clothesline questions

[SuziQz]

I live in hot, dry SoCal.  Why on earth would I/should I run a dryer when it is 95 outside? 

[clothingengineer]

We mostly line dry in the spring/summer/fall and use this drying rack by the wood stove in the winter. I remember when I had my college apartment I was forced to use the dryer in the laundry room, and I hated how all of my clothes suddenly started wearing out a lot more quickly.

It seems very odd to me with environmentalism so much in vogue now that people would try to ban clotheslines!

[nurselizk]

I suspect that any neighborhood that prohibits clotheslines will change their restrictions as clotheslines make a comeback.  Our real estate agent told us that the Home Owners Association restrictions in our neighborhood weren't enforceable, but I haven't really tested them--the only one I disagree with is the prohibition of clotheslines.  I do use drying racks indoors, but until I saw this thread, I hadn't really considered having a clothesline.  I think it's time to ask the HOA to change the policy....

LIz

[Laurie H]

Clothingengineer, that's a neat drying rack.  I had a similar one to that years ago, but not quite as nice.  It eventually fell apart as I think I just wore it out.  My wood one is looking a bit warped as well.  Even though it's much nicer and heavier than some I see in the stores, after a while, the weight of wet clothes is getting to it, I think.  Poor thing.

LyndaC, that's called a Mariner's Compass.  Glad you like it.  I have it hanging in my office so I can look at it everyday.

[LyndaC]

Thanks, Laurie!  I thought it was a Captain's Compass.  I saw one once made from inlaid wood pieces that was stunning.

[clothingengineer]

Laurie, it is a very sturdy drying rack and I highly, highly recommend it. I've dried 4 yards wool melton I prewashed by hand on it and it never felt like it was going to collapse. I prefer this one to the wooden ones because it is stronger and the Y design lets you be more creative with space. If you have a smaller load you can just fold down one side, or lift it up high if you have a dress or pair of pants to drape over it.

[Laurie H]

Is it strong enough to hold jeans?  DH has some flannel lined jeans he doesn't like to be put in the dryer, so I hang them up instead and the wood rack can handle them.  I need a rack that can hold really heavy stuff.

[clothingengineer]

Flannel lined jeans would be fine. I actually put it outside in warmer weather to dry things on it that would be too heavy for the clothesline, like the 4 yards of wet wool melton.

[JuneBug]

I like the whole process of hanging out the clothes.  Some years ago I built lovely line posts with five lines around 15-20 foot long.  I was so happy the first year, we had sunshine and the clothes looked great flapping in the breeze.  Year two, rain, all summer.  The next year, forest fires with smoke rolling through the area.  The next year, volcanic ash.  Then rain again for most of the summer (and a couple very curious moose).  I'm almost afraid to hang anything out, who knows what will happen.  I did learn to hang the laundry out in the morning, because it did take all day to dry.

We heat with a masonry heater so it is usually covered with wool socks, mittens, tights, and sweaters in the winter.  We also drape wet coats and snowsuits over it.  There are a few pegs in nearby beams that I'll hang hanger clothes from as well.   

[mcgintie]

I am sunbathing in the first warm sunny and breezy day of UK spring, between two racks of drying towels. I put a stained (tomato? turmeric? knit top in the sun earlier, and it has faded to almost nothing. I have never had a dryer. As I don't run my heating all day in the winter, I put my washed clothes on a rack in a room with an open window, and close the door while the heating is off. It takes a bit of moisture from the clothes. I also have a 1600 spin which helps. 

[Lisa]

Junebug, isn't that just the way of it?  We all have memories of clothesline drying on perfect days.   

However the reality on any given day is often quite a bit less than perfect.   And when I look at your list! Rain, ok.  Smoke...ahh, [wince], but volcanic ash!!!!. So not ready for Pompeii at the clothesline.

Lisa

[Zalin]

I used to use a clothesline here in the Arizona desert. Clothes dry really fast, but the sun destroys the fibers so you have to get them in really fast. Then, of course, if you are not home and one of our massive dust storms blows in, you have to wash your clothes all over again. Now I keep a line that I can draw across the patio for those times when I want to hang clothes.


PHOENIX-ARIZONA-DUST-STORM-PHOTOS by Zalin2011, on Flickr
Courtesy of the Huffington Post

Yes, that is a wall of dust and yes, it makes it impossible to see the house across the street and yes, it leaves a film of dust on everything it passes over. And no, it's not as bad as you think unless you are driving and your visibility goes down to zero. It's just a fact of life here.

