okay, I’m about to totally blow your mind. no for real. I can’t even tell you how much I LOVE hanging my clothes to dry, outside, in the sun, in the fresh air, with actual clothespins, on actual clotheslines.
if you’ve known me for any length of time, you know that this obsession goes way back. like, 11.5 years back, to when my brand new husband whisked me and my 5 year old away from the suburbs of seattle, where I’d lived my whole life, to a mythological place in rural ohio called a “farm town”. we lived in a 100 year old house that had these amazing metal t-posts in the backyard. he asked if I wanted to use them, and I thought, what the heck?! So he bought me some clothespins and strung up the lines between them.
and I fell in love.
I hung out our clothes as long as it was possible to do so… Probably from about late april to early october. the thing that is super awesome about ohio weather is the wind. there is almost always wind, so your clothes get dry quick, and without a lot of stiffness from just hanging still. the thing that is super sucky about ohio weather is the storms (at least in regards to line drying clothes). there were plenty of times I had to go flying out of the house and yank the clothes down while dodging fat raindrops because a storm came in suddenly. or I was out somewhere and started hearing distant thunder rumbling, remembering that I had clothes on the line, and calculating whether or not I had time to make it home and pull them off the line or if I should just forget it and figure I would dry them for the second time after it quit raining and the sun came back out.
I also had a baby during that time. and there is nothing quite so precious as seeing baby clothes drying on the line.
at any rate, after 2 years, we moved back the the suburbs of seattle and lived in a condo. THE HORROR!! I did go to target and invest in some accordion racks that I sometimes put on my deck.
not the same.
after a hellish year in the condo, we moved to a house, still in the suburbs, but far enough out that we didn’t have HOA rules imposed on us that forbid the use of clotheslines. (I have lots of very nasty words for those folks.) Every spring, I begged, pleaded, dropped hints, etc. to no avail. money was tight. time was tight. we had a flock of little kids… so, once again, I improvised.
not the same.
but after 5 years in that house, we moved again. this time even further out. not quite rural, but almost. we have lots of nature going on out here. at any rate, after about a year in this house, my begging, pleading, and hint dropping finally paid off, and I got my clothesline. it was LOOOONG, and went from the shed in one corner of the yard to a tree somewhere in the middle.
it had it’s downsides (the stuff hung on the end under the tree risked birds pooping on it, and it sagged in the middle because it was so long. this led me to be creative with a fisher-price basketball hoop to prop it up in the middle. but that would blow over (even with water in the base) on windy days, dragging the whole line down with it. and it killed the grass in a 2’x2’ square. but it worked.
so, almost the same.
however, after 3 years of using this line, I still kinda sorta really wanted my t-posts. AND, a totally amazing thing happened! a series of windstorms decimated our fence. related? not so much. but, the insurance company gave us a bunch of money to fix the fence, so dave went out and bought a bunch of wood and tools. and made many trips to home depot…
are you thinking what I’m thinking?
thank goodness he was!
last sunday, the kids were harassing us to take them to the park. just as we were about to leave, I had a brilliant idea.
how about I take them to the park and YOU go to home depot and buy the stuff you need to make my t-posts.
so he did!
and then I had this week off of work for spring break, and the weather was sunny, and…
ta da!!!
I am one happy mama!
stay tuned because I have all sorts of clothesline tips and advice to dispense so that you, too, will want to line dry your clothes!
if you’ve known me for any length of time, you know that this obsession goes way back. like, 11.5 years back, to when my brand new husband whisked me and my 5 year old away from the suburbs of seattle, where I’d lived my whole life, to a mythological place in rural ohio called a “farm town”. we lived in a 100 year old house that had these amazing metal t-posts in the backyard. he asked if I wanted to use them, and I thought, what the heck?! So he bought me some clothespins and strung up the lines between them.
and I fell in love.
I hung out our clothes as long as it was possible to do so… Probably from about late april to early october. the thing that is super awesome about ohio weather is the wind. there is almost always wind, so your clothes get dry quick, and without a lot of stiffness from just hanging still. the thing that is super sucky about ohio weather is the storms (at least in regards to line drying clothes). there were plenty of times I had to go flying out of the house and yank the clothes down while dodging fat raindrops because a storm came in suddenly. or I was out somewhere and started hearing distant thunder rumbling, remembering that I had clothes on the line, and calculating whether or not I had time to make it home and pull them off the line or if I should just forget it and figure I would dry them for the second time after it quit raining and the sun came back out.
I also had a baby during that time. and there is nothing quite so precious as seeing baby clothes drying on the line.
at any rate, after 2 years, we moved back the the suburbs of seattle and lived in a condo. THE HORROR!! I did go to target and invest in some accordion racks that I sometimes put on my deck.
not the same.
after a hellish year in the condo, we moved to a house, still in the suburbs, but far enough out that we didn’t have HOA rules imposed on us that forbid the use of clotheslines. (I have lots of very nasty words for those folks.) Every spring, I begged, pleaded, dropped hints, etc. to no avail. money was tight. time was tight. we had a flock of little kids… so, once again, I improvised.
not the same.
but after 5 years in that house, we moved again. this time even further out. not quite rural, but almost. we have lots of nature going on out here. at any rate, after about a year in this house, my begging, pleading, and hint dropping finally paid off, and I got my clothesline. it was LOOOONG, and went from the shed in one corner of the yard to a tree somewhere in the middle.
it had it’s downsides (the stuff hung on the end under the tree risked birds pooping on it, and it sagged in the middle because it was so long. this led me to be creative with a fisher-price basketball hoop to prop it up in the middle. but that would blow over (even with water in the base) on windy days, dragging the whole line down with it. and it killed the grass in a 2’x2’ square. but it worked.
however, after 3 years of using this line, I still kinda sorta really wanted my t-posts. AND, a totally amazing thing happened! a series of windstorms decimated our fence. related? not so much. but, the insurance company gave us a bunch of money to fix the fence, so dave went out and bought a bunch of wood and tools. and made many trips to home depot…
are you thinking what I’m thinking?
thank goodness he was!
last sunday, the kids were harassing us to take them to the park. just as we were about to leave, I had a brilliant idea.
how about I take them to the park and YOU go to home depot and buy the stuff you need to make my t-posts.
so he did!
and then I had this week off of work for spring break, and the weather was sunny, and…
ta da!!!I am one happy mama!
stay tuned because I have all sorts of clothesline tips and advice to dispense so that you, too, will want to line dry your clothes!
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