Someone who isn’t familiar with National Hanging Out Day might think that this holiday is one in which people are encouraged to hang out with their friends. However, that’s not the case, unless you actually like to do laundry with your friends. This holiday is designed to encourage people to hang out their laundry on a line instead of using a dryer to dry them. After all, drying clothes on a clothesline has benefits not only for your pocketbook but also for the environment as well. So on April 19th, you might want to hang your clothes out to dry.

The History Of National Hanging Out Day

National Hanging Out Day was established when several organizations, including Project Laundry List, sponsored this day in 1995. Project Laundry List is an organization that promotes washing laundry in cold water and air drying as a way to save energy. Since its inception, people all over the world have taken the time out of their day to hang their laundry on a line to dry.

The Reasons For Line Drying Your Laundry

Before we researched this holiday, we can honestly say that we didn’t give too much thought to drying our laundry out on a laundry line. Now that we have researched it, we can’t stop thinking about it. To show you how much we have thought about it, below are some facts that we uncovered during our research of this holiday.

It’s Better For The Environment

It’s been estimated that there are almost 100 million clothes dryers in the U.S., and each one of these dryers can add as much as 2,400 pounds of carbon to the atmosphere every year. And this contributes greatly to global warming. It’s been estimated that if all Americans line-dried their clothing for just six months of the year, it would save over 3% of the United States’ total residential output of CO2.

Line-Drying Makes Clothes Last Longer

Many people don’t realize it, but dryers can be tough on clothing. The high heat can cause damage to fibers, and the action of the dryer can cause stress on seams. Drying clothes on a line avoids these problems and, as a result, clothes tend to last longer.

Line-Drying Saves Money

A big benefit of line-drying laundry is that it saves money. Not only is a clothesline cheaper than a brand new or even used dryer, but using that line instead of the dryer will save plenty of money over time, more than what most people would expect.

Observing National Hanging Out Day

The best way to observe this holiday is by hanging your laundry out to dry for the day. It’s a good day to set up a line and see if air-drying your clothes is a good option for you. It’s also a good day to spread the news about air-drying laundry, and you can do that with the hashtag #NationalHangingOutDay.