Florida does give me a slight advantage because it gets so stinkin hot, that some days the laundry drys in about 1 hour. However, if it rains, you might as well plan on that laundry taking all day. It’s even been known to take all night too. Tee Hee. We typically do about 1 or 2 loads a day, which makes line drying a very feasible option for us. It saves us about $100.00 a month on our electricity. That’s a $1200.00 saving over the course of one year! Yes, it takes a little bit more time to hang them out, but I think the payoff is well worth it. Keep in mind that taking clothes off the line and folding them is a great way for younger children to help out around the house. If it isn’t their own clothes, I pay my kiddos 25-50 cents to take clothes of the line. What a bargain! Consider also, that when you line dry your clothes, you extend the life of them quite a bit, as drying is very hard on most fabrics. What’s that you say? You hate the way the clothes feel coming off the line? Well, my good friend throws hers in the dryer for about 5 minutes just to soften them up. I used to do that, but the extra step wasn’t worth it to me. Plus, we have found that the clothes soften up after only a few minutes of wear.
When using a dryer for your laundry, many people use dryer sheets or fabric softener. Since we occasionally use the dryer, I do have some dryer sheets around for use especially in the winter, when static cling is a big problem. I have on big box of Bounce (I think), that has lasted me forever. Did you know that you can cut those baby’s in half and they work just as well? I learned that trick from my mother-in-law. Generally speaking, I do not use dryer sheets, unless we are having issues with static cling, simply because of what I stated earlier, the clothes soften up after a few minutes of wear.
One last laundry tip, never iron unless you have to……smile it was a joke!
You know me. I am a dry on the line girl myself…YEAH sunshine. Hello this is the state to save some $$ on laundry right? And just a tip from me. If I have some clothes I know are wrinkle prone ( I have one set of sheets that particularly gets wrinkly) I put about a half cup of baking soda in with the wash water…it REALLY cuts down on wrinklage :)And since I get the honking huge bad of baking soda from Sam’s…it’s still way cheaper than drying ;)
Cyndi
I meant “bag” of baking soda…sorry