Girls in a Cornell dorm were dubbed, the “Sisterhood of the Air Dried Pants,” for using drying racks to air-dry their Levi’s Jeans
When I lived in my Cornell dorm, I used a drying rack for my jeans and delicate fabrics. Seemed like a no-brainer to me. I didn’t have to worry about my clothes shrinking or unraveling in the dryer. My clothes look new longer. I used less electricity, and saved around $70 each semester.
I quickly discovered I wasn’t alone. I noticed other like-minded women in my dorm had drying racks of their own. When the guys made fun of us – and said our crazy metal drying racks looked like they came from a Transformers film, we joined together informally and dubbed ourselves “The Sisterhood of the Air-dried Pants.” Looks like we were on to something…
Levi’s Care Instructions for the Planet
If you take a peek inside many new Levi’s jeans these days you will find a “Care Tag for the Planet.” Introduced in January 2010, these tags are designed to educate consumers about responsible clothing care. And just in time.
Levi’s partnered with Goodwill and created a tag for how to best take care of their jeans.
A study done by Levi Strauss on their 501 jeans revealed that manufacturing and ultimately washing a pair of these jeans: produces 32 kg of CO2 during its lifetime (the equivalent of driving 78 miles in an average car); consumes 3,000 liters of water (the equivalent of taking a 7- minute shower every day for almost two months); and consumes 400 mega-joules of energy (enough to power a personal computer for 556 hours, or more than three months for six hours a day).
So, the Care Tag recommends that jeans be washed in cold water, line dried, and donated to Goodwill. (Levi Straus found that each year, 23.8 billion pounds of unwanted clothing ends up in landfills.)
Inspiring a New Generation of Air Driers
We Sisters of the Air-Dried Pants didn’t realize we might be starting a trend. With Levi’s setting a model for other clothing brands to follow, will window displays of jeans draped across drying racks be far behind?
How do you dry your jeans? Do you have a drying rack? What’s your experience?
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Wow, I can’t beleive you were able to quantify $$ savings from this! I hope this mission expands beyond jeans to many other items. Congratulations on your success.
Hi Ilene-
I saved $$ by using a drying rack for all different types of clothing, not just jeans. I air dried items ranging from winter coats to towels!
Denim jean experts recommend caring for expensive jeans by washing them as little as possible, then washing separately on the gentle cycle inside out and air drying them. Anyone who buys $300 jeans and just throws them in a top load agitator washer and then a dryer has money to burn. The advice is good for other clothes:
Pay attention to any special wash and care instructions that may be listed on the tags.
Turn jeans inside out prior to washing to reduce fading.
Wash in cold water. New detergents are formulated for cold, and you don’t wear your designer jeans to mine coal.
Use a mild detergent.
Wash separately.
Avoid the dryer. Let jeans air dry.
This all keeps the color variations in the jeans intact and reduces friction and wear. Also, investing in a whole house water filter, and I mean a big 5 foot high sucker, will remove chlorine, which also is a clothes – and denim – killer. And For G-d’s sake, if you don’t have a front load washer get one. Not only is it gentler on your clothes, you’ll save a lot of water.
Drying racks are actually banned at the college I’m at in Ireland this semester. They say the moisture in the air creates a fire hazard in the dorms.
Hi Michael!
The commercial washers and dryers can be too harsh on most clothes. If a drying rack is not permitted in your dorm try using clothing hangers for special items like dress shirts. I have never heard of a drying rack being banned due to humidity?
If anything a drying rack is less of a fire hazard compared to using a drying machine! Laundry can take around 2 hours for wash and dry. For people who have errands to do they can unload clothing from the washer and leave them on a drying rack since it isn’t very safe to leave appliances on when no one is present.
Enjoy your travels in Ireland and Ithaca!
-Melissa
great idea! that’s all so interesting about the new levi tags! this article really got me thinking! thanks!
Hi Stacey-
I found this on a college website and I think this explains the fire hazard:
No drying racks are permitted in residential area hallways. Students who would like to use drying racks must keep them in their rooms or apartments. In the event of an emergency that requires students and staff to vacate the buildings the hallways must be free of all obstacles.
hi..can you please explain a little bit more how the moisture in the air creates a fire hazard? thanks!
