Reducing My Carbon Footprint, Part I

I have been actively trying to reduce my carbon footprint. Not because I am a "green" person, just because I am cheap and reducing my carbon footprint happens to be a by product of my cheapness. I did not realize that this was what I was doing, when I set out to cut corners at the beginning of summer, but there it is - a reduction of my carbon footprint.

For starters, I try to use my electric dryer as little as possible. Since the start of summer, I have used my dryer twice - both times when my daughters were back from Durango. I had to squeeze my load of wash between there loads of wash (typical college student mentality), and since we were constantly on the go, it was easier to throw the load into the dryer instead of hanging it on my drying rack.

I like the feel of air dried laundry. It takes me back, somewhat, to my childhood, growing up on the beautiful island of Kaua'i in Hawai'i. We did not own a dryer, and to this day, my Mom still does not own a dryer. We hung wet laundry either on the clothesline out behind the house or on the clothesline in the carport (no garage). There was a methodology to the way we hung our laundry to dry. Smallest to largest, everything pulled tight, no clothespins left on the line (they went into a bag that was brought into the carport when not in use outside, otherwise the wood had a tendency to rot and turn black, transferring to the laundry), and fine unmentionables (underwear) was never hung on the first line - always behind some towels or other items of laundry so as not to be seen from the front.

At the time, I chafed at the rules of hanging laundry, but when I return to Kaua'i, I fall into the same pattern, whether it is at my Mom's house, my hanai sister's house, or my cousin's house. I hang my laundry according to my Mom's methodology.

When I first considered not using my electric dryer, I thought I would hang a clothesline in my backyard. This was not a viable option for two reasons. The first reason, is that logistically, I could not rig a clothesline in my backyard by myself. I hate asking my boyfriend for help all the time, and since I was being cheap, I did not want to spend money on hiring someone to do it for me.

The second, and more important reason, is that I live in a walkout house with my laundry room on the second floor. While this is an optimum setup to have the laundry room on the same level as the bedrooms, the thought of hauling wet clothing down two flights of stairs was not something I could see myself doing. After all, not only am I cheap, but I also tend to be lazy. I knew I needed to have a plan in place that would carry me through the long haul, not just a week or two and then I would grow weary of it. So, I hang my laundry inside my house.

Fortunately for me, I have a reasonable sized laundry room where I can hang my laundry on hangers and hang them from one of two wire shelves. I also have a drying rack that works very well for my fine unmentionables, shorts, socks, and towels. Since this is Colorado, where it is usually pretty arid (humidity today is at 50%), I can wash my laundry at my leisure and in a few hours, they are dry. It also helps that I am a single person household - I don't have a ton of laundry to wash and figure out where to hang.

So, in an attempt to save money, I managed to reduce my carbon footprint by a little bit. In my cheapness, I have done other things that ended up reducing my carbon footprint even further, but that is a blog for another time.