All on the Line

I mentioned briefly last week that Ben put a clothesline up so we could line dry the covers for the cloth diapers. Since then we've had several cloudy days. So today, when I realized it was sunny and beautiful, I couldn't wait to try the clothesline out. I don't think I have ever been so motivated to do laundry in my life.
After the wash was done, I hung all the covers on the line and decided to hang a few prefolds and inserts up as well (the absorbent part of the diaper that goes inside the cover for the cloth illiterate) just to see how quickly they would dry. The verdict? We need more line and a bigger backyard. To begin with, everything dried much quicker than I expected (around 3 hours), almost as fast as the dryer since our dryer is painfully slow. I was pleasantly surprised to notice that even though our line is shaded by our house, the diapers ended up whiter ("sunning" or laying diapers in the sun is supposed to be excellent for stain removal but our backyard is mostly shady). And the cherry on top of this diaper sundae? They smelled so amazingly fresh. If line-drying has me burying my face in a diaper for that outdoor scent, I'm sure it would be even better on my regular clothes. Now I want to dry all our clothes outside - it would probably save us some money on our electric bill.
Drying all our laundry on a line would, of course, take more time but I believe it is time well spent. Enjoying the sunshine and fresh air while leisurely pinning up diapers was much more relaxing than transferring them from washer to dryer in our dark basement. And I got some Vitamin D!
I do have a couple quick side notes. First, dollar store clothespins might not even be worth a dollar but they do work for holding up diapers. Second, a common complaint about drying the prefolds on a line is they end up a little crunchy. I noticed this but it was mostly around the edges and not too bad. I've read that putting them in the dryer for a few minutes eliminates this.

While the diapers were drying, Mina and I had a quick photo shoot for my mom's birthday but Mina wasn't too happy about it. I can't help but share a few pictures to show the downward spiral (please excuse the blurriness).