officerripley
Well-known Member
- Location
- Porlock, Calif
I think 1 of their best features is how you can swivel 'em around so as to follow the sun better as the day goes by. Just really good clotheslines IMO.
Clotheslines stage a comeback
- Thread starter Aunt Marg
- Start date
I agree.
Back in my babysitting days I used to sit in a trailer court/mobile home park, and nearly every trailer-home in the court/park had an umbrella clothesline.
If I couldn't have an old-fashioned pulley clothesline like I have, an umbrella clothesline would definitely be my next option.
fmdog44
Well-known Member
- Location
- Houston, Texas
I have read of episodes of clothes being stolen of clothes lines and wondered how long it took to do that!
Ruth n Jersey
Well-known Member
- Location
- Northern New Jersey
I hang out whenever possible. These days I have two lines on my porch but I string a rope from tree to tree when I do my comforters and blankets.
My mom had a pully that went from the porch to the wash pole. Sometimes if it got to heavy with clothes they had another pole to hold the middle up which was placed on an angle and the end dug into the ground.
My mom and grandma were pretty particular as to how they hung the wash. They would never hang a dish towel in-between my dads long underwear and clothes pins went into the clothespin bag never ever left on the line.
I like to see wash flapping in the breeze.
Reminds me of days gone by.
I'd much rather see a clothes line than look at the junk people hide behind their sheds so they don't have to look at it but the rest of us do.
My mom had a pully that went from the porch to the wash pole. Sometimes if it got to heavy with clothes they had another pole to hold the middle up which was placed on an angle and the end dug into the ground.
My mom and grandma were pretty particular as to how they hung the wash. They would never hang a dish towel in-between my dads long underwear and clothes pins went into the clothespin bag never ever left on the line.
I like to see wash flapping in the breeze.
Reminds me of days gone by.
I'd much rather see a clothes line than look at the junk people hide behind their sheds so they don't have to look at it but the rest of us do.
Old-fashioned pulley clotheslines are all that I have ever had experience using, aside from my makeshift clothesline I use in my laundry room, and your moms old clothesline sounds exactly like mine, Ruth.
Mine starts at my porch (pulley on outside wall of porch), with line that extends all the way out to the alley (pulley attached to t-pole), though I only have a single line.
Yes, I remember the helper or prop poles, too, or whatever they were called. I haven't seen a helper or prop pole in use since the late 60's/early 70's.
In my childhood home our clothesline started right outside the back door of our house, and went all the way out to the alley, and was a good 10-12 feet above the ground.
An aunt that I used to babysit for had a clothesline that extended from out the window of her laundry room and out to the property line of her neighbours yard, and my aunts backyard had a deep gully, so the clothesline was 20-30 feet in the air.
I use my clothesline regularly... 2-3 times a week during this time of year and I love it, but when I had babies and young children in the home it was a rare day where something or another wasn't out hanging on the line.
Towels along with unmentionables were hung together, sometimes with an entire line of nothing but unmentionables, then there was regular clothing... pants, shirts, tops, socks, whatever have you. Then there was the baby sleepers, baby pyjamas, and other miscellaneous baby clothes that I'd hang out on the line together, and then there was diaper wash day where the line sagged under the weight of several dozen freshly laundered diapers along with the accompanying rubber pants.
Even on non-laundry days, rubber pants were a regular on the line (learned that with my first). An overly wet diaper or a dirty called for a change of rubber pants, and so the old rubber pants would be turned inside-out, given a quick hand-wash and rinse, then pinned up on the line to dry and air. By the days-end... bedtime, rubber pants were taken down off the line, brought inside and stacked next to the diapers, leaving me with a fresh clean supply of rubber pants to start the next day.
I found whenever I removed rubber pants and diapers as one and pailed the two together at change-time, I often ran low or even ran completely out of rubber pants, hence why I hand-washed and rinsed didy-pants between changes.
Plastic bags and Ziploc bags also see clothesline time. I reuse Ziploc bags until the zip wears-out or the plastic gives way. Have done so for years and years.
Cribs were stripped and changed when needed... with little babies that was often, 2-3 times a week, and so flannelette and rubber crib sheets also seen the line.
About the only thing I seldom pinned up on the line to dry were baby washcloths. I never used disposable baby wipes, always reusable washable 100% cotton baby washcloths, but being as small as the baby washcloths were, into the electric tumble dryer they'd go for 10-15 minutes and they were done.
I have an old plastic toy sand pail in my porch where I keep my clothespins in, and never do I leave pins on the line. My favourite is donning a favourite apron of mine with a pouch in the front, which I fill with wooden clothespins while hanging washing on the line, and typical of the old-fashioned homemaker that I am, I always hold a pin in my mouth ready to go when hanging.
