Do you have a clothesline for drying your wash?

Linda

Linda

Senior Member
Location
Central California foothills
:love_heart: I know a lot of cities now don't even allow a cloths line. We have had one in our back yard for about 20 years and I love it. I don't use it often but when I want it, it's there. I especially like to hang up sheets and let them blow in a breeze. And drying jeans on the line saves on the PG&E bill since they take longer to dry. If I put towels or washcloths on the line I have to use a lot of fabric softener or they come out kind of rough.
 

Yes, two.

One is the rotary hills hoist that gets the sun



The other is a retractable line mounted under cover for rainy periods.



I have never had an electric clothes dryer. Between the sun and the breeze, everything dries reasonably quickly.
 

Linda, we’ve talked about this before (I think…I could be mistaken) and it’s interesting that one rarely sees clothes hanging outside anymore. I say there is nothing like the feel and smell of climbing into sheets that have been dried in the fresh air and sunshine.

As a kid one of my jobs was collecting the clothes pins. I remember many a day when Mom had to run outside to get the things off the line before the rain!
 
I can have a wash line in my yard if I wanted one, but I never set one up. I do like the idea of things drying out in the breeze, and my mother used a wash line for many years while I was growing up. Always funny to see her take in clothes in winter that were frozen stiff, like someone was in them. :sentimental: I've had an electric dryer for years, and use dryer sheets to keep towels, jeans, etc. soft. I do have a clothesline in the laundry room for certain items that need to be hung.
 
I still hang a lot of my washing outside. I don't like the way the dryer causes seams to draw up. I dry stuff wrong side out so it doesn't fade from the sun. I do use my dryer for some stuff, but most of it goes on the line.
 
applecruncher said:
.... I remember many a day when Mom had to run outside to get the things off the line before the rain!
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Our backyard bordered on a railroad track where I grew up. I remember us running out to gets things off the line when we heard one of those old steam locomotives come through, with the black sooty smoke rolling up through the yard. My mother hung clothes in the basement in the winter. It was like a maze to get around down there on laundry day.

I have two posts for a clothesline where I live now, so I could put them back up any time. Used them the first summer I moved in the house, because I didn't have a dryer. Had to have props every so often when the lines got too heavy and drooped too low. Crazy amount of work involved! I didn't realize it until I had to do it all by myself.
 
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In light of climate change, maybe more concerned citizens will begin using them as much as possible to cut down on using energy. I have one and theres something kind of peaceful and for me at least, leaves me with a sense of caring for the planet. I love having it.
 
I'm surprised so many still use cloths lines. :) I think more would if they could. Nancy, I liked hearing about the old trains and your cloths line. I remember how excited I'd get as a little girl when one of those old trains spewing out all that black smoke would come down the tracks. :)
 
I have a retractable clothes line attached to the outside wall of the house, ..when it's extended I hook the other end onto a hook on one of the mature trees half way up the garden. However I only use it to dry duvets, pillows or anything that can't go into the dryer...I tumble dry most clothes. My clothes prop which is just a a stick made from the branch of a tree basically...we've had for almost 40 years and it's still going strong :D

Similar to many of you I remember all too well having to run out if the rain started when I was a kid to haul the clothes in from the line before they got wet, and if it was winter bringing clothing in that may have been left out overnight, and were now frozen solid.....I was so tiny and I could barely reach for the pegs..(dolly pegs) remember them? I never enjoyed that job at all.
 
I have a retractable cloths line the same as DW posted, ... mine is half under a verandah , half out in sun ...Hubby puts the line out as needed , mainly for when I wash the sheets, towels, other times I hang small items on a clothes airer under the verandah .
When I wash my good dancing skirts I hang them under the verandah part of the line , there is always plenty of breeze to dry them .I have never owned a electric dryer.
 
I've just this minute finished hanging my washing on the line so yes, I do have a clothesline which is in regular use. Many years ago I was given an old dryer which I used mainly in the winter to dry towels etc. but once it gave up the ghost I never replaced it and I manage well enough without it.
 
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I live in the wettest part of Scotland, so I just gave up on hanging them outdoors. Although most living around here do.
 
Yes i have a clothes line in the garden, a long one.
I also have a fold up rotary line if i get to much,
i have a tumble drier for the winter time, but prefer to put it on the line..,
it has a great fresh smell.
 
As far as I know, there's nothing to keep us from having clotheslines in our subdivision, but nobody does...or if they do, they're well hidden.
 
applecruncher said:
Linda, we’ve talked about this before (I think…I could be mistaken) and it’s interesting that one rarely sees clothes hanging outside anymore. I say there is nothing like the feel and smell of climbing into sheets that have been dried in the fresh air and sunshine.

!
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I have a clothes line and I only use it for the sheets for what you mentioned.
 
When we were first married, we lived on the fourth floor in a walk up apartment house. We had a clothes line rigged from our bedroom window to the tip of a long pole strapped on to the fire escape. You clipped each item on at the window. moved it out by a pulley, and attached the next. Occasionally, we would drop an item into the court yard at the back of the apartment. You would have to run down four flights of stairs, out the front court, and around through a passageway to the back to retrieve it. Needless to say, we were pretty careful hanging things out. When we moved to the suburbs, we had one of those umbrella types in the back yard.The clothes did come out nice, if they didn't fall off the line, get rained on,
or hit by birds! :tapfoot:
 
Have one and use it frequently. I don't put a all laundry but it's used with regularity. Between condo comandoes, HAs and/or local ordinances which are almost all about appearances I don't think many younger ones ever hung stuff out to dry. Some places with a chance a wildfire I could see that as a safety issue. Some communities won't allow you to drape a towel over a railing or fence-they claim blowing laundry can land on a car windshield but has it actually happened.

Throw the impatience of the instant gratification/tech generation hanging out laundry is a lost art. I don't use fabric softener as is and don't like any odor on my clothes or towels when done to hanging laundry not only dries it but helps any odor residue dissipate.
 
Underock1 said:
When we were first married, we lived on the fourth floor in a walk up apartment house. We had a clothes line rigged from our bedroom window to the tip of a long pole strapped on to the fire escape. You clipped each item on at the window. moved it out by a pulley, and attached the next. Occasionally, we would drop an item into the court yard at the back of the apartment. You would have to run down four flights of stairs, out the front court, and around through a passageway to the back to retrieve it. Needless to say, we were pretty careful hanging things out. When we moved to the suburbs, we had one of those umbrella types in the back yard.The clothes did come out nice, if they didn't fall off the line, get rained on,
or hit by birds! :tapfoot:
Click to expand...


I've seen those pulley fire escape clotheslines in movies and in photos from big cities. I've always thought they looked interesting and would like to put one in a painting. I'm so slow at finishing a painting I have a lot more ideas then I actually get around to doing.

 
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