Utilities – Reduce so there is More for YOU and less for them

Utilities take a big chunk of money every month. There are ways to reduce, some easy, some hard, some cheap some expensive.

I will give you some tips and tricks I have seen, heard, used over the years. I always go for the one that gives me the most bang for my buck. Saving the environment is really a by-product of trying to save money, but in the end it is a win-win for me and mother earth:)

Laundry, this used Electric and/or Gas and Water. I will start with an easy, quick and inexpensive way to reduce Electric or Gas and Time (which we all need more of) depending on which type of dryer you use.

#1 if you have a dryer that gives you the choice of “auto” or “timed” dry, for everything except good clothes that can’t get wrinkled use the “time” choice and start out at the lowest time setting and highest dry setting unless you are drying towels or heavy clothes then start out with 40. If you use the “auto” it can go longer then necessary if it finds just (1) item slightly damp while the rest are dry. I check at 20 min, pull out whatever is dry (usually all or most of it) then put what ever might be damp back in.

#2 get a line dryer for jeans, towels, comforter, big items. I bought a collaspable line for $35 including freight (yea you’ll learn I will teach you 🙂 off Ebay. I wash a load of towels, jeans ect, when they are done I put them in a basket and then start the “good clothes”. while the good clothes are washing I hang the heavy items out to dry, since I have found that these heavy items are never dry when the good clothes are done washing then they sit and time is a wastin’. When the good clothes are done I put them in the dryer, and start another load of heavy clothes. When the good clothes are dry, before the heavy clothes are clean, i put them away and move the heavy clothes off the line and in the dryer, the time required to dry them has gone from over (2) 40 minute cycles to less then (1) 20 min cycle.

Note: Do NOT dry jeans and towels all the way in the sun, they get “crunchy” I always but them in a little damp with a dryer sheet to soften them up.

Now here is my silver lining (hee hee get it line)….hanging clothes is a great way to chill out, there really isn’t much thinking while you do it, you get outside and you get good core exercise. Besides the reduction you should see in your gas and electric bill. Will it be huge? Depends on how much laundry you do.