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!
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!