Re drying racks creating a fire hazard in a dorm or apartment: I was imagining hanging a full load of wash (including sheets, towels, clothing) on racks, doorknobs and furniture all over the house (not a pretty picture). It suddenly occurred to me that the risk of fire that caused the dormitory ban is probably not due to humidity, but to having flammable fabric hanging where sparks from cigarettes, candles, stove/hotplate, fireplaces, electrical appliances, etc. might cause them to catch fire. Just a guess…
Hi Frederica-
You have a good point. I also found this on a college website and I think drying racks have the potential to block hallways during a fire drill or emergency.
I found this on a college website and I think this explains the fire hazard:
No drying racks are permitted in residential area hallways. Students who would like to use drying racks must keep them in their rooms or apartments. In the event of an emergency that requires students and staff to vacate the buildings the hallways must be free of all obstacles.
Interesting! While studying abroad in Australia, I found on move-in day that a drying rack came with an empty room as if it were an essential item like a bed or a dresser. When I asked one of my flatmates why it was in my room, she seemed surprised and informed me that everyone had one. This was quite a relief after initially learning that there were 5 dryers for about 20 washers in the student complex. I did save a lot of money using the drying racks in my room and I saved myself from worrying about leaving my clothes in a place that people were constantly in and out of.
Hi everyone,
I air dry a many clothes, outside and inside on clothlines, depending on the weather. Recently I got a dryer which mounts on the wall. Wooden and it folds out from the wall and back in when not in use. I saw one at friend’s beach cottage and then found mine cheap at a flea market.
I have it mounted on the wall over the bathtub. This is the product.
Best wishes,
Mike
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=wall+mounted+wooden+clothes+dryer&view=detail&id=0FD6D948046D41F81D53E5332B47A6457B0F5AE8&first=1
I usually dry my jeans in the dryer. I find that air drying them sometimes leaves the denim very stiff but that problem is solved once I wear the jeans for a few hours. I have a drying rack at home but not in college. I might get one though–saving $$ never hurts.
Hi Amber!
When the jeans become stiff put them on a hanger and bring them into the bathroom while showering. The moisture makes them a bit softer. Dress shirts, sweaters, and jeans either shrink or get misshapen by campus dryers. Is it better to have stiff jeans for a few hours or misshapen clothing? With the extra money you save you can splurge on something delicious from CTB!
I have found a great solution to this problem of the “stiff air dried jeans.” I put them in the dryer for about 5 minutes and then air dry them on the rack. They are not stiff or wrinkled when they dry!
Loved this! I would have to consider myself part of your “sisterhood” — have been air-drying for years!! It’s not just jeans either. I air dry just about everything – nary a spare doorknob, door jam, shower curtain bar to be found after laundry. And I love my little drying racks too! Clothes really do stay looking new longer and NO IRONING necessary! It’s such a win win on so many levels. I don’t think people realize that those big globs of lint the size of small furry animals is actually your clothes!!
Did not know about the Levi’s tag – that’s awesome!
Dear Barbara-
The leftover lint is such a waste! Fast fashion frocks and heavy towels waste away in dryers.
Have you ever heard of using the freezer as part of your laundry ritual? A lady from a small jean company told me she puts her jeans in the freezer in between washes to erase odor.
I have never attempted this, have you?
-Melissa
Save your lint and use it for fireplace kindling or if you go camping; it is an excellent survival material for that. Then you also won’t have to carry a fire bundle like a cavewoman.
Mark, thanks for the tip! Can leftover lint be used for bbq fires as well?
Yes
What ever happened to wringers? When I was a kid and did the laundry for my mom, I used to put all the clothes in an electric wringer before they went into the dryer. Required less drying for the clothes, which ultimately saved the clothes, money, and time hanging around waiting for the clothes to dry.
Hi Jacquie,
I guessing the improvements in the spin cycle may have replaced the wringers. Out of curiosity, never having seen an electric wringer, what did you do about the buttons? Were the wringer parts made of something hard, like wood or softer which wouldn’t hurt the buttons… like rubber?
