On Nostalgia and Living Greener
Nov. 9th, 2008 02:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jenn_unpluggedI get nostalgic in the fall; I'm not sure why. Maybe it's the approaching holidays that remind me of my childhood, or maybe it's the cooler weather that makes me yearn for comfort foods, which in turn reminds me of times gone by. But every fall, I find myself wanting to do things differently, to return to the simple traditions I knew as a child: making jam, canning vegetables, baking, knitting, sewing.
Last night we had fried chicken and collard greens for dinner. How southern is that? :-D I wasn't happy with how my greens turned out, and I am going to work on that. I have some ideas for replicating the unbelievably yummy collards at Stubbs BBQ. Anyway, I also made some cornbread to go with those dishes. I don't have the right sized cast iron killet, but I do have a bunch of mini iron skillets. And so I present: mini-corn pones. :-D
They were yummy too.
Another thing I've been thinking about in the last six months or so is how to cut back on my energy use. It seems like a no-brainer for someone like me, but I'd gotten lazy. I'd stopped thinking about switching off lights or turning up the thermostat. We've been much better about those things since Carter was born.
But one we hadn't thought much about was laundry. We have an HE washer and dryer, and the dryer is natural gas-powered, so we haven't thought much about energy or water use with laundry. We cloth diaper, though, and so that means a few more loads of laundry every week than we would do otherwise. I feel fine about the water use -- what we really need to do is change out our toilets to double-flush ones. But those diapers take a looong time to dry, at least two cycles on high. And geez, that's crazy!
So a couple of weeks ago, I decided to start line drying my diapers. I put some of the natural fiber ones in the dryer for a short cycle to soften them up (they are pretty crunchy otherwise), and then hang them outside, but the fleece pockets and microfiber inserts go straight on the drying rack. Wipes (which I had stupidly been drying and then re-wetting to go back in the warmer!) get folded, wet a little more, and put in the warmer again.
This has benefits other than saving energy, I've found. Sunlight is an amazing disinfectant and bleach. Stains just disappear, like magic. My diapers have smelled a lot cleaner, to my surprise. And there's just something cool about hanging them out to dry.
How did we get so far away from this very green way of drying clothes? Sure, it's great to have a dryer when it's cold and rainy out, or if you live in an apartment or something. But I remember from my time in Europe that people generally didn't use dryers. They wold hang wet clothes to dry on a rack in the bathtub, or on lines on their apartment balconies. Some of my favorite pictures I've taken in Europe are of colorful clothes hanging on the line across narrow streets. When I was in Sweden in December 1993, I stayed with families in apartment buildings who used the communal washing machines in the building's basement -- and then hung their clothes on the communal lines there as well.
When I was a child, I remember everyone had clotheslines, and in the summer they were always full of clothes, sheets, diapers, and towels. People had electric dryers, but only used them when it wasn't sunny out. I have incredibly fond memories of watching my grandmother hang clothes on the line, of playing under them with my sister (we'd pretend the area between hanging sheets was a house), and of the sound of the clothes flapping in the summer breeze. One of my mom's favorite pictures is of my sister standing by the clothesline at the age of 3 or 4, sucking her thumb and holding onto her blankie, which had been wrestled away and washed and was drying on the line. Pictures of clothes drying on the line are almost iconic of summer, and of laundry. The rug in my laundry room has a clothesline depicted on it, in fact.
So what happened? Why don't Americans have clotheslines any more? (Or maybe they do, just not anywhere I've lived.) Since I was 18, I've lived in apartments and communities that all expressly forbid hanging clothes out to dry in public view. The homeowner's association where I now live states clearly in the regulations that residents cannot erect clotheslines -- on their own property. The implication is clearly that hanging clothes to dry is associated with something lower class and undesirable. Yet, this is the way most people in the world, including those in developed nations, dry their clothes. It's the most environmentally responsible way to do it. It's even free!
So why the stigma? It's disturbing. I wonder what would happen if I petitioned my HOA to let me put up a small clothesline? Heh.
