Those of you who line-dry your dipes....

[Judegirl]

...could you help a city girl out? Dh rigged me a clothesline on our concrete patio (yep, looks pretty!) so I can line-dry some of our stuff, but I have some questions...I've *never* known someone who did this, lol.

1 - What dipes do/don't you line dry? Do you hang hemp dipes? Some of my things (Loveybums, Benjamuffins, Cricketts) take 2 or 3 cycles on high in the dryer to dry. Should I hang those? Won't they take days? Won't they stink by then?

2 - Can I leave stuff out overnight (assuming no rain?) I rarely have a chance to do wash until after dd goes to bed, which means I hang things at 7pm. Am I nuts to do this at all, in this case?

3 - How do you keep them soft? When I hang clothes on my drying rack (indoors) instead of machine-drying, they're pretty stiff. Won't that happen with line-drying? Stiff hemp is really rough. :(

Thank you!

Jude

[MMEand1]

Sorry I won't be much help, but it's funny you posted this because I was wondering the same thing about stiffness! I live on a military base and do not have a clothesline, so I thought I could use my fence to hang diapers on! I have done it twice and granted, the sun has bleached them so that there are no stains visable, but they are really stiff!

I hope someone here has better advice as I am a novice to line drying as well!
Good Luck!!
Mariah P

[toomanystrollers]

I put EVERYTHING on the clothesline & on a hot summer day, my dipes dry faster than using dryer! To soften them up, you can throw them in the fluff cycle for 10 mins.
I have hung them out the night before and just leave them. The other big plus - the sun cooks out any stink. Our dipes always smell so nice during the clothesline season.

HTH

[mudder17]

I actually put my diapers through one cycle of the dryer and then stick them on the drying rack. During the winter and bad weather, the drying rack is inside. During the warm weather, the rack is outside. As Pam says, if you need to soften them, fluff them in the dryer for 10 minutes.


Eileen

Mother of Beautiful Kaya, www.chemicalgraphics.com/kaya
http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/candle.gif

http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_gold_12m.gif , 15 months & counting
Kaya's cousin, due October 9th!!!

[houseof3boys]

Ditto! I have been amazed at the power of the sun for stains and stinkies lately. :)

[aliceinwonderland]

I didn't have a drier in Philly till my parents took pity and bought us one(I just didn't think it neccesary but laundry was PILING!), but we have a large kitchen with a padio outside, so I had one of the standing drying racks which was in the kitchen in the winter on the days I did not cook, and outside on the patio on the nice days. The clothes definately needed ironing though...You're only doing dipes, so I guess no need for that.

[nohomama]

1. I dry all my diapers on the line. The summer sun does an incredibly good job of drying things quickly, bleaching out stains, and killing stink bugs.

2. You can leave stuff out overnight but it won't dry much. Also, if you're ocassionally lazy like me and leave dry stuff on the line overnight, it will be damp in the morning. Think dew on the grass.

3. The most effective way I've found to soften diapers up after they've dried on the line is to throw them in the dryer for 15 minutes with a wet, wrung-out rag. A microfiber towel works particularly well for this purpose.

[niccig]

I want to hang dipes out in the sun, but I live in LA = smog. Anythng that is left outside gets a fine layer of black soot, and I think I would have to wash the dipes again. I suppose I could try it for an hour to see - 1 hour in the midday sun would dry anything!

[Judegirl]

Thanks, everyone, for the info. Since I'm hanging them to avoid putting more money into the dryer, I guess I'm out of luck as far as soft diapers go, unless I manage to time it so I can throw them in with other stuff...but good to know that that would work!

Jude

[Judegirl]

Thanks, everyone, for the info. Since I'm hanging them to avoid putting more money into the dryer, I guess I'm out of luck as far as soft diapers go, unless I manage to time it so I can throw them in with other stuff...but good to know that that would work!

Jude