Dirty Laundry

Most apartments I've lived in had electric baseboard heat, but my Ferndale place has a gas furnace, which is very cheap and really only necessary about four or five months out of the year, often only for a little while in the morning and evening. My only complaint about gas heat is that it dries the air in my apartment so much that by December my hair starts to fly around like dry straw, my lips get chapped, and my skin begins to wither and flake.

Luckily, bicycle commuting provides a nifty solution to the problem:
wet clothing.

The laundromat is hard on wool and performance fabrics like fleece, spandex and whatever they use to make UnderArmour, so I do a lot of hand-washing. Besides, I often get caught in the rain coming home from work, and need to dry my clothes quickly (relatively) so they will be wearable the next day, and don't start to smell bad.

With an over-the-door towel rack and a folding laundry rack, I can hang my wet clothes in front of the vents on the door of the furnace closet. Even soggy shoes will dry out in less than twenty-four hours if I open the laces, take out the insoles, and put them upside-down at the top of the rack. Plus, the evaporating moisture humidifies the air in my apartment nicely.