Clothes on the Line

As I hang clothes to dry on the line, I'm transported back to the days of my childhood.

The slow, methodical rhythm of hanging my clothes one by one on the line to dry has proven to be therapeutic and has brought back some joy, albeit minimal, in doing the laundry.

Clothes on the line.
Not my clothes. I wasn't brave enough. 

Growing up, the natural sunlight and fresh air, cool breeze blowing in from the sea was the "dryer" of choice. See, back home I always thought that having an electric dryer was considered a luxury. There was sunshine and warmth year round, with the scattering of storms and the occasional hurricane. There really wasn't any reason to have a dryer. It was convenient to have one but not considered a necessity.

I remember going out to the yard and hanging up clothes to dry and creating patterns as to how they should be hung, by size - small to big; by type - undergarments to shirts; by color - darks to light or vice versa. There'd occasionally be the odd one that just didn't quite go but I'd make it work. I enjoyed it. I truly enjoyed hanging up clothes to dry and picking them off the line. Now folding, well... that's another matter entirely.

When I moved stateside, the use of a dryer became the norm and a major convenience for me. However, as I got older, got married and had my brood, laundry became NOT SO FUN. I hate(d) doing the laundry. Really. It would put me in a bad mood because it is always a mountain of clothes. I'm not the type that can wash clothes every single day. I would be forever in a bad mood if that were the case, not good for my family. I'm the once a week type of person. Except once a week turned into two days or three days or... well, you get the picture.

Then came the electric bills. It's costly. In all fairness, it's costly to do a lot of things but I'm sure using the dryer adds a lot. In the several homes I've lived I had no choice but to use a dryer. It just wasn't convenient to hang clothes on the line or it was "against" the community rules. This one still baffles me but I guess aesthetics goes a long way. I'm all for saving money and being a little bit green at the same time.

Carrying on... In the home that I now live in, I've been very fortunate. It took me, hmm, about 3 years to realize that I could invest in a clothesline and try to save some money. I'm literally smacking my head wondering why I didn't think about it before.

My deck with the clothesline installed.

So, I set out on my quest to install a clothesline in my screened in deck. It's perfect. It's not too visible to anyone from the street or my neighbors, unless they're all up in my business breaking their necks wondering what my clothes looks like or what's going on in my house. The screens still allow the breeze to come in and dry my clothes while keeping pesky bugs off my clothes. Depending on the time of day, the sunlight hits my clothes just right.

All it took was some Googling for ideas and buying the materials. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. The total cost was less than $20. Pretty good I'd say compared to how much my monthly electric bill is.

It's been about 3 weeks now since I've begun hanging clothes to dry. I've been happier about the laundry, I get it done in one day and, dare I say it, I look forward to laundry day. Now, if only the clothes could fold themselves, all would be good. Speaking of which, they're waiting to be folded as I type this but they can wait.

Hoping that you've made it all the waaaaayyyy down the page, I took some pictures of my clothesline to show how I (or rather the muscles in my house, the hubster) put it all together. I know.. I tend to ramble on. I can't help it. I like to talk. :-D So here they are...

When I set out on my quest to find a clothesline, I wanted it to be an easy project. I didn't want to worry about how was I going to get this up or down when I needed to use it. I surely didn't want to have a line in my face all the time. I saw many different images using different techniques. The ones that stood out to me were the ones using screw eye hooks. These are perfect because I can string the line through them for easy set up and easy take down.

I also have a cleat hook (these were already installed) that I use to practice my boat tying skills.. okay, okay, I'm jesting.. I use it to "tie off" the end of the line without the use of a knot. And guess what?! It stays in place. I have no slackness to my line and no knot to worry about.

This is how the clothesline fits in my deck. I have 3.5 lines. The last line is half because of the tie off. There are times where some clothes have to wait their turn to be hung. That's okay since the clothes seems to dry quickly, depending on the type of material.

At the end of laundry day, I just take the line down and wrap it up. I store it just like this on the deck. Out of the way. I love the ease of it. This definitely makes hanging up clothes to dry an easier task.

If you use a clothesline to dry clothes, share your stories with me. I love hearing from others!