Hanging your laundry on a clothesline

I was reading another post where someone commented that they didn't have a dryer and it got me to thinking about using a clothesline where I live in the US. I have a sunny yard and enjoy using my clothesline in the summer, but it's something I make an effort to do, since it's easier to throw things in the dryer. My dryer isn't working right now and it couldn't have happened at a better time, the weather is sunny and dry, perfect laundry weather and I've been making sure to keep up with the laundry so I can take advantage and don't get stuck with trying to hang a huge load.

I do know in other countries, hanging your laundry is pretty much the norm, either a dryer isn't even owned, or they are smaller than the ones in the US. So, I'm curiuos--do you hang out your laundry? Would you like to but live where you don't have a yard, or space for a line? Do you live in a community that doesn't allow hanging laundry?

I found this on the blog Tomato Soup Cake

“Clothesline Etiquette” circa 1937:

~Articles to be dried should be grouped according to kind and shape. Each article should be hung by the firmest portions.

~Women’s and children’s dresses should be hung by the shoulder seams or hems; pillowcases should be hung by the seams. They should not be hung by the hems.

~Sheets, and tablecloths, should be folded with the hems placed together. They then should be hung with the narrow length extending over the clothesline about 18-inches. This method throws the weight of the article in the fold and the hem. It prevents the corners and the hems of the sheets and tablecloths from being torn by the wind.

~Towels of all kinds should be hung with 1/3 of their length hanging across the clothesline.

~Several handkerchiefs or napkins may be grouped together hem to hem and pinned straight on the clothesline. Handkerchiefs and napkins never should be hung by one corner.

~Shirts should be hung by the shoulder seams or by the tail folded over the line.

~Skirts and trousers should be hung by the waist bands.

~Women’s men’s, and childrens wash suits should be hung on a non-rustable hanger which should be anchored securely to the clothesline with clothespins.

~Shorts and panties should be hung by the waist bands. Undershirts should be hung by the shoulder seams.

~Hose and socks should be pinned to the clothesline at the heel.

~After clothes have dried thoroughly, they should be removed from the clothesline or drying rack and folded smoothly.

~The more carefully the dried clothes are folded, the easier will be the ironing process.

(excerpted from “Searchlight Homemaking Guide.”)

I don't have a clothesline, but rather a drying rack. I use that to dry my hand wash (mostly vtg). For my sturdier clothes I wash and dry in the machines. Both methods are enjoyable and a pain for me. As I have to go to the building next door (same landlords) and use their quarter machines. In the last place I was I was upstairs and had a nice open balcony so using the rack was nice. However, in the place I am now, I am on the bottom floor and have to unfortunately set the rack up in the front yard by the main window instead of on the side or in back thanks to the less than trust worthy neighbors. They'll be gone at the end of the month so I will be able to move the eyesight from the front lawn. Although I suspect due to the nostalgia of clotheslines... seeing a drying rack is rather a charming sight! :-D Even in the front yard!

I have one of those racks out on my sunporch -- it comes in handy in the winter. I've also got a clothesline I can string across my kitchen if I've got a big load to dry when it's raining or cold out. But other than those instances, everything is always dried in the back yard -- I've got three lines running from the side of the house across to the board fence of the junkyard next door. Gives me plenty of room to spread things out, and the view is more or less screened so nobody has to see my underwear flapping.

I find that it's best to dry sheets and such to the point of about 80 percent dry, 20 percent damp -- I then run them thru the electric mangle, which steams out the last of the moisture and leaves them really crisp and fresh.

Everybody in my neighborhood has a clothesline -- it's as much a cultural norm here as breathing. I'd sooner die than live in the kind of place where outdoor drying is prohibited -- I fear I'd have to lead a violent insurrection against such tyranny.

We have not one, but three drying racks! We put them on the back terrace.
But when I lived in a tiny apartment I put clothing lines on the balcony.

Clotheslines are not welcome in our neighborhood. I have a retactable on and a rack I use as needed. No complaints yet.

A clothes line is eco-friendly, solar powered, Golden Era Correct, and imparts a freshness and feel to one's clothing that cannot be matched by any clothes dryer. Also putting one's clothes in a dryer tend to shrink the clothes and wear them out prematurely.

Many of our Southern California friends cannot believe we use a clothes line. We find it hard to believe that they choose to use a dryer.

I think an outdoor clothesline here would be met with derision, and possibly a visit from the constable.

When clotheslines are outlawed, only outlaws will have clotheslines.

Your etiquette book missed one. Ladies intimate apparel should be hung inside pillow cases. This from a home making guide of the period 1890 - 1900.

I use an umbrella style dryer, I find it handier than a clothes line and takes up very little space.

I have a rack that I use in the winter. During the summer, it's so humid where I live that it takes days for things to dry outside, so I use the dryer during the humid months.

I have a clothesline, but I prefer interior drying-racks. I also have a dryer, but I don't use that, either.

*cough*

[video=youtube;-BuetfQ3xQw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BuetfQ3xQw[/video]

We have a rule in our subdivision against clothes lines but if this was my house it wouldn't stop me.

I have a clothes line in the backyard. During the summer I'll hang my pants and shirts out. but no underwear. The energy savings from this makes up a bit for he A/C.

I have used a clothesline for 32 years. My husband welded together an umbrella style frame for me when our second child was born and I still use it weekly! (I used it daily when my children were in the house!). I always am sure to hang the intimates on the inner lines so they can be "hidden" by the remaining laundry
Every few years I have to re-string it. We didn't have a dryer until 8 years ago...I use it sometimes

By laws against clotheslines? Why? Is it an American class or cultural thing? Almost every household in Australia has some kind of clothes line in their backyard. What's wrong with clean clothes drying in the breeze?
Anyway, here's my Hills Hoist clothesline. The local bird population like it too.

lolly_loisides said:

By laws against clotheslines? Why? Is it an American class or cultural thing? Almost every household in Australia has some kind of clothes line in their backyard. What's wrong with clean clothes drying in the breeze?

Click to expand...

In the U.S. there are these horrid things called Home Owners Associations. Basically, you buy or rent a home, typically in a upper-middle or upper class subdivision or suburb. If your subdivision or suburb has an HOA, I believe you have to join. You must pay feels to the HOA, and they have codes for how your yard must look, what utilities you must have hooked up, or what you can have in your yard. Most are anti-clothesline. I'm pretty sure that the HOAs are just plain evil. There was a case a while back where a woman had a choice: pay her mortgage or pay her electric bill. When she cancelled her electric (against HOA rules) she was evicted from her home.

Interestingly enough, I believe that Vermont passed a law of which a piece doesn't allow HOAs to restrict or prevent clotheslines being used by homeowners. To me, it's so stupid that they were prohibited in the first place to the point where a state had to pass a law.

We have a right-to-dry law in Maine as well. It ought to be written into the Constitution.

[video=youtube;gkeBgUwVos0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkeBgUwVos0[/video]

Try to catch Phil Hendrie's radio show-- he often talks to an HOA President, Bobbie Dooley (and her husband Steve.)
She has rules against just about EVERYTHING-- and bizarre methods of enforcement.

Sun can fade items so be careful not toLeave them out too long. We also have a non-grass backyard, which means dust. I prefer jeans dried on a line and some shirts. Not my undergarments though, or towels. They're too harsh on the skin.