10 Things I Learned From Air-Drying My Undies

To make a long story short, my dryer is broken. It's a simple fix and my husband ordered the part from a local appliance store almost two weeks ago; they said it would come in Friday, but Friday came and went and then they swore it would be in the following Friday. On Thursday, the day before the part was supposed to arrive we ran out of underwear. I swear every single one of us was wearing the last pair and there was not another clean pair to be found anywhere.

At first, I thought I'd go to the laundromat and do ALL the wash in one fell swoop, but I realized the three hours I had available while the boys were in school would not be enough time to get it all done, plus it would be right in the middle of the baby's nap. So I decided to wash a load at home and attempt to hang dry it and if I wasn't successful I'd just take the load to the laundromat and dry it after the hubby got home.

10 Things I learned from Air-Drying My Undies

1. People are hilarious when you send them pictures of your undies hanging up on the line.
Me: Say a little prayer that my undies don't come flying off my makeshift clothesline and into my neighbor's yard.
Husband: Ha! I hope you're wearing your bonnet as you string those up.
Sister -in-law: And viola, now your family has clean underwear. And they call the husband "The Provider."
2. Hanging your wash is a great way to stay in shape! Hahahahaha. When bad things happen around here, this is one of our favorite jokes. You had to to walk the baby all night long because she wouldn't sleep if you put her down? On the bright side, it's a great way to stay in shape! But seriously folks, this is the first time in a while I've hit my 10,000 steps.
3. My washer is huge. When I attempted to line dry everything in the load it amazed me how much fits it my washer. No wonder it takes me a week to fold two loads of laundry.

My sweet in-a-pinch clothesline. I used the ladder to help
with the sag and for extra hanging space. This was ONE load of laundry!

4. Pajamas can be worn twice. Pants can be worn even more times. I've applied the smell test to determine if my jeans are clean since I started doing my own laundry at the tender age of 14, but I've been a little more generous with my kids. Not anymore. You will wear your pants until they look or smell dirty. There is no need for me to do so much unnecessary laundry.
5. We have waaaaaaay more clothing than we actually need. I might have to go all KonMari on everyone's wardrobes this summer.
6. I should really pay more attention to my husband when he tries to teach me one of those fancy boy scout knots. Technically, it's not that I don't pay attention. I just don't retain information anymore unless I use it frequently. And sometimes I still forget things even when it's important, like my kids's names. (I have on more than one occasion called the baby by the dog's name.) The bottom line is, those knots would have been really useful for putting up my clothesline.
7. It didn't take nearly as long as I expected for everything to dry and it didn't feel as stiff.... except for the towels. They took forever and they turned out stiff and scratchy. But most of it was fabulous enough that I plan on putting up a clothesline for summer use. My house gets ridiculously hot in the summer when I use the dryer so it's totally worth it to spend a little extra time harnessing the sun's power.
8. By hanging shirts on the line using hangers I could kill two birds with one stone. Those items could go straight from the line to the closet which made putting stuff away much easier.
9. It smells amazing. Clothes hung on the line really do smell fantastic!
10. My husband was right. He has been trying to get me to iron our sheets for years because they get all wrinkled and folded at the top edge. Clearly he's stark raving mad. I don't even iron his work clothes and hell will freeze over before I have time to iron the sheets. BUT, he did mention recently that the wrinkle problem might improve if we line dried them and HE WAS RIGHT. (Did you hear that honey?) The sheets came out way better on the line and when possible, I will air-dry them from now on.

And now, I'm off to put the fresh sheets on my bed. Happy Monday!