Mike
In think you’re right…improvements in the spin cycle may have replaced wringers. The kind I’m talking about is not the kind at the beach that you squeeze your bathing suit through (yes, that could macerate buttons!), but a big ole metal tub with holes throughout it (much like a clothes washer tub itself) that would spin (electrically) and wring out all excess water.
I don’t wear jeans, though my towels and bathroom rug are always pretty heavy when I take them out of the washing machine. Perhaps rather than spinning such things further (including jeans) we should all get into the habit of simply leaving them in the clothes washer for a while — and let gravity do its thing!
They are called extractors. Used to be found in laundromats. You paid an extra dime and put your clothes in a separate high speed drum. Now, extractors still exist but are combined with washers and are available in commercial laundry equipment. For home use, get a high rpm spin cycle washer, but make sure you know the difference between high speed and 1200 or 1600 rpms like you find on a Miele.
Yes, yes, an extractor. That’s what I meant. Still I use a commercial washer in my apartment building — and those towels and rugs are still really wet!
Maybe we should all chip in and get a Miele or two down there.
Hey, I’ve had girlfriends I couldn’t get rid of because they didn’t want to give up washing their clothes here!
A good washing machine has high rpm’s and is in effect a wringer. My Miele, which is considered a 20-year appliance, spins up to 1600 rpm’s. So fast if it had a propeller attached to it, it would fly.
I just wanted to let you know there is a spinner available for home use called the Spin-X. I have one in my apartment and I LOVE it. The water comes out the side into whatever container/bowl you put down, so it doesn’t require any plumbing. I live in an apartment with an older washer in the laundry room, and I spin my clothes before (sometimes instead) of drying, and depending on what I washed, I can get 1-2 quarts of water out of a load. I can dry two loads of spun laundry on one dryer payment (15 minutes X 3) The other thing is it is great for spinning hand wash items – after spinning even a sweater is dry enough that I can let it dry spread out on the bed without it getting the bed wet. It wasn’t inexpenseve, and I don’t know if I’ve gotten my money back yet, but it was a necessity given the washer I was using, and it has many side benefits – for hand washing, and for getting the soap out of your clothes. My clothes come out of the dryer noticeably softer than when I let them dry without spinning.
Greetings,
I’ve heard of putting the jeans in the freezer.
Very refreshing on a hot day!…. kidding.
I think the jeans were put in the freezer wet and the freezing softened the fabric. Could be wrong about that.
Mike
I love air drying alone for the good and clean smell in the apartment!
I’m not quite willing to give up the convenience and speed of my gas dryer and string clotheslines in the basement (which I remember from my childhood). I’m afraid I’d just have to run the dehumidifier longer. We bought a dryer with energy efficient settings–it turns off when it senses that the clothes are dry. For some loads, I just dry them part-way, and hang them up for the rest of the ride. That’s a compromise that reduces energy use but also reduces wrinkles and keeps the jeans soft.
So glad to find like-minded clothes-drying wastehaters! I happen to hate dryers: they wear clothes out sooner, they shrink them, they burn lots of electricity, etc. I always hung laundry outdoors or on racks in the laundry room. I now live in a Florida development where God forbid you should display a clothes line! So I use a magnificent IKEA rack in the garage. These racks are large enough to accommodate bedsheets and rugs. They’re worth a trip to your nearest IKEA!
I’m a recent drying rack convert, myself. Until I spent last year living in Taiwan and Australia, I had no idea that tossing your wet laundry into the dryer wasn’t the logical next step in the laundry process.
In Taiwan, I don’t think I heard of anyone even owning a dryer. Clothes drying on a rack outside (or in your bedroom if, like me, you had a roommate and space issues) was a common sight – most apartments came pre-equipped with drying racks.
It was while I was in Australia, actually, that using a drying rack became the more natural thing. The family I stayed with owned a dryer, but rarely used it. In fact, they looked at me like I had five heads when I asked whether to use it. “Why? The clothes are drying just fine on the rack, aren’t they?” they said.
