Katherine k.H. Harris folds some of her laundry that has been dried on a clothesline at her home at 916 R.I. Project Laundry List, a New Hampshire-based nonprofit, is encouraging communities to embrace the air-drying of clothes on outdoor lines and drying racks. The organization is celebrating National Hanging Out Day on Saturday.

Katherine “KH” Harris likes the smell and feel of clothes that have been hung to dry outside.

She likes knowing that drying clothes on a line requires no electricity or natural gas and that her clothes last longer when air-dried. She likes all these things so much that she chooses to live without a dryer.

Supporters of Project Laundry List would like to see more folks like Harris, of Lawrence. The New Hampshire-based nonprofit has declared Saturday National Hanging Out Day to educate communities about the benefits of clotheslines and drying racks. With concerns about global warming and an economic recession, more households may be motivated to air-dry laundry.

Back to the clothesline

Harris grew up in a family that used a clothesline, but when she moved out on her own, she lived in apartments with no place for an outdoor clothesline. Later, when she moved to a house with a line in the backyard, she decided to give air-drying a try. Soon she was hooked.

“The more I did it, the more I liked it, and the less I wanted to use a dryer,” she said.

That was 30 years ago. Since then, she has hung her laundry. These days, she does laundry for her household of two, about three or four loads a week. She uses three lines strung between old-fashioned T-poles in her backyard in east Lawrence.

Energy consumption

The U.S. Department of Energy estimates a clothes dryer costs about $75 a year to operate. In Lawrence, where electricity rates are below the national average, it costs about 32 cents to run an electric dryer for one hour. Local coin laundries commonly charge a quarter for eight minutes of time in a large commercial dryer.

There are no Lawrence zoning regulations prohibiting the use of clotheslines, but some neighborhoods may have covenants that regulate or prohibit clotheslines.

Inside and out

Kris Holder has found a way to air-dry her clothes outside and inside. When the weather allows, she strings a line across her back deck. She came up with this method on a hot day last August.

She and her husband and two daughters had recently moved to Lawrence. She was troubled by the fact that she was using a clothes dryer when it was over 100 degrees outside. So she found a clothesline she’d owned for years and tied it on the deck.

“Once I started, I just kept doing it,” she said.

When the weather keeps her from using her outdoor clothesline, Holder hangs laundry throughout the house. She hangs clothes on hangers in the laundry room and on the shower rod. She lays socks on top of the washing machine. It took her a little while to figure out where to put everything, she said, but now she can dry a whole load inside.

Holder said she is primarily motivated to line dry by the desire to conserve energy. She also appreciates the fact that her clothes last longer. And she likes having her 3-year-old daughter help hang and bring in the laundry.

“There’s hardly anything I don’t like about it,” she says.

Seasonal issues

Harris, who hangs her clothes outside year-round, has noticed that each season of clothes drying is a slightly different experience. Spring brings “berry bird poop,” summer brings intensely hot weather and occasional spiders, and fall brings hackberry aphids that sometimes cover her clothes. But these are minor inconveniences to her.

“Always shake your clothes before bringing them in,” she said. She also said she likes the fact that being outside regularly keeps her in touch with the natural world.

Cold days are not a problem, Harris said, as long as it’s sunny. She hangs her clothes out even when the weather is below freezing and enjoys seeing her jeans steaming on the line. Her clothes freeze outside, she says, but they finish drying quickly when she brings them back into the dry indoor air.

Long stretches of damp days cause Harris the most inconvenience. She plans her laundry days around the weather, but when the weather doesn’t cooperate, she hangs her laundry inside on hangers and by clothespins.

‘It’s that simple’

Both Harris and Holder would like to see more people “hanging out.”

“Just jump in and try it,” Harris said. “You hang your clothes on the line. If it rains you take them down. It’s that simple.”