Last night we had fried chicken and collard greens for dinner. How southern is that? :-D I wasn't happy with how my greens turned out, and I am going to work on that. I have some ideas for replicating the unbelievably yummy collards at Stubbs BBQ. Anyway, I also made some cornbread to go with those dishes. I don't have the right sized cast iron killet, but I do have a bunch of mini iron skillets. And so I present: mini-corn pones. :-D
They were yummy too.
Another thing I've been thinking about in the last six months or so is how to cut back on my energy use. It seems like a no-brainer for someone like me, but I'd gotten lazy. I'd stopped thinking about switching off lights or turning up the thermostat. We've been much better about those things since Carter was born.
But one we hadn't thought much about was laundry. We have an HE washer and dryer, and the dryer is natural gas-powered, so we haven't thought much about energy or water use with laundry. We cloth diaper, though, and so that means a few more loads of laundry every week than we would do otherwise. I feel fine about the water use -- what we really need to do is change out our toilets to double-flush ones. But those diapers take a looong time to dry, at least two cycles on high. And geez, that's crazy!
So a couple of weeks ago, I decided to start line drying my diapers. I put some of the natural fiber ones in the dryer for a short cycle to soften them up (they are pretty crunchy otherwise), and then hang them outside, but the fleece pockets and microfiber inserts go straight on the drying rack. Wipes (which I had stupidly been drying and then re-wetting to go back in the warmer!) get folded, wet a little more, and put in the warmer again.
This has benefits other than saving energy, I've found. Sunlight is an amazing disinfectant and bleach. Stains just disappear, like magic. My diapers have smelled a lot cleaner, to my surprise. And there's just something cool about hanging them out to dry.
How did we get so far away from this very green way of drying clothes? Sure, it's great to have a dryer when it's cold and rainy out, or if you live in an apartment or something. But I remember from my time in Europe that people generally didn't use dryers. They wold hang wet clothes to dry on a rack in the bathtub, or on lines on their apartment balconies. Some of my favorite pictures I've taken in Europe are of colorful clothes hanging on the line across narrow streets. When I was in Sweden in December 1993, I stayed with families in apartment buildings who used the communal washing machines in the building's basement -- and then hung their clothes on the communal lines there as well.
When I was a child, I remember everyone had clotheslines, and in the summer they were always full of clothes, sheets, diapers, and towels. People had electric dryers, but only used them when it wasn't sunny out. I have incredibly fond memories of watching my grandmother hang clothes on the line, of playing under them with my sister (we'd pretend the area between hanging sheets was a house), and of the sound of the clothes flapping in the summer breeze. One of my mom's favorite pictures is of my sister standing by the clothesline at the age of 3 or 4, sucking her thumb and holding onto her blankie, which had been wrestled away and washed and was drying on the line. Pictures of clothes drying on the line are almost iconic of summer, and of laundry. The rug in my laundry room has a clothesline depicted on it, in fact.
So what happened? Why don't Americans have clotheslines any more? (Or maybe they do, just not anywhere I've lived.) Since I was 18, I've lived in apartments and communities that all expressly forbid hanging clothes out to dry in public view. The homeowner's association where I now live states clearly in the regulations that residents cannot erect clotheslines -- on their own property. The implication is clearly that hanging clothes to dry is associated with something lower class and undesirable. Yet, this is the way most people in the world, including those in developed nations, dry their clothes. It's the most environmentally responsible way to do it. It's even free!
So why the stigma? It's disturbing. I wonder what would happen if I petitioned my HOA to let me put up a small clothesline? Heh.
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no subject
Date: 2008-11-12 03:02 am (UTC)I used to use the sanitary cycle on my washer, in which the water is heated to near boiling. But then I started thinking about the energy use, and I started just washing on the heavy duty cycle with warm and a cold rinse. I didn't see any difference. *shrug*
no subject
Date: 2008-11-13 03:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-14 02:23 am (UTC)I can't wait till we're in Austin, I bet there is a lot of fun stuff at Whole Foods to try for washing!
no subject
Date: 2008-11-14 03:01 pm (UTC)When he outgrows his medium AIOs, I'm not going to replace them. I love the convenience of them, but they are always the first to get smelly. The BG 3.0s are so much easier to take care of! Not to mention that they dry a lot faster...
When you are all settled in here, I hope you can come to a playgroup. It would be great to meet you! :-)