Since I returned to the States, I haven’t really gone back to my former dryer-using ways. It’s a reminder of the time I spent in another country, not to mention a good energy-saving thing to do.
Excellent value, great to see someone champion the cause, showing the problem and providing a resolution.
Melissa, Fabulous idea, so well thought out and presented. I’m recommending you to a friend of mine that might have an opportunity. To all excellent site and I wish you all the best.
Using a drying rack or clothes line rather than a drying machine, which consumes large amounts of energy and shortens the life-cycle of clothing, is a simple way to decrease one’s ecological footprint and save money. The Sisterhood of the Air Drying Pants understood these benefits, but most people are not yet as wise or conscious as you Cornell girls. As Melissa explains, air drying clothing seems like a win, win situation for consumers and the environment. If the benefits of air drying are so evident, why isn’t it a practice that is gaining momentum amongst the increasingly green, mainstream, consumers? One easy answer is that it takes a lot longer to air dry clothing, and in today’s day and age consumers want to maximize time efficiency in everything they do. But realistically, who is taking their clothing directly out of the dryer and wearing it? Sure, it feels great to put on a freshly dried, warm sweater or pair of pajamas, but that feelings disappears after five minutes. Dryers save time in theory, but if one plans their air drying this benefit disappears.
Another reason consumers are resisting using a drying rack or clothing line is because in a world where technology dominates, it seems backwards to revert to the olden days of air drying. Consumers love to be able to claim being green when it means that they are using advancements in technology or supporting sustainable businesses, but air drying clothing does neither of these. In fact, air drying clothing prevents consumers from buying an ENERGYSTAR rated dryer, which allows them to feel good about their purchase and keep up with technology. It is great that consumers are purchasing eco-friendly dryers, but what if ENERGYSTAR stopped rating energy consuming products that could easily be eliminated from our daily lives, and recommended completely waste free alternatives such as air drying? The key to recruiting more consumers into the Sisterhood is convincing them that there are real benefits to air drying, and thus eliminating the notion that dryers are necessary. Initiatives like Levi’s “Care Tag for the Planet” are key drivers of this change, and I expect that many clothing companies will begin to follow suit in attempts to green their brand image.
I was fortunate enough to spend a semester studying in Barcelona, Spain. To my initial dismay my apartment only had a washing machine, no dryer. After frantically questioning my peers about their dryer situation I found that no one in Barcelona had a dryer. In fact, none of my friends studying abroad anywhere in Europe had a dryer; whether they were in a home-stay in Italy, or in an apartment in Copenhagen. The fact that air drying clothing is the norm in Europe speaks directly to the differences between European and American cultures of consumption, especially the American consumption of energy. Europeans do not have dryers because they do not need them to function, and they are more aware of their energy consumption. Americans on the other hand do own dryers because they save time and are contemporary. It will take a combination of consumer education, by clothing companies like Levis and blog posts like this, an increase in energy costs, and most importantly a cost (time saved using dryer) versus benefit (save money on energy, decrease environmental impact, longer life cycle for clothing) analysis that proves air drying clothes will ultimately benefit the consumer. There is no reason Americans should no be air drying clothes, because there are clear tangible benefits. Since returning home from Barcelona I am proud to say that I air dry my clothing and have persuaded my family to do so too.
I’m loving this discussion. So many good issues raised. There really does seem conflict between the benefits of air drying and actually doing it. Of course, one needs the space, humidity can’t be a problem, and one doesn’t want to look old-fashioned.
It struck me when buying a drying rack with my niece for her own dorm room this fall, that drying racks haven’t improved in design in decades! I wonder if they were available in interesting colors, or if they could fold into even smaller configurations so they would be easier to store, for example, would younger people start to use them?
One more idea, I really loved the design, mounted against the wall, that Mike uses. Wouldn’t it be great if all dorm rooms came with a drying rack mounted right on the wall?
Again, check out the IKEA online catalog under “drying racks” (it takes a bit of navigating to get there!). My beautiful 15-year-old rack is still available: “Frost” at about $19, plus I believe $10 shipping charges. It’s an upstairs-downstairs configuration, a really clever design. When fully open, yes, it does take up space, but you can open it only half way. It’s collapsible for storage. There are several other models, all very reasonable and practical. I was introduced to IKEA in Europe and have been a fan ever since.