[vtmartha]

Wow!  That storm is a beauty, Zalin!   

I dry my clothes on a line all year round  -  inside.  The problem is that I have any number of items I wash and dry but don't know where to put so the available space on my line is rapidly shrinking.  Oh, for a good wind to blow them away. 

Awhile ago my DD had a pair of new white riding pants for shows, the expensive kind with leather seats.  She got the inevitable grass stain on them and I treated the stain with an oxygen bleach.  I did not get the effect I was hoping for so I set them out in the sun, whereupon the treated stains turned an obvious yellow.  After a number of consultations, I returned the pants to have the pristine leather seats attached to a new pair of pants, for a fee.  In the meantime, she's moved on from horse showing to vet school so who knows when she will need them again.  And probably a larger size.   

[LyndaC]

It is that time of year again down south in Alabama, and I am ready to send those clothes flying across the creek!

I cannot imagine not appreciating that rough crisp feel of sun dried towels, but I understand not being used to it.

[Pina]

Thanks for the amazing picture,Zalin !

I didn't know about the massive dust storms in Arizona.When we traveled through Arizona we loved the nice warm weather and the sand dunes in the desert. 

When I visited my sister in Florida at her old house,she had a very long walk along clothesline in her backyard.By the time I hung up the second load of laundry,the first load was dry.The odd time it rained for 20 minutes in-between,it didn't take very long for the laundry on the line to dry again. I can fit 5 loads of laundry on my clothesline.When I hang the laundry outside on a warm and windy day at home,it dries by late afternoon,if I start hanging laundry outside early in the morning during the summer months.

[Zalin]

Pina, Arizona actually has very little in the way of sand dunes. New Mexico has them outside the White Sands Missile Base and California has them along Interstate 8. But people from AZ go to the ones in California to ride their sand buggies, because we really don't have them here. We are part of the Sonoran Desert which is considered to be the greenest desert in the world. It's not really sandy or duny.  We are famous for having clay soil (caliche).

[LyndaC]

I love to read these clothesline stories.  I feel a connection with all these women thinking the same thoughts.

[Pina]

Zalin,I probably used the wrong words to describe the Arizona desert we enjoyed.     

We didn't have a sand buggy,we drove exactly 4000 miles one way,(more miles on the way home when we stopped at many places and smelled the roses),to our destination in Florida in a red 1965 VW Beetle.  It didn't need water to cool the engine.Good thing the engine was air cooled.Many desert rest areas didn't have water.Gas stations were often far away,I had to calculate and guess when we would find a gas station.Some small places on the map didn't even have a gas station then.

We saw a scorpion in an old broken down shed in the Arizona desert.And we brought a reminder of the Arizona desert home with us too.The blanket we used to eat lunch and rest for a while was full of tiny little cactus needles.No matter how often I washed it and hung it outside in the wind to dry ! 
It wasn't until after we left Arizona that I kept thinking of the scorpion,(DH was exploring the Arizona desert by himself). What if the small creature would have come outside while I was napping on the blanket alone outside the shack,because there was some shade ? 

[Zalin]

sigh, Pina, now you're just messing with me. 

[judith]

I am sunbathing in the first warm sunny and breezy day of UK spring, between two racks of drying towels. I put a stained (tomato? turmeric? knit top in the sun earlier, and it has faded to almost nothing. I have never had a dryer. As I don't run my heating all day in the winter, I put my washed clothes on a rack in a room with an open window, and close the door while the heating is off. It takes a bit of moisture from the clothes. I also have a 1600 spin which helps.

It's snowing here. I'm so jealous!

[Pina]

sigh, Pina, now you're just messing with me. 

Zalin,I'm messing with myself now.  Instead of doing my laundry,I was looking through old photos. 

We took slides then,with my current scanner I can't scan slides into pictures,(my old Agfa scanner could).I only found one B&W photo taken at a rest area in Arizona in February of that year.(Please look at my avatar).In this link are a few pictures of how I remember Arizona from a long time ago,(minus our red VW Beetle and ...without a shed with a scorpion  ). Now I can finish the laundry in the dryer.   

[Zalin]

Pina, I'm going to post a response on the Ari-Sew-Nans thread because this is seriously off-topic from clotheslines.

