Flapping in the Wind

I've had an old clothesline in my backyard since we moved to this house in 1996. I live in an older neighbourhood in a small prairie town so I didn't think the line was that unusual, though we didn't have one at my parent's house growing up (10 blocks away) nor at my grandparent's house (across the street). Ok maybe it was less common that I thought.

Anyways, when we moved here my husband wanted to tear it out as it goes across the backyard, but I resisted, mostly for odd feelings of nostalgia, I suspect.

Over the years it's been used rarely, mostly to air out sleeping bags or hose off outdoor carpets etc. Last summer I started using it for things like towels, which seem to take forever to dry in the dryer.

This spring I noticed a series of 'clotheslines are back' commercials on TV, mostly off the Ontario channels, with the preface "clotheslines are cool. " I was intrigued at the thought of using my clothesline for more than the occasional set of towels.

Off I went to the dollar store to make my frugal purchase of two bags of clothespins and home I went to begin this endeavour. Everything goes on the line with the exception of undies, socks and tea towels.

What I've noticed is that on the hot days, things like my boys' tshirts or shorts dry in no time at all. Other longer drying items like towels or bunnyhugs (hoodies to everyone but parts of Saskatchewan :-) take a bit longer.

Most of our cotton items I'd hang from whatever spots I could find in the basement so they would not shrink. I was not saving energy by using the clothesline for these but I definitely was cutting the time back from a day or two of drying inside to a couple hours at most outside. Speeding up laundry???? How exciting.

I learned along the way that I need to add softener to the wash though or things come out a bit crisper than one would want. I learned that I need to watch the rainclouds and get things off the line. (This works now that I am home in the summer but come fall, a different strategy will have to be sought out). I learned that I get this weird suzy homemaker kind of feel as I skip out there with my basket, holding pins in my mouth as I fasten items to the line. It's a good feeling, which is odd as I am the farthest thing on the planet from a proper homemaker. I learned that my one neighbour comments a bit if she is out there when I am, but I have decided it is more of a 'holy two kids and two adults make a ton of laundry' rather than a judgment call.

It has made me venture down back alleys in some of the older neighbourhoods to see who has lines and who uses them. They are rarer than I thought, but I do see some out in use.

I don't really have any way of calculating how much energy/money this saves me but at a minimum of 10 loads of regular wash a week going out there, that must be a rather significant savings.

We were camping last week and came home with everything smelling of campfire so wash it we must. We are a two pillow per kind of family so just for the four of us, there were eight pillows. In the dryer, those things take at least an hour of drying so simple math means that just the pillows alone going on the line saved 8 hours of energy. Amazing how things add up.

I suspect more don't use them because new houses don't have lines, condos, townhouses and apartments are too close perhaps? or maybe it just is out of fashion. There are movements in some complexes in Canada and the US who are fighting for their right to have a clothesline when other neighbours think it is an eyesore. It is called the 'right to dry' movement. I will definitely be reading more on this.

I found a great list of reasons to use clotheslines at http://www.laundrylist.org/.

If you can do it, flapping in the wind is a great way to save energy, time and money.

Do you let it all hang out?