BellaOnline Forums Relationships Bereavement Hanging clothes outside to dry

Do you do it? What does it make you remember?

I'm lucky enough to have a private patio, so my clothesline isn't visible to the Home Owners Association. There is such a push to go green, and conserve energy. Yet the Associations will fine you for putting one up.

By air drying the clothes, I feel part of a long tradition of women. I grew up watching my Granny and Mom do it. It's so relaxing. Truly, I can literally sit and watch them dry some days!

jaci

Oh my gosh, Jaci! I thought I had a personal, private, only person in the world secret who did that. I, too, hang some clothes on my patio to dry. The patio wall is high enough that no one but me and the sunshine and the breeze sees the clothes gently dancing.

It reminds me of when I was very young and would lay on the grass in Grandma's back yard, watching the sheets sway back and forth, making me sleepy and peaceful. It is little things like this that remind me of my beloved Grandmother, long gone from this Earth.

Isn't it joyful that we can find peace in such simple things?

PS: Thank you for sharing these thoughts.

I'm almost glad our dryer is temporarily out of service. I love the smell of sheets that have spent a sunny day on the line, hubby only likes the smell of dryer sheets. So, until we can get the dryer fixed, I win!

My grandmother had 2 clotheslines. One from a second floor window and one from a first floor window. Before the days of electric dryers she kept a family of 7 in clean clothes with her clotheslines. My Mother told me Grandma's fingers would crack and bleed in the Winter from the frozen clothes on the line.

Grandma also had a HUGE pot for boiling the white clothes on a wood stove. After washing all the clothes by hand she had a wringer that would wring the water out of the clothes by turning a crank. Believe it or not she wasn't a pioneer out on the prairie, she lived in New Jersey! But this was during the Great Depression and there was no money for luxuries.

So every time I hang laundry on the line I think of my Grandma and count my blessings.

I use to like being able to hang laundry out doors, where i live we don't have any out side cloth lines, So i use my dryer!

We've been considering putting one up.

We have SOOOOO many clothes in our basement that the kids have outgrown, but I really need to wash before sending them off for donation. But I know drying all of them is going to kill our already insane electric bill.

So a clothesline seems like a good idea.

But dummy me - I don't even know how to start one! What all do I need?

I ust heard a radio news story that said the average American home would save 6-10% on utility costs each year just by drying outside instead in the drier! That is HUGE.

Angela <><

Well, a big tree in your yard is a good place to start. If you have one within about 50 to 75 feet from your house you can attach one end to the tree and the other to your house.

First you need 2 large hooks, like a cup hook only much larger. You start with a pilot hole into the frame around a window or door and screw the hook into it, then do the same in the tree.

You need 2 pullies (round thingies that the rope goes through and the inner circle spins so that the rope returns to the other end) that hang on the hooks, one on each. then you buy rope, double the distance between the hooks plus a few feet to tie. Thread the rope through the pullies, tie the ends and voila, a clothes line. With this type you can stand in one place and the line moves.

But you can also just tie a rope between 2 trees and then you move instead of the line.

Some people also use two pipes or posts in the ground, that way the line is out in the sun and the clothes dry faster. I've had all three kinds, I like the hook and pully system best.

need suggestions on air drying clothes in winter. basement? hangers in the hallway? on a do they really dry when frozen (jersey gramma)?

Sorry for the delay in this response!

No they don't dry when frozen, when you bring them in they thaw out and they are still damp. My Grandma used to hang them on hangers around the kitchen where the wood/coal stove burned and then they would finish drying.

You can hang a small clothesline in the house. I've seen a retractable clothesline that is light weight line that retracts back into a case that is hung on one wall and a small hook is hung on the opposite wall. This is a great idea if you have a separate laundry room or a small kitchen. Once the line retracts into the case it's not very obvious what it is.

My mother used to hang damp laundry over the radiators in the house I was raised in. The radiators were very large and could get quite hot, so you have to be careful to remove the clothes as soon as they are dry.

There are also folding wood clothes dryers that have several dowels running between the ends that fold like an accordion.

If you have a wood stove in the house for heat, anything you hang on a hanger in the room with the stove will dry very quickly. Unfortunately wood heat also dries the skin, so use plenty of moisturizer!