View Full Version : I just put up a clothesline!!
All by myself! And it was easier to do and turned out as well as I'd hoped!
I've been thinking of this forever. Wanted one for a long time. But didn't think I wouldn't mess it up!
I used vinyl covered wire and 2 turnbolt screws and it's tight and taut and looks so good! And if it slackens at all I can tighten it with my turnbolt screws. I put it between two posts on my privacy fence.
Now I have a drying green! Doesn't that sound old fashioned and romantic?
I am so happy I did this. Now I can't wait to hang out my first load of laundry!
I treasure my clothesline! Congratulations, bunnys.
Just wait till you find out how good that freshly sun dried laundry smells! There's nothing like it, and it's free!
Even my cats love the smell of line-dried laundry. Enjoy!
Ummm, while I love my outside line and delight to hear about your effort, I would be concerned about the weight of the laundry and the stress on the posts impacting your fence. You need to counterweight the pull of the laundry line somehow or perhaps you have already done so.
Sad Eyed Lady
5-27-12, 8:29pm
Congrats! I love drying my clothes outside and dried about 3 loads out in the sunshine today. I hope you enjoy it very much!
Two of the biggest insanities in my opinion are drying clothes in a machine when there is air all around us, and depositing human wastes into drinking water. Craziness.
Good on you, Bunny's! Yay, for solar-drying power/goodness! You're going to love it!
Hmmm... OK, now that you have a clothesline, you're going to have to tweak your simple living/frugal skills to compliment. Like, learning to hold a spare pin between your lips as you hang, and possibly, treating yourself to a tie-on apron, one with a front kangaroo pocket to hold extra pins! So happy for you.
P.S. Do post an update when you can.
The old fashioned four-line, t-post clothesline in the back yard was the clincher when I was looking for a house to buy. I saw it and my estate agent said my face lit up. I knew I was home!
You just HAD to brag about your old-fashioned, t-post, four-line clothesline, didn't you, Nella! :~)
My dream has always been to have a double-line, and here you are, rubbing it in about your four-line system! :laff:
Some people have all the luck! LOL!
Blackdog Lin
5-29-12, 5:41am
One of my first goals upon my retirement later this year is to put up a clothesline in the yard. Good on you bunnys, for getting it done!
We have a system that swings out from our deck similar to the old fashioned tenement lines. My favorite sleep is the the one with line dried sheets.......
Bunnys- just for yucks put a coffee can in your laundry room and put in say 50 cents to $1 for each load you put out and see in two months what you've saved.
We also put clothes in the winter on drying racks and save year round..we don't even own a drier.
MIL used to have lines in her unfinished basement for drying clothes in the winter.
I love my clothesline. Hung out three loads this weekend.
You just HAD to brag about your old-fashioned, t-post, four-line clothesline, didn't you, Nella! :~)
My dream has always been to have a double-line, and here you are, rubbing it in about your four-line system! :laff:
Some people have all the luck! LOL!Yes, yes I do! Neener, neener, neener!;)
Actually, a backyard clothesline was on my list of things I really wanted in a house. My agent told me there was no such thing anymore and I just needed to take it off the list. And then she comes up with probably one of the last in the city. Love her forever for finding it!
Love your "retirement clothesline" project idea, Blackdog Lin! They could transport me to an ultra-futuristic planet, and I'd still request a clothesline!
Love your coffee-can idea, Merski! What a super way to remind one of the savings.
Good on you, Artist!
LOL, Nella! A fabulous find indeed.
Tussiemussies
5-29-12, 10:43pm
Congratulations on your clothesline!!!! I cannot wait until we move next year to have one too. I think clothes stay in better shape when hung regularly outside instead of using a dryer.
Have you ever been to Amish areas where they hang out their laundry so nice. All the black pants together, the colored shirts next, whites all together. Not sure what order they put them in but all categories make for a pretty sight!
Tussiemussies
6-14-12, 10:21pm
i really miss my clothesline so kudos to you for getting one up and running. There is no match for line dried clothing. You can also put some aromatherapy oils into the rinse cycle like 12drops of lavender for a added bonus!!!
Tussie. I've never visited an Amish Community to witness their clothesline drying techniques, but it does sound unique! I have a fetish for clotheslines with all the same, as in a line of underwear, towels, etc.
My favourite is when the lawn is freshly mowed, the flowerbeds all weeded and watered, and my line full of washing!
Call me strange, but I enjoy gazing other peoples clotheslines! There's a sense of warmth and homeyness Re: line-drying...
simplelife4me
6-16-12, 1:44pm
What clothesline pins are best? Plastic or wood? I've noticed wood type at Family Dollar appearing larger and more durable than other places like Dollar General.
