Clothesline of my Dreams
When I bought this house there was a ginormous clothesline out in the backyard. The clotheslines of Livingston are somewhat famous with handymen around town — most of them were made of enormous plumbers pipe and set into three or four feet of concrete. With the winds we have here, you need a sturdy clothesline, especially if, in the case of the family I bought this house from, you have 8 children.
Needless to say, I had that clothesline cut down when I was renovating. It was in a terrible spot in the backyard and everyone who came over for a barbecue bumped their heads on it. But I missed having a clothesline. It seemed ridicuous to be running the dryer when it’s 80 degrees with 15% humidity outside.
I bought this one from Clotheslineshop.com. It’s called the Versaline. It was kind of expensive. Actually, it was really expensive, but I wanted a clothesline that I could take down, and one that would fit in this unused space in my side yard. This is the perfect place for a clothesline — it’s out of foot traffic and really close to my back door (which goes to the basement where the washing machine is). One of the things I’ve discovered with retro-technologies is that if they aren’t convenient, I won’t use them. Riding my bike around town is easy and fun and saves me gas, so I do it. A clothesline where it isn’t a pain to use means I’ll use it. I have to say, this was expensive, but I’m really impressed — it’s quite sturdy, well-designed, and works exactly as promised. I’m thrilled. I’m resisting the urge to wash perfectly clean clothes just to hang them on the line!
10 thoughts on “Clothesline of my Dreams”
We recently moved into a new house, one of the prime virtues of which (for me) was its large backyard with some sun: I could have a clothesline! However it turns out that we have a great deal of ponderosa pollen which is making everyone in the family sneeze, and the clothesline as I’ve hung it holds only 1/2 a load of laundry, and finally the automatic sprinklers barrage it every-other-morning at 6am — if I forget to take the clothes inside, I have to wash them all over again.
So I haven’t used the line but a few times. Instead I dry our clothes on a rack in the basement. Our basement has negative humidity, I think, so it works — but I was really looking forward to a pretty, billowing clothesline!
That pine pollen can really be a drag — I also bought a little retractable clothesline for the basement for winter — I haven’t put it up yet, and I probably won’t use it for everything, but it’ll be nice to have the option. I have a little rack as well, but the dogs always seem to knock it over.
Juniper pollen here. Which is a shame, since we’re also in the “it’s a dry heat” zone.
I say that like the husband would even CONSIDER a clothes line. I have so much work ahead of me with him. sigh… 🙁
Thanks for the tip, C. We were just discussing rigging up some sort of line in our backyard, I just hate running the dryer! Of course there’s a whole website dedicated to such endeavors, I should have known!
Meadowlark — what’s your husband’s objection to a clothesline? I’m always curious about these things … is it the stiff clothes? or the perceived class issues? I have to say that after sleeping last night in my line-dried sheets, I may never go back to the dryer for sheets again (well, I guess I’ll have to in winter, frozen sheets would suck).
When I was a kid my Aunt Sonie had a cool clothesline that ran from her front porch out to a large tree across the yard. It was the kind that looped around a pully. On the Fourth of July she would fly a big flag on it.
We have a clothes line and I do love to use it but have been very lazy about it this summer. My fibromyalgia is flaring up and making my knee and back iffy.
The only problem I have yet to figure out how to overcome is the dog hair. Just can’t keep the dog hair off.
CMF… I think it’s a combination of things. Yes, I think he does see it as a bit of a ‘white trash’ thing. He also remembered the stiff clothes and sheets the last time I tried it (maybe 10 years ago?) and finally figures that it’s a lot of work and won’t get done. Now, before you guys talk about what a timesaver it really is, you have to know that I’m a bad, bad, bad person who takes stuff out of the dryer and puts them on the table in the basement. Where they SIT until I’m ready to wear them, and I either iron them or throw them in the “electric ironing machine” (aka: Dryer again with a spritz of water). So I waste TWICE the electricity and have a basement that is constantly in shambles. The point being that the “timesaving” tip doesn’t really count for me 😉
Thanks for the link! I’ve been meaning to get a line up ever since we moved in, but none of the hardware stores around here carry them. I just ordered the retractable 5 line one with the pole so that I can get it set up between the garage and the chicken shack. Can’t wait!
I’m really loving my line — hanging clothes is one of those activities that makes you slow down a little in a nice way. And I’m hoping that what I save in electricity will help offset my summer water bill for the garden. But unlike our Meadowlark up there — I don’t have abandoned-laundry-syndrome!
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