Here

[Arlene1995]

I live in Australia, in spring/summer/autumn we always hang laundry on our trusty hill hoist http://www.google.com.au/search?q=hills+hoist&client=safari&hl=en-gb&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=fUduUd2PJOiNiAen9YGQBw&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1024&bih=672#biv=i%7C5%3Bd%7CvkQwFxWWV4_NSM%3A - a true Aussie icon.

During winter I have two of these racks http://www.amazon.com/Moerman-88347-Laundry-Solutions-Outdoor/dp/B002KAOOXW/ref=sr_1_3?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1366181467&sr=1-3&keywords=y+drying+rack and wheel them outside during day and inside near fire at night.

Dryers are too expensive to run these days and I think they wear out your clothes faster than line hanging, I love how jeans stiffen after a wash and them smell of towels - to stop the towels being crunchy hang them in the rain then let them dry.

I hang my clothes out exactly like Ann and we call them pegs too.

Tanya

[KaeleyAnne]

My mother often hung clothes on the line during the spring, summer, and fall when I was growing up. She still hangs clothes up outside, but not as often. I absolutely love the smell of sheets that have been line-dried.

We live in an apartment with a back porch. I've strung a clothesline between railings of the porch - it's not the best location because I have to be creative about how I hang clothes so that they don't touch the deck, but it's better than nothing. We don't have a washer (or a washer hook-up), so I previously I would either hand-wash clothes and hang them to dry or take them to the laundromat. However, we helped our landlord with some shoveling this winter, so he's letting us use his washer for a few months in return.

[RuthieK]

Most homes in the UK have those triangular or square washing lines - aka Outdoor Rotary Airer (sometimes called whirlies short for Whirl-y-gig which must've been a brand name) in the rear gardens. They spin round in the wind and are great.
It's bad form to leave the pegs out on the line - pegs should be kept in a peg bag! Its also not done to hang laundry in the front garden, back gardens only. This poses a problem for people in the old 'back-to-back' terraces with only a garden at the front. I recall my grandmother being shocked that people did that.

I would dearly love to line dry all the time, but the weather is rather unpredicatable in the areas I have lived, so I tend to indoor rack dry, or even (shock horror), hang things over the radiators to dry in the winter when the heating is on. When the house design permitted, I used to hang sheets, towels and washed yardage over the bannister and hanging down the stairs (not in current house which is a bungalow!). I don't currently have a tumble drier, and in the past only used it for slow drying things like sports socks, cotton undies etc. I'd like to have one in future, just so I have it within my drying options!

Indoors I hang tailored trousers, fleece jackets and shirts to dry on plastic hangers hanging off the bookcases. They hang off magazine racks and folders of sewing related goodness and then get hung straight up in the wardrobe.

[JuneBug]

Our old house had a standard 8' ceiling, so DH's caribou mount was at eye level to accommodate the height of the antlers.  I often hung light weight items off the antler spikes to dry.  He worked away from home for weeks at a time and didn't know I did this  until one day he arrived home a few days earlier than expected and I hadn't taken them down yet. He wasn't exactly pleased to see tights and camisoles hanging from his caribou.  He wasn't exactly thrilled when I hung Christmas baubles there either. 

[lydia]

We live in a cluster of six houses and I have the only clothesline.  When we were house hunting (in the dark ages), I discounted any house where there was a covenant against this.  Fast forward a few years when DH decided to build a garage - he came in the house to ask me if he could move the lines to the other side of the back yard.  My reply was "only if you reset these immediately!"  He did and the lines are still being used.  I planted honeysuckle bushes at each pole as I don't hang everything out and thought some hummingbirds would grace the yard.  Well, I am still hanging sheets, unmentionables, etc out and have seen one hummingbird.  But...a robin made a nest in the bush and raised such a ruckus when I went near the lines, I lost three weeks of line drying.  Oh, life in the country!.............Lydia

[LyndaC]

Whoa!  You planted honeysuckle bushes?  Here in Alabama that is a no-no!  They are rampant and become a tangled jungle!  Where are you?

[sososewer]

Growing up in the rural south having a clothesline was almost expected.Once I moved to Michigan it was a whole different world & I missed seeing my sheets dancing on the wind . Most of all I missed the smell-I always said that clothes dried on a line smelled like God! You can't buy that kind of fresh.
    After looking at my clothesline for a few years two of my neighbors have put up lines. It may not be a trip down memory lane for them the way it is for me but I'm glad to see city people embrace the simple pleasures.