Packerjohn
Packerjohn
- Location
- Canada
We used to own a cottage by the lake. I made a nice long clothes right off the rear deck. It was so nice carrying a basket of clothes, hanging them up while listening to the birds and watching the clothes dry in the breeze. It was energy efficient and gave someone, usually me, to get outside. The clothes smelled so nice when you brought them in. Beets the electric or gas dryer any day. Only problem was you had to depend on the weather but in those days people were pretty flexible. They didn't take a gun and shoot someone just because the weather wasn't the way they wanted it. Everyone seems to be mad at something or someone these days. They really need to lighten up. LOL
You've captured the very essence of clothesline drying to a T, Packs!
When my children were little my first order of the day was to do a load of washing and pin it up on the line, and that always happened first thing in the morning. The air was fresh and clean smelling, the neighbourhood quiet... everyone for the most part were still in bed, and my love of hearing the squeaking pulleys come to life with every pull of the line was my favourite!
By 7 o'clock AM, washing was out drying, there was a pot of freshly made coffee on the stove, and the process of getting my children up from their cribs and beds had begun.
Looking out the kitchen window at all of the washing swaying, waving, and snapping back and forth, I never grew tired of. Still love the look today, and whenever I'm out-and-about, whether it be driving or walking and I spot a clothesline, I can't help but do a double, a triple, even a quadruple take on the line, because it just takes me back to my younger days.
Back to a time when life wasn't rushed or hurried, when there was closeness and trust among neighbours, when people did so many things the old-fashioned way, when women could be found at home, caring for their children, their husbands, baking, cooking, and tending to all things in-between.
Such warm and homey memories for me, and seldom when I'm out hanging a load of washing on the line do I not think about the foremothers that did the same. Never fails to make me feel the nostalgia, the old-fashionedness of it all.
It's true about the damage and wear-and-tear electric tumble dryers cause fabrics.
I mentioned it to a friend of mine years ago, the fact that all the fluff we clean out of the lint filter trap is fibers from the clothes and things, and her reaction was shock.
Over-drying things can cause damage, too, drying fibers out resulting in brittle fibers that break and give-way easier, hence the fluff that accumulates in the lint trap. The older the washables are that we dry in an electric tumble dryer, the more fluff will be found.
Jules
SF VIP
That’s what I want, soft & beaten up jeans. They feel great when they reach that state. Hate it when they start wearing too much and I end up with areas that are thread bare.
Women’s jeans almost always have added stretch in them. I want a good pair of real denims. Impossible to buy in petite in Canada. I can’t even pay extra to order them.
Remy
Well-known Member
- Location
- California, USA
@Meanderer I love my Rowenta Iron, so I would consider that a good gift.
Just came across this wonderful article and thought I'd share it.
http://weheartvintage.co/2013/05/24/washing-vintage-clothes-7-top-tips/
http://weheartvintage.co/2013/05/24/washing-vintage-clothes-7-top-tips/
horseless carriage
Well-known Member
The term umbrella line is new to me, a rotary line though, has more than one definition.
How about, a hanging roundabout?
Growing up, the pram, (shortened from perambulator,) was in every garden. Mothers were encouraged to let baby sleep in the fresh air.
When we used this type of washing line the adverts of the day always featured the perfect housewife. Industrious, a homemaker but always perfectly turned out. And her husband was always seen arriving home looking as clean and crisp as he did when he left for work that morning.
Holly could have used these pics in her "Do You Remember?" Thread.
peramangkelder
Well-known Member
- Location
- Fleurieu Peninsula South Australia
@Aunt Marg Isn't that utterly ridiculous....why should anybody care what is on the clothesline?One tidbit that stood out for me in the article was this...
"opposition to line-drying has often come from neighbors who don’t want to be looking at somebody’s underwear out of the kitchen window"
Yes, unmentionables are such a secret and bad thing, aren't they!
How shallow and small-minded some people are in this perfect little world we live in today!
We all wear underwear....well most of us do anyway
Using a clothesline is the homeowner's contribution to power saving...good on them
When my kids were little babies and had a diaper rash, I'd set them out on a towel in the backyard bare tushie in the air. 20-30 minutes depending on the time of day and intensity of the sun, but boy, did natural sunlight ever clear up a sore red bottom fast.
I'm laughing pleasantly at the point you made about the perfect little housewives/homemakers and neat as a pin, fresh as daisies husbands in adverts. So true!
Love the name "roundabout".
It irritates me to no end, Peram!
In all the years I've been line-drying, not once did I ever question what I was hanging or how I was hanging it. If it could be pinned up on the line to dry, it was fair-game for a wooden clothespin, and out it went.