I went to school in Scotland where, despite the cold and rainy climate, inside and outside drying racks far outnumbered electric dryers. This was a big adjustment coming from my previous life in New York apartments and their basement full of dryers, but I got used to it. Now, back in New York, I air dry as much as possible, and sit on my bed just swimming in all the quarters I save.
Mike’s discussion about wall-mounted drying racks reminded me of a great Scottish tool that I noticed while I went to college there. Most of the older houses that I visited or lived in had ceiling mounted drying racks, operated by pulleys and rope. This is the basic idea: http://www.houzz.com/photos/178679/Ceiling-Clothes-Dryer-traditional-dryer-racks- . They were completely unobtrusive when not in use, and extremely practical. My Scottish friends became freaked out by how much I liked them.
Don’t forget air-drying is also an especially good idea for underwear. It takes almost no time to air-dry and its what we wash the most!
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Hi Melissa,
Thanks for sharing. You are definitely not on your own! As a recent college graduate I can confirm that many students (including me) still bring drying racks to campus. There are various reasons for this. Some realize that air drying is better for the environment, some choose not to spend their money on using the dryers (or simply do not have quarters at hand to do so-especially on a Sunday where there aren’t enough dryers to go around) and some use them specifically to dry delicates as previously mentioned.
Your mention of Levi’s Care Tag also made me think of the washer and dryers at Gettysburg College (where I graduated from) that have an eco setting that makes it easy to save the most energy and water without having to think about it. I checked out the company that Gettysburg College uses (and I’m sure other college and universities use as well) and they calculate how much water their machines have saved.
http://laundryview.com/earth_day.php
Your post also resonated with me because of the experience that I had studying abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark my junior year. I lived with a host family in the Copenhagen suburbs for 5 months. When my host mom was showing me around the house on my first day she showed me the laundry area in the home and I was surprised to see that they did not own a dryer. She informed me that many homes in Denmark do not have dryers because they use too much energy and are too expensive. I have to say that it was very easy to adjust to not using a dryer.
If only I knew of the Sisterhood when I was at Cornell for Earth and Atmospheric Sciences! I too, attended Cornell and I too, air dried all of my clothing. When I first started college, I was not as environmentally aware as I should have been and my angst for the clothes dryers stemmed from their lack of ability to dry clothes! I hated wasting money, energy, and time trying to use the dryers, so I started to hang my clothing on hangers and display my laundry on every inch of space I had while it dried. It then became a ritual for me not to use the clothes dryers, even when they were fixed, because I realized how unnecessary they were! I would swing open my windows and proudly show my clothing hanging, colorfully decorating my walls and windows. My clothing dried faster, it lasted longer, and I felt a sense of social and environmental responsibility since I was saving energy by not using the machines that prevent nature from doing my drying work, for free!
Cornell was a great place for me to gain sustainability awareness. My majors’ classes taught me other ways to live a sustainable life, as well. We had recycling bins in every room, we were urged to reuse as much of our note paper as possible for scrap, and as a campus, we tried to decrease our carbon footprint by turning off lights and walking to classes (trust me, try to park on campus without a permit for a peripheral lot, and you’d regret it!). We even generated our own power from Cayuga lake. So, Melissa Young, do you take honorary members to the sisterhood?
I actually started line drying my jeans because my college roommate turned me onto it. She was very adamant that her weekly obstruction of space in our dorm room to air dry all of her clothes not only saves water and energy, but also increases the life of a pair of jeans. Before then, I had always just thrown all of my clothes right into the adjacent dryer and never have it too much thought, though I was well aware of the cost of electricity during peak hours. With her encouragement, I started taking the time to air dry my laundry as well (on different days of course). I have noticed that it is well worth the effort and that it really does increase the life of my jeans because they are no longer subject to a weekly high heat treatment. The quantity of water used and carbon dioxide emitted over a pair of jeans’ lifetime provided by Levi Strauss is incredibly insightful and reinforces the benefits of air drying. It may take a little longer than throwing everything in the dryer but during the hot northeast summers, air drying can be just as fast.
