Home 05 Jun 2006 11:23 pm
my first clothesline
In my constant urge toward more eco-friendly living through accessories, I’ve acquired a clothesline and some clothespins.
But here’s a dumb question: how do you choose where to hang up a clothesline? Do you hang your clothes in the sun so they dry faster, or do you hang them in the shade so they don’t get sun-bleached?
12 Responses to “my first clothesline”
on 06 Jun 2006 at 12:46 am 1.catenoid said …
In Melbourne, where clotheslines are much more common, the sun seems to be favored.
on 06 Jun 2006 at 1:04 am 2.Karlos said …
I was totally excited when I saw the subject line, but this turned out to not be at all what I expected.
on 06 Jun 2006 at 4:55 am 3.Joy said …
In the sun seems to be the default as I recall. Although, the house I grew up in had clotheslines (wires, actually) strung in the basement, so if you are worried about sun-fading I guess there is the indoor option?
on 06 Jun 2006 at 9:33 am 4.Lisa said …
Lisa the clothesline expert to the rescue!
I don’t worry too much about sun bleaching. I’m outside in the sun with stuff on my back for hours sometimes. Though once I left a black tank top out in the hot summer direct sun for more than a day, like, um, a week. (But no really, it looks cooler now with weird brown faded shapes. Sort of…) Regular washing with detergent will fade clothes faster.
If you are outside hanging clothes in the sun, worry about sunscreen for yourself! I got burned last weekend just washing the cars. We didn’t even wax. I also wear sunglasses when I hang whites as it’s super bright.
But what is a concern, especially in Seattle is the rain. Rain rain rain sucks. My valley has brief off-and-on showers, some that come very unexpectedly and it rains a little almost every night or early morning. So a garage or basement that has ventilation is good if you hang clothes out there and have to leave during the day, or want to leave it all night. On a sunny breezy day, a load of clothes can dry within an hour. On a rainy, cold or humid day, it can take half the day.
You don’t want it near a tree with sap, birds or leaves or blowy things, and you don’t really want to hang undies and stuff where the joggers can see them from the sidewalk. (My dad’s is in the garage, which bugged the hell out of me, all my life…)
You don’t want it in a really windy dusty outside place either because the dirt will stick to the wet clothes.
You do want a good breeze or it will take forever to dry. Seattle’s air is dryer though. Use liquid fabric softener or you clothes will turn into cardboard.
You want to put shirts on hangers because the clothespins will pull on t-shirt material and distort the hem. If you do clip shirts upside-down, clip on the seam, it’s stronger. Hang pants upside down, middle seams together on different lines by the cuffs and you’ll have fewer wrinkles. I suck at describing this. Maybe I’ll take pictures the next time I do laundry.
Five lines 12 ft long (parallel) will handle a large load of laundry. Drying time in hot Hawaii sun is about 2 hours, in the shade with a good breeze is about 3-5 hours, but it’s also muggy here. If you’re used to doing 4 loads in 5 hours on Sunday, you’ll have to change your laundry habits to maybe one load a day.
Wrinkles are the worst thing about line drying. Lint and cat hair is also a concern as the drying process takes a lot of that off. If I’m washing stuff the cats like to sleep on, it has to go into the dryer or the hairs don’t come off.
Then the lint trap has enough cat hairs to make a whole new kitten. (I don’t understand why one cat sheds a lot and the other cat doesn’t.)
Check pockets real good for tissues and paper.
I like a combo. I’ll put dark clothes in the dryer because I have a white cat and Jon likes to wash tissues and note pads, but I’ll line dry my whites. Most of my whites are t-shirts and undies that I sleep in anyway so I don’t care if they’re wrinkled or stiff. I also like to line dry towels as they take forever in the dryer. Or sometimes I dry a load half way and hang them for the rest as my dryer’s timer is broken and I want to go out.
You probably know already that lingerie loves to be air-dried and will last longer. I have one of those cheap Japanese round things with clips on it that I like. I put lingerie and the Luna pads on them, and last month had to rescue them from the bathroom so Casey could go pee.
When I was doing laundry for my family I would get real anal and hang up clothes in sorted per person, so it would be easier to fold and distribute after. I would hang the t-shirts in the front and the undies in the back so passersby couldn’t see my undies. When I was in elementary school we had a rash of lingerie thefts in the neighborhood and had to dry them inside the house for a couple of years. Anything expensive or super kinky I would dry in the backyard or in the house.
I love to dry sheets outside because they dry fast. My dad loves cotton towels that are stiff as a board. I kid you not. I half-dry large things like blankets and the couch cover in the dryer and put them outside for the rest of it because my dryer really can’t handle it.
How are you tying up your lines? Make them tight because they will sag with the weight of the clothes. You don’t want stuff touching the floor or the ground. Oh, put the line near the washer, or get the cart so you can haul the wet laundry down the lines as you hang. You have a history of back problems and probably don’t want to be bending down a lot to pick up heavy wet towels one by one. A basket of wet clothes is really heavy.
In this house I have five lines strung up in the yard on a metal t pole, it’s very common in Hawaii and fun to swing on. My dad has 5 lines in a retractable thing in the garage, so he can put it away easily for parties in the garage, which is also popular in Hawaii. My friend’s mom had a tree thing in her backyard, and another had a retractable thing on her lanai. I had one of those wooden folding things in Bellingham.
If you have an outdoor line and wooden clothespins, the clothespins will weather. I haven’t got a good solution for that besides putting them in a clothespin bag and keeping that inside when not in use. But I’m really too lazy and end up buying new clothespins when the old ones start to rust.
It’s good to have a clothesline handy to dry watercolors or anything else you’ve painted.
on 06 Jun 2006 at 10:14 am 5.mallard said …
Mine is in the sun, by default.
on 06 Jun 2006 at 10:44 am 6.Maggie said …
I’m from Poland where clotheslines are everywhere. People usually put the laundry out in the sun, but better yet, in a place that’s a little breezy. Nothing nicer than wind-dried clothes, mhmmm…. If it rains, I’ve seen a lot of people put clotheslines in their attics - it’s usually warm in them and you an open some sort of a window to get some wind in.
on 06 Jun 2006 at 1:05 pm 7.Eliza said …
Use a cotton line (softer than synthetics) and boil it on the stove to tighten the fibers first.
on 06 Jun 2006 at 3:50 pm 8.Rechercher said …
If your line goes between two solid objects, great. If not, beware of topple-over due to wind. Nothing sucks worse than having to rewash your clothes. And yes, that’s from experience.
on 04 Jan 2007 at 3:23 pm 9.Nathan S. said …
well i know when i was young we had a clothes line out back devoid of any shade, but I also know that the grandma had her line(s) in the basement. I think the question is - where do you have room for it? and whats you most feesable place to put it.
on 23 Jan 2007 at 3:13 am 10.Jo McNelis said …
Hi there
I came accross your piece about where to hang a clothesline and thought you might be interested in our product which is a mobile clothesline.www. lineman.co.uk
These are very popular in Ireland as we have unpredictable weather and washing can be pushed undercover in a flash. Otherwise you can move them where you want, into the sun, out of the sun. etc.
Thought you might like to have a look at our website. Let me know what you think
Many thanks
Jo McNelis
McNelis Lines
on 08 Mar 2007 at 3:37 am 11.ST said …
Hang them in the sun… get them dryer faster… you can get through more in a day then
on 22 Mar 2007 at 6:01 am 12.Jerome Black said …
My neighbours always leave their clothes out on the line whatever the weather. I just do not understand it. They’ll have to wash their clothes again if it rains, etc.