I've always used a washing line when possible, except for when we lived in Africa and it used to bake hard on the line. But then we also had the advantage of free electricity, and I was washing pit overalls daily!

I do have a dryer - have had for years, since Ruth was born, and Ian swore he wasn't living in a drying room over the winter! It mainly gets used when the weather's too damp for drying (Winter) unless I need something quickly, or by Ruth who doesn't think ahead, and always washes her stuff at the last minute or when she has run out. A couple of years ago I strung a line under my roofed gazebo that runs off the kitchen, so now I can put a small load out when it's rainy, or if I can't be bothered to walk any further.

Have also now emptied the wardrobe in Ruth's old room. Her sister says she will probably not come home now, but that it's high time I changed from being a chilled mum to a regular mum. She says some mums she knows would (and have) slung out what they themselves have considered to be rubbish.
She also told me of a TV show on de-cluttering on New Zealand TV where they take EVERYTHING out of the house, and set it up in a warehouse or store. The people then have only 30 minutes to decide what they want to keep, and apparently it's amazing that when something that you are sentimentally attached to is out of context, it stops meaning so much.

Wish I had the courage to do something like that!

Andrea