Wooden pins, all the way, Simplelife4me!
http://www.simplelivingforum.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=793&d=1338229733
Picture of the "bulk" of my clothespin collection. Notice how well-made and heavy-duty they are! Wooden pins nowadays just aren't made like they used to be... I just finished cleaning mine when I took the pic!
I can just smell the wind-dried laundry! And that great feeling of standing in between the sheets when they're blowing in the wind against your face! You save money, you save the planet, and it's a shot of pure pleasure--zero downside, all upside! Good for you!
Tussiemussies
6-16-12, 10:43pm
Mrs. M. I am the same too I look at other's clothes lines too! You do someday have to see some Amish country and how they hang out by item and how pretty it all looks outside. Their homes are so completely clean and neat you would just love the site of it all. We used to go visit on a regular basis until I found out how they run a lot of puppy mills and seem to lack any empathy for animals at all. At one time I was just mesmerized by their lifestyle otherwise I still am.
I had always hung out my clothes by item too! ;)
Tussiemussies
6-16-12, 10:45pm
Bunnys -- did you hang anything out yet?
There's almost an artsy-side to it, isn't there, Tussie.
awakenedsoul
6-17-12, 9:19pm
Congratulations on your clothesline! I have two. I hung them myself, too. I rarely, if ever use my dryer. I wear an apron with big pockets to hold my clothespins when I'm hanging the wash. I bring my wooden clothespins in when I take the laundry down. It helps keep them clean, protects them from the rain and mold, and they look like new. I agree with the above poster. My clothes seem to last much longer with line drying. I also hang like things together: towels, dishrags, socks, shirts, etc...it looks so organized!
I overheard my neighbor who was watching me hang up all of my laundry say "I could never do that," to her mother. I guess she doesn't realize how much money it saves. One of my neighbors asked me once, "Do you have a dryer?"
Tussiemussies
6-17-12, 10:30pm
There's almost an artsy-side to it, isn't there, Tussie.
Do agree with you Mrs. M and there are a lot of paintings of Amish farms that depict it. Bet they also make their own laundry detergent too!
;)
I keep my pins inside, too, Awakenedsoul.
Absolutely, Tussie, they are such resourceful people, aren't they.
I was hanging sheets out one day and my neighbor came over and told me that she used to have a clothesline but had it taken out cause she thought "it was tacky". Not sure how to respond to that - but I just said how much I loved the smell of clean sheets!
Tacky? Clotheslines, tacky??? Such a shame that people feel a need to isolate themselves from things, traditional and homey. This reaffirms to me that those of us who continue time-honoured traditions and practices are often laughed at, frowned upon, and cast into a class of idiotic...
However, I refuse to allow others to shape the love I have for simple things.
Tussiemussies
6-19-12, 12:33am
I know in some neighborhoods you are not allowed to have clotheslines...so sad.
Sometimes I think a fully loaded clothesline ought to be the logo for my life! And I have hit the motherload! I moved to Richmond, VA a few days ago to go to graduate school and I moved into an apartment here on campus. When I first drove up to the apartment complex I found six, count them six (!) four-line clothes lines just steps outside the door of my bldg. I'm expecting to do my first load of laundry in a few days and to proudly peg them out on the complex's clothes lines. A great start to my new life here. Whoo hoooooo!!!!
We have been in a very drying environment for the last couple of weeks. I decided that since I was going to wash the flannel sheets to put away for the summer, that I would dry them on our "clothes line" However, I can not do it "outside" because of the pine pitch would get all over the clothes. SO I devised a great way to do it instead.
We live in a RV. But this is a specialized RV - a Toyhauler where we have a ramp in the back, and a huge screen door. So our garage is set up with many closet rods (but different) for overhead storage, but they work wonderfully for bungee cord placements. I set up three "lines" and was able to hang all of the sheets, duvet cover, and then also the pillowcases, kitchen towels and napkins. Also saved $2 for the dryers. I will put up pictures once my DH resizes them. Kind of hard to really see as there are so many sheets but it makes just so more sense (and dollars) to do so.
Congrats to OP for getting a clothesline put up!
I miss the days when EVERYONE had a clothesline with laundry hanging on it.
One of my very favourite poems.
The Clothesline Said So Much (By Marilyn K. Walker).
A clothesline was a news forecast
To neighbors passing by.
There were not secrets you could keep
When clothes were hung to dry.
