Laundry

I have a clothes line. I've used one for years. But when we got Charlotte she pulled all the clothes off of the clothes line. So now I have a new umbrella style clothes line out of her reach. I didn't realize that there were advantages and disadvantages to different types of clothes lines.

I had just a single rope tied from the house to the gazebo. This worked well until the willow tree overgrew it and Charlotte got tall. The advantages were that there was a single row of clothes so they dried really fast and it was easy to hang stuff up. The disadvantages were that it would sag in the middle with heavy stuff so you had to be careful how you loaded it up and it would hold just one load of clothes. And you had to move your container of clothes pins and laundry basket with you as you hung up the clothes.

When I was at the cousin reunion in Washington my cousin had a clothes line that had a t shaped brace at either end with rows of clothes lines between. But the lines were spaced pretty far apart. So it was almost like having a single line with the advantage of more space so you could hang up more than one load of laundry at a time.

Now, with the umbrella type I can stand in one place and just twirl the clothes line. Easy. Also it will hold at least three loads of laundry at a time if you fill it. But the lines are pretty close together. And the ones near the pole are very short. You can only hang socks and undies on them. So I usually don't do more than two loads at a time and use every other line so the clothes aren't so crowded.

I think what you chose is simply personal preference and how much space you have for your line. But I think hanging clothes outside have so many advantages over the dryer.

1. You don't need any fabric softener to make your clothes smell wonderful. I feel cheated when I have to dry sheets and my pajamas in the dryer. Even Darryl's shirts smell good when he doesn't.

2. They will dry faster than the dryer in the summer. Light stuff will dry almost so fast I can take the first stuff off the line by the time I hang up the last of the load.

3. You save energy.

4. You can use less chemicals in your laundry. I am careful about bleach use because it kills the good stuff in the septic tank. So I can use less bleach because the sun does the job. And on breezy days I don't need fabric softener because the wind does a pretty good job. Better for stuff that touches my skin and the environment.

5. Less ironing. Yes, the wind does a fine job of removing wrinkles and if I don't get the clothes off the line when they are dry they don't wrinkle again as they would if I left them in the dryer.

So if you don't have a clothes line I recommend you get one. Even if you can only use it on your days off you will find it a little bit habit forming.