We've line-dried our clothes to some degree for several years.  In Michigan, we didn't do it year-round because I was a bit scared of setting up a line inside.  Would it be too heavy?  Would the clothes drip on my floor?  I just didn't want to deal with it.

Fast forward to Vegas.  It's summer.  A HOT summer.  I hear tales of clothes drying with lightening speed here in the hottest parts of summer.  But there's also the wind.  And the sand.  Lots and lots of sand.  Combine the wind with the sand and you have once-clean clothes that are now nicely dried...with sand on them.  Add to that combo your friendly, neighborhood HOA (that's Homeowners Association for those of you blessed to NOT live in an area that has one) and you have a recipe for fines.  Lots and lots of fines.  Almost more fines than the sand on your clothes after you've dried them on a windy day.

But I want to line dry!!!  (Insert toddler-like whining here. WAAAAHHHH)

Okay.  I'm done.  Thank you for indulging me.

So is it a lost cause?  Nope!  Of course not!  You can spend bukus (is that even a real word?) of money on fancy gadgets.  They have freestanding wooden drying racks, wooden drying racks that fit over your tub or in your tub, and drying racks that will attach to a wall or door and fold up when you're done using them.  There are also retractable lines which are great for garage or basement areas, but few of us want a retractable lines in our main living areas and adding them to a typical bathroom won't yield you much more space than a shower rod.  So why not just use a shower rod?  Or several?

I stood at a garage sale one Saturday morning and had one of those "DUH!  Why didn't I think of that before?!" moments.  In front of me were 2 shower rods for 50 cents each.  We have a bathroom with a tub that only gets used to bathe the dogs or by guests.  (I promise we clean it before you come visit, Nana.  Really we do. WHAT!?!  Stop looking at me that way!)  So that bathtub became our inside drying rack.

I liked it so much with 2 rods to dry that I added 2 more.  And then I added 4 to our main shower (just a shower) as well.  That gives us 8 rods in the bathroom if we don't also use the rod the shower curtains are hanging on.

A benefit to using your shower to dry is that if you have someone coming over, you just shut the shower curtain and the clothes are hidden.  You don't have wooden things all over the house or a line going across your entire bathroom forcing your guests to walk under your drying clothes to utilize the facilities.  Plus, you can dry year-round this way!

I do still occasionally put some items outside on one of our wooden racks.  It's not a permanent drying rack and isn't usually out for more than an hour...a couple at the most...so it's allowed.  I do this with white items that I want the sun to naturally bleach for me.

Why line dry?  Besides the obvious energy savings from not using your dryer, your clothes will last longer.  Think about it; you don't have to remove lint from your drying line or rod like you do from a rod.  What is that lint?  The fibers from your clothes that have been broken down by the dryer.
 
If you don't line-dry, why not?  Is there something keeping you from doing so? 

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