This is kind of nuts to me. After living in Ireland and England for six years I was like really uncomfortable with how many people in America have no idea about drying racks. I hardly knew anyone in my social circle in London that owned or used a dryer. When I moved back to the states I literally looked all over for a decent drying rack, and the only place I even found one that would hold a decent load of laundry was Ikea. I love it, its literally big enough to fit an entire load of laundry on and folds up easy enough. Im not sure what the obsession with clothing dryers is here. Is it that important to have your clothes dry within an hour of washing them?
I still remember the extractor from the laundry room in my childhood apartment building! I replicate this functionality by putting my towels through an extra spin cycle on the washer (just turn the knob around until it’s on spin again). Extremely valuable on heavy towels – you can tell by the weight difference when you take them out.
I’ve recently gotten one of those retractable clotheslines like you find in the tub in hotels. When you aren’t using it, it just retracts into its little box on the wall. Great for those large things that won’t fit on the drying rack.
I had a similar experience with the benefits of air drying my clothes when I studied abroad in England. Nearly all of my flat mates air dried their laundry because it was simply not worth the extra money to use the dryers (which were incredibly inefficient). I had to get a little resourceful in my room because I didn’t want to purchase a drying rack for my 3 month stay in the dorm. A few of my American friends and I took to using the school-provided ethernet cables as make shift drying lines, stringing them from the window of our small bedrooms to the closet door. Admittedly, it was not the most attractive solution, but it certainly got the job done!
i may be dating myself, but growing up my MOM had a pants drying rack. One would slot the rack in the leg of the pants/jeans and hung them to day. When dry you take the pant leg dryer off and lo and behold you had creased pants/jeans. Where can i find one now, been looking all over.
Arlene, I have a drying rack that I actually found on the street and dragged in and washed up. However, I bought one for my niece to take to college with her just last year. We found it at the Bed Bath and Beyond. Good luck! Let us know how you do. I can’t live without mine.
Arlene – This takes me back… My husband was raised in the Midwest, and when I met him (in the 60s, before the advent of perma-press), he used pants stretchers, the wire frames that you described, to dry his khakis and keep them relatively unwrinkled. Just googled pants stretchers, and found some, including this one on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/J-H-Smith-Company-Pant-Stretchers/dp/B001PQL52A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390831909&sr=8-1&keywords=pant+stretchers
Melisa, I am 75 years old, when I was in High School, My step-mother used to dry my jeans on the line but had these frame like things went in the legs and was adjustable front to back and from the top of the legs down to the cuffs stretching the jeans while drying so that when they cane out the jeans had a great seam front and back. The waistline and body were just dried in place and still not too wrinkled. +++++++
+ +
+ +
+ +
++++
Very roughly like this. have you ever seen or heard of them?
I would love to have some.
Please email me if you can find any
Thanks
Jim Walker
Yes, see my comment just above yours (from January 27, 2014)for a link to pants stretchers.
I’m an air dryer as well! It contributes to the longevity of the clothing item (particularly items with elastic fibers, which degrade under heat), it prevents shrinking and pilling from agitation, AND it’s cost-effective. I love the idea of adding built-in drying racks and clotheslines to dorm rooms and other spaces.
I think personal hygiene in general is an interesting (if touchy) area for exploring issues related to waste; there’s some evidence that our cultural obsession with hygiene creates as many problems as it solves (I’m thinking of broadly distributed antibacterial soaps that end up creating resistant strains), and particularly when it comes to washing one’s clothing weekly or showering daily, there are water and energy issues at stake. Kudos to Levis for including the directive “Wash Less”!
Hi Melissa,
You are definitely on to something! In Sweden (where I’m from) air-drying is standard. Almost every apartment building provides communal laundry machines for their tenants and an entire room dedicated for hanging clothes to dry. It certainly keeps your clothes looking new longer and saves the building a ton of energy. Now, living in a tiny NYC apartment, the biggest obstacle for me to air-dry my clothes is finding the space to hang them. Do you have any good suggestions for space efficient air-drying?