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Hand Sewn Clothespin Bags[/caption]
The problem is that I live in Ireland. Even when the sun shines in winter, there is always a fair amount of humidity in the air; laundry never completely dries except on the very driest and sunniest of summer days. Irish cynics would say that you could count those on one hand. That's not completely true, but in a very dreary summer they would not be far off the mark.
I do not know what housewives did before tumble dryers. I guess they slaved over the ironing board to dry every stitch of laundry done - by hand in those days. Without the tumble dryer you run the risk of slipping on clean clothing that is ever-so-slightly clammy.
Housewives of the past would also have had a 'clothes maid' to hang over the kitchen range to dry laundry. But you need a high ceiling to make the most of that option. We had a very high ceiling in our kitchen when we lived in a terraced house in Leeds, West Yorkshire. It worked dandily and I didn't have need of resorting to a tumble dryer.
But our current home is a cottage with low ceilings, and space is really at a premium. This presents all sorts of challenges. With a conventional clothes drying rack that sits on the floor in front of the wood stove, we always run the risk of tripping over each other or stepping on the kitten. Said kitten also thinks it is a great game to pull the clothes off the dryer onto the floor. I am still looking for a glove that is obviously a favoured toy.
Today though, I turned to Lehman's for an ecologically sound solution.
[caption id="attachment_41212" align="alignright" width="300"]
Favorite Eight Arm Wall Clothes Dryer[/caption]
On Lehmans.com, I found a rack that can be bolted into a corner of my kitchen where I can hang clothes to dry when the airing cupboard (or hot press as it is called in Ireland) is full and the weather if abysmal. It is made by Amish crafts-persons and strikes me as a simple liver's solution to a practical dilemma.
Not only will it help me reduce my electricity consumption, it also supports craftspeople. They may not live locally to me, but then online is a pretty green way of shopping. I'm not hopping in my car and doing a fifty mile round trip to my nearest big shopping centre, where they would never have heard of this wonderful invention anyway.
As for the CO2 expended in shipping, my own low impact - no impact solution is to plant trees. When we run out of space here in Corrogue, our townland that in Irish is 'the place of the briars', then my friend Beryl in Ballina is eager to forest some of her seven acres with Irish native species.
No matter what issue presents itself for consideration in the Low Impact - No Impact way of living, it always seems to come round to planting more trees!
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