It also was a friendly link,
For neighbors always knew
If company had stopped on by
To spend a night or two.
For then you’d see the fancy sheets
And towels upon the line;
You’d see the company tablecloths
With intricate design.
The line announced a baby’s birth
To folks who lived inside,
As brand new infant clothes were hung
So carefully with pride.
The ages of the children could
So readily be known,
By watching how the sizes changed,
You’d know how much they’d grown.
It also told when illness struck,
As extra sheets were hung,
Then nightclothes and a bathrobe too,
Haphazardly were strung.
It said, “Gone on vacation now,”
When lines hung limp and bare.
It told, “We’re back!” when full lines sagged
With not an inch to spare.
But clotheslines now are of the past,
For dryers make work less,
Now what goes on inside a home
Is anybody’s guess.
I really miss that way of life.
It was a friendly sign,
When neighbors knew each other best,
By what hung on the line!
Tussiemussies
6-21-12, 9:07pm
What a really great poem Mrs. M....
I confess I've been having problems with my clothesline since I put it up the first day.
This evening a friend came over and said he was very impressed with my clothesline. He said I just needed to screw the eye hooks all the way into the posts (one had been pulling out and was slightly bent) and so we fixed the clothesline and now it looks better than ever.
So I'm back to hanging out the clothes. Thanks for all the good wishes.
Bunnys -- did you hang anything out yet?
Yes I have. Just sheets, tea towels, white t-shirts and towels. I don't think I'm going to put my underpants up for the world to see.
It is literally located on the side of my house in a green lawn area. It is a drying green.
Merski--Is it really 50 cents to a buck a load saved? That's amazing.
Tussie. It speaks so well, doesn't it.
Bunnys. Glad to hear you're back up and running! Re: hanging unmentionables, LOL! I'm not shy and regularly hang an entire line of unmentionables (unmentionables wash day)! No shame, no embarrassment, no discomfort (whatsoever). Unmentionables, are a fact of life.
Tussiemussies
6-21-12, 9:57pm
Yes, I always hung out my underwire. I didn't mind people seeing them although there was only one neighbor who could see my clothesline....
Try-blue line-drying practitioners (like us) don't allow anyone to get in our way! ROTFLMAO!
I was just thinking about the simplicity aspect of clotheslines (in general), and aside from the obvious simple-side of line-drying, I love the simple-side of a basic workable clothesline. A simple basic line doesn't require fancy pulleys, or posts, or blue-vinyl coated line, yet a simple line serves the same purpose and dries just the same.
ToomuchStuff
6-26-12, 9:34pm
Any tricks to eliminating lint from clothes via the line? My work pants seem to always have it and they seem for the most part to be about it. (dark shirts sometimes a tiny amount)
Welcome to the group, ToomuchStuff! So nice to have you. :)
Re: lint, are you washing your work-pants with something fluffy or that sheds?
ToomuchStuff
6-28-12, 1:28pm
Socks would be the only possibility there.
There are no tricks Re: lint/fluff. With line-drying, you're going to have to condition yourself to isolate any/all problematic washables (fibre castoff) from dressy/formal things you wear/line-dry.
Tussiemussies
6-29-12, 1:33am
Hi Bunnys, any updates on your clothesline experiment? Just wondering how you are making out!
oceanfamily
7-11-12, 3:02am
SOOOO happy for you! I've always wanted a clothesline..I even dream of how I want mine done. I;m hoping to have one up by Falltime:) Have lots of fun with yours!
Originally posted by Oceanfamily.
I even dream of how I want mine done.Dr. Seuss, might say, "one line- two line, four line- blue line". :)
Whatever dreams you have of owning a line and designing it, I hope your dreams come true.
Real Sustainable Habits
7-11-12, 10:35am
Yes! Clotheslines are wonderful. We've got one outside, running from our patio to a nearby tree, and installed two in our basement for drying in the winter.
Welcome, Real Sustainable Habits! So great to have you! Love your name! Yes, clotheslines truly are wonderful!
Real Sustainable Habits
7-11-12, 12:23pm
Thanks! :)
oceanfamily
7-11-12, 7:35pm
Oh my goodness MRS. M! I think we talked a couple times on the old site..nice to hear from you! I love the Dr. Suess quote is cute:)
Yes, we did so, Oceanfamily! I've wondered about you many times, so it's a happy morning for me to see you back again!
http://www.laura-n-sasha.com/NightSkyJune.html To see the pictures of my drying system! A couple of links are not working but just scroll down to see the pictures!
Oh, wow, Ljevtich! I love all your pictures!!
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