As you begin to enjoy the longer, warmer days of spring, you might consider hanging your sheets outside to dry. Line drying offers some real advantages, if you’re willing.
1. Reasons to Line Dry Your Linens
- Sunlight is a natural sanitizing and bleaching agent
- Hanging sheets outside on a clothesline uses no additional energy
- Line drying is kinder to your linens, causing less wear and tear than the conventional dryer
- Line-drying keeps moisture outdoors
- Hanging sheets after washing can result in fewer wrinkles than if they'd been left sitting in the dryer
- You get to enjoy the scent of the outdoors without the artificial fragrance of dryer sheets
- You can consider hanging out and collecting the dried sheets as part of your daily exercise
2. How to Line Dry Your Sheets
Step 1: Find a secure and suitable place to dry your just-washed sheets. Some places do not allow residents to hang clothes outdoors. Although, we do not encourage breaking local laws, we suggest secluded space on your porch, deck, or in your backyard.
Step 2: Setup the clothesline itself. We suggest you purchase highly durable cording without any added color that could transfer to your sheets from your local hardware store. While you might find something called a “clothes horse,” a folding rack from which smaller clothes and pillowcases can hang, a clothesline is much better suited for sheets.
Step 3: Purchase a set of clothespins. These are the wooden clips shaped like prongs used to secure the sheets to the clothesline. Keep in mind you will likely need at least 8-10 clothespins to hold queen or king-size sheets in place on the clothesline.
Step 4: Plan to hang the sheets outside on a nice summer day. The best drying weather is sunny, warm, and dry with a moderate breeze. A nice summer breeze will dry the sheets while the breeze will “iron out” the wrinkles.
Step 5: Placement is important. Place the sheets on the clothesline so approximately one-third of the piece hangs over the clothesline and clip the sheets in place. Check and make sure the linens are drying out evenly. If not, flip the sheets the opposite way over the line. When you're hanging the sheets, you have the chance to smooth any decorative hems or embroidery so they don't curl.
Step 6: Put the fresh sheets right back on the bed. Make sure the linens are fully dry, unclip them, fold them, and refit them on the bed. Freshly-dried sheets will help bring the fresh air and sun of the outdoors into the sanctuary of your bedroom.
3. What You Want to Keep Drying in the Dryer
Although line drying sheets on a beautiful spring day has a lot of positives, when it comes to our down comforters and down and feather pillows, we continue to recommend machine drying. Down and feather products require thorough drying to avoid mold or mildew. Drying in a machine with dryer balls or clean tennis balls also helps to open and distribute the down and feathers within the fabric ticking. In fact, we recommend occasionally placing your down and feather pillows in the dryer with dryer balls on the lowest heat setting for 3-5 minutes to fluff them up. You’ll also want to continue drying your towels in the dryer. That keeps them nice and fluffy.
Enjoy every moment of spring.
-Team at down etc
Read more:
Everything You Need to Know About Choosing and Caring for Your Sheets
Do You Need to Cleanup Your Bed for Better Sleep?
About down etc
For over twenty years, down etc has worked with hoteliers and professional housekeepers in hotels around the world to manufacture and provide pillows and bedding that will offer hotel guests memorably great sleep. Through our retail website, we seek to provide products that will result in the same quality sleep for our customers at home. We believe in the restorative power of a great night’s sleep, whether at home or away. That’s the reason down etc wrote the book on it, Roll Into a Perfectly Made Bed: All You Need to Know About the Art of Bedmaking.
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