Reduce Energy Consumption; Install a Clothes Line.

Once upon a time our forfolks. (red squiggly suggests forfoks is not a word so. Forfolks: gender nonspecific term for people or folks that came and went before the current generation. (ancestors thats the word (forfolk is more fun))) hung their clothes on a line strung between two points out side in the great out doors during favorable weather or inside during less favorable weather. Then some one made the formech (formech: machines that came before the ones we have now (leaning into this idea) of the clothes dryer we use now. This was long before we understood that our actions could change our planet. Now we know better and have to fix the damage corporations (mostly), ourselves and our forfolks have caused. This is one small, simple step we can take in changing our behavior to hopefully maintain a survivable planet.

Note: life got away from me after I started this instructable, kids are older but just as dirty so the only thing that changed is cost of power.

An electric clothes dryer uses between 2000W and 6000W (Watts) per hour. My dryer runs about 1 hour per load depending on what's in the load at (for argument sake) 4000W. The national average power cost (as of 4/2025) is $0.16/kWh (kilo Watt hour) putting each load of laundry in the dryer at $0.64. We (2 young kids + reusable diapers and 2 adults) do about 5 loads a week that's 260 loads a year. More math $0.64x260=$166.40 per year to run the dryer. Wow thats my whole years bike maintenance budget. Obviously your use may vary, that was more then I thought.

In Kansas we have (due to climate change) about 10 months that we could hang laundry on a outside line about 3/4 of the days. Now lets figure out how much we save if we hang our laundry. (5 loads/week x 4 week/month x 10 months x 3/4) x $0.64 = $96 we can save by line drying.

This instructables is just as good in doors between two walls as it is outside.

The supplies used for our situation.

lets start with line selection. Imaged is a common commercial cloths line, its junk so is the cotton rope and every thing else we tried labeled as "clothes line" in the time from starting this instructables to finish. all of these purpose built lines stretched till the clothes were in the dirt one even snapped.

GET electric fence wire its cheep, galvanized, high tensile wire. Has been trouble free for about 5 years now (I feel like a idiot all my forfolk used fence wire (why didn't I just pay attention) Live and learn).

1. something to mount/ pilot drill holes hooks or eyelets
2. hooks or eyelets (it's recommend at least one hook so the wire can be disconnected and moved as needed.)
3. 1 or 2 pliers
4. a carabiner or other quick release is handy to facilitate moving the wire a quick as needed.
5. fence wire (for real this is the good stuff)

Other things you might need if you don't have 2 buildings to stretch the line between. see the images.

1. post holer (for making post holes)
2. posts (hedge is common in the great plains, steel pipe with concrete base is common as well.)
3. some hardware as needed.

where to put your clothes line? Ideally it will be....

1. sunny
2. have a cross wind or breeze

Yup its that simple.

If your going from building to building you need to mount into the solid structure beneath and not just the siding.

1. Pre drill to prevent the siding splitting when installing the hooks or eyes.
2. Your pliers is a really handy leverage tool to use to turn the hooks and eyes in.

Wire knots are well not sure I can explain this well in text so Video.

1. With your wires end fix it to one hook.
2. Be sure to stretch the wire out with little sag (but some (it doesn't need to be under constant strain)) and be careful of kinks (loops that close on themselves (weakens the wire)) and keeps the clothes off the ground.
3. We used cinching knots at both ends.
4. It's helpful to put a carabiner on one end so you can easily move the wire out of the way if needed.
5. get yourself some clothes pins and start hanging your clothes to dry.

You might be disappointed that your clothes might be stiff coming off the line. Its just the minerals in the water from washing. it will free up quickly when worn. At wind speeds above about 15mph (24kmh) the wind does a pretty good job of loosening the clothes up.

I hope you enjoyed this project and your build goes well. I plan on expanding our outdoor line and will make a post line like in some of the early images and will